How I Booked a $13,968 Tahiti Trip for 157,500 Points

I have always wanted to visit French Polynesia, along with the Maldives, Easter Island, and the Galápagos. These destinations are remote, expensive, and not particularly easy to reach. This is where points and miles can be very valuable.

When I found out that my best friend had no vacation plans, I convinced her to let the miles decide where we should go. We combined several bookings into a round trip from Buenos Aires to Papeete (Tahiti, French Polynesia) for 157,500 points and miles per person. We used three frequent flyer programs and booked flights in Business Class, Premium Economy, and Economy.

We had fixed dates, high season prices, and only about three months to plan the trip. AwardFares Live and Flex Alerts made the bookings possible. The saved cash searches for the same routes added up to $13,968 USD per person, or $27,936 USD for both of us.

In this post, I’ll share the complete itinerary, how much each booking cost, the compromises we made, and how AwardFares helped turn a complicated idea into a real trip.

How This Trip Came About

My best friend from high school is a whale lover. She travels to remote corners of the world to see orcas, humpbacks, and all sorts of marine life. I had always wanted to join one of her adventures, and we finally found an opening in both of our calendars.

The destination was flexible, but the dates were not. Papeete was on the list alongside Anchorage, Vancouver, and Tonga. That gave us plenty of freedom over where to go, but very little flexibility over the departure and return dates.

I also had points left from my SAS EuroBonus Millionaire challenge that I wanted to use. Keeping points for too long is risky. By the time I started planning this trip, EuroBonus award prices had already increased, and the SAS Amex voucher rules had become less favorable.

In addition to EuroBonus points, I could use Amex Membership Rewards, Flying Blue miles, and AAdvantage miles if needed.

We started searching in May for travel in August. There was very little useful availability through EuroBonus, so I set up several Live and Flex Alerts for the different destinations and waited.

Instead of searching only from Buenos Aires to Papeete, I broke the trip into smaller pieces. Buenos Aires to Miami, New York, or Los Angeles could get us most of the way north, and from there we could connect to Papeete, Vancouver, or Anchorage.

I wanted premium cabins where they would make the biggest difference, since this is a very long trip from Argentina. We were also willing to start in Santiago (SCL) or São Paulo (GRU). In my searches, Brazil often showed better award availability and lower cash fares than Argentina. It has many more flights and more competition.

It is also important to understand which airlines fly each route and which loyalty programs can book them. FlightConnections was useful for mapping the options. In this case, Air France operates a fifth freedom flight between Los Angeles and Papeete, while Air Tahiti Nui is an AAdvantage partner. These two details influenced most of the trip.

The Complete Itinerary and Cost

This is what we eventually booked. The costs below are per passenger.

Booking 1: Buenos Aires to the United States with SAS EuroBonus

After several weeks of searching, we finally found something useful:

• Buenos Aires to Miami in Business Class with Aerolíneas Argentinas (A330-200).
• Los Angeles to Buenos Aires via Salt Lake City and Mexico City, with Delta and Aeroméxico.

The return had three segments. We flew with Delta from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City and from Salt Lake City to Mexico City. Aeroméxico then took us from Mexico City to Buenos Aires. This brought the complete trip to seven flight segments.

The confirmed EuroBonus itinerary: EZE-MIA, then LAX-SLC-MEX-EZE on the return.

The standard price was 100,000 EuroBonus points plus taxes per passenger. I had an SAS Amex 2 for 1 voucher, which brought the points cost down to 100,000 points total for both of us, or 50,000 per passenger.

The total fees were 2,596 SEK per passenger.

The total cash fees were 2,596 SEK per passenger.

There was also one way availability from Miami to Papeete via Los Angeles, but nothing useful on the return from Papeete. When I called the SAS service center, the agent told me I couldn’t book an open jaw itinerary that included South America, North America, and Oceania at that price. It had to be a round trip to either the United States or Oceania.

That was disappointing, but the booking still offered excellent value. It was an open jaw trip because we arrived in Miami and returned home from Los Angeles. A comparable multi city Business and First Class itinerary for the same routes was $7,849 per passenger. The saved cash search used a different Delta and LATAM routing via Atlanta, so it is a comparison rather than the exact ticket we booked. The value would have been very good without the voucher. The voucher made it even better.

A comparable open jaw cash fare was $7,849 for one passenger.

Booking 2: Miami to Papeete with AAdvantage

Once the open jaw was booked, we still needed to reach French Polynesia. EuroBonus had one way Economy availability for 54,000 points plus roughly $300 in taxes per person, but there was a better option through American AAdvantage:

• Miami to Los Angeles with American Airlines (787-8).
• Los Angeles to Papeete with Air Tahiti Nui (787-9).

The one way trip cost 40,000 AAdvantage miles + $5.60 per passenger. The AAdvantage confirmation below shows the 40,000 mile redemption for one passenger.

The MIA-PPT award cost 40,000 AAdvantage miles per passenger.

The saved cash fare for the same American and Air Tahiti Nui itinerary was $6,742 for both of us, or $3,371 per passenger.

The comparable Economy cash itinerary was $6,742 for both passengers.

The aircraft combination was interesting for me too. American scheduled the Miami to Los Angeles flight on a 787-8. I had flown the route a few years earlier on a 777-300ER, but never on this Dreamliner. My AAdvantage status also allowed me to select a seat in the Premium Economy cabin for this domestic flight. American sells these seats as Main Cabin Extra on this route.

Booking 3: Papeete to Los Angeles with Flying Blue

The last missing piece was the return from Papeete. Only after booking the first two tickets did we realize that we would be traveling during peak whale season. This may have contributed to the high cash fares and the lack of award seats.

We were willing to pay cash if necessary. The cheapest option we found was about $1,200 per person in United Economy, but I kept checking programs with good credit card transfer partners, particularly Flying Blue and Delta SkyMiles.

Eventually, two Premium Economy seats appeared for 67,500 Flying Blue miles + €243.89 per passenger. The exact total on the receipt was 135,000 miles + €487.78 for two passengers. The Economy price I had seen was 66,000 miles, only 1,500 fewer, so Premium Economy was an easy choice.

The Flying Blue receipt confirms 135,000 miles + €487.78 for both passengers.

This was the most expensive points redemption of the trip, but the cash fare for the same Air France Premium Economy flight was $2,748 per passenger, or $5,496 for both of us. That works out to about 4.1 cents per Flying Blue mile before accounting for the taxes and fees.

The same AF19 Premium Economy flight was $2,748 per passenger.

The pricing became even stranger immediately after I booked. AwardFares showed Economy at 66,000 miles, Business at 141,500 miles, and Premium Economy at 315,000 miles per passenger. The same cabin would have cost 630,000 miles for both of us after the 67,500 mile price disappeared. This was more than twice the Business Class price.

After booking, Premium Economy increased to 315,000 miles per passenger while Business showed at 141,500.

Tips for Booking Complex Award Itineraries

1. Start Planning Early (If You Can)

Starting early gives you more options. If the ideal seats are not available, keep checking. Airlines change aircraft, release blocked seats, and add seats when other passengers cancel their trips. Award availability can change quickly, so patience and a good alert can help.

2. Break the Itinerary into Smaller Pieces

Don’t rely only on a search for the full trip, such as Buenos Aires to Papeete. Search the long haul gateway segments separately, then fill the gaps. I used the Journey Planner to save different flights, compare combinations, and build the full route before checking the price.

Set alerts for both the complete trip and the individual segments. Also try short positioning routes and other gateway airports. One available long haul flight can provide a starting point for the rest of the itinerary.

3. Explore Nearby Airports

Consider starting from airports with more flights and more award seats. From Buenos Aires, São Paulo and Santiago can provide routes, airlines, and cabins that are not available from Argentina. You can pay for a short positioning flight with cash or points and then use points for the longer trip.

4. Keep Points in More Than One Program

This trip would have been much harder to book using EuroBonus alone. The return seats eventually appeared there too, but they cost more than the options I found through other programs.

Balances in several programs, plus transferable credit card points, let you book each section with the program that offers the best availability and price. Confirm the seats before transferring points, because most transfers can’t be reversed.

5. Be Open to Mixed Cabins and Stopovers

Sometimes adding an Economy segment to a Business Class itinerary doesn’t increase the award price. It can also make a difficult route possible. In our case, one full stopover day made the trip more comfortable and reduced the risk from the separate tickets.

The goal wasn’t to fly every segment in Business Class. It was to use premium cabins on the longest flights, stay comfortable where it mattered most, and still reach the destination on our fixed dates.

6. Protect Separate Tickets with Extra Time

Separate tickets create risk. If your first flight is delayed and you miss the next one, the second airline may not rebook you. Leave enough time between tickets. An overnight stop is often a good minimum. Also, understand the cancellation rules for every ticket before you book.

Final Thoughts

Was this the cleanest possible itinerary? Definitely not. But that is part of what made it interesting.

For 157,500 points and miles per person, we are getting from Buenos Aires to Tahiti and back during peak whale season. We booked a Business Class award on the flights between South America and the United States, Premium Economy from Papeete to Los Angeles, and only two Economy segments on the way to Tahiti. We also get time in Miami and Los Angeles instead of making risky connections on the same day.

The real lesson is that the perfect award rarely appears in one search. No single loyalty program gave us the whole trip, and searching only EZE-PPT would have made the itinerary look impossible. Breaking it into smaller pieces, keeping several currencies available, and letting alerts run in the background made the difference.

Most importantly, I get to join one of my best friends on an adventure to a place that had been on both of our lists for years. That is a much better use of points than watching them sit in an account while the programs keep devaluing them.