Air Fare Alert to/From Tahiti!

To those who think there never are usable air fare sales to/from Tahiti, listen up. One of those "special" sales has just been announced!

1. LAX/PPT - $898/pp for a stay of up to 10 days/9 nights on Air Tahiti Nui. Travel 12/3-17/2017, and 12/28/2017-2/8/2018. Must be ticketed by 11/12/2017.

The regular fare is about $1,500, and this is the fare pre-loaded into a Windstar all inclusive package. So IMO this is a pretty good fare. And this gives you enough time to book an extended stay (beyond the 7 nights which are part of the Windstar all inclusive price) in Tahiti.

Just for giggles I went to the Windstar web site to see if there are any discounted Tahiti cruises being offered. Low and behold I found January 11, 2018 at $1,999/pp instead of $2,499/pp or $2,699/pp for other cruise only/"sale" dates.

2. But even better, Air Tahiti Nui is offering LAX/AKL flights with a free stopover in PPT - $998/pp for a stay of up to 30 days on Air Tahiti Nui. Travel 12/31/2017-4/29/2018. Must be ticketed by 11/12/2017. Now you can book a stay in PPT of greater than 10 days which gives you the flexibility to do a longer 10 or 11 day Windstar Tahiti cruise, or a 7 day cruise with enough time for you to incorporate an extended stay on Moorea or Bora Bora, or a Paul Gauguin cruise. A lot of flexibility and you're going to love New Zealand!

Now according to the fine print, this fare to AKL is permitted on code share flights operated by Air Tahiti Nui. And what does that mean? You may be able to incorporate the fare into travel from a more distant location to/from LAX aboard American, Qantas, Air New Zealand, Air France, etc., use frequent flyer miles and have your baggage checked through all the way to AKL or PPT. No guarantees, but I would certainly inquire of those carriers if I were going to book this travel.

And again, if you plan your free stopover around Windstar's January 11, 2018 cruise, voila!

In my experience, these fares typically only surface one or twice a year. You might see them again in the relatively near term future (next January?) but they likely will have a plethora of conditions (like a maximum of 5 days in PPT, or an additional fee for a PPT stopover) which will make the flight onerous. And FWIW, these fares are about $100/pp more than they were a year ago so there is a chance they could be lower in another month or two. But I doubt it and if you sit around waiting for the fare to drop another $100, you will likely miss out and you will definitely miss out on a discounted Windstar cruise.

To those out there who are interested, my recommendation is you book the 4 P.M. (rather than 11 P.M. or midnight) flight from LAX/PPT. This way you arrive in PPT at a more civilized 9:30 P.M. rather than 5:30 A.M. with a 2 P.M. hotel check in. I think this flight is only offered 3 days a week so do your homework.

And for those of you really interested, Air New Zealand offers a code share flight with Air Tahiti Nui once a week from AKL/PPT that gets you into PPT in a very civilized mid-afternoon (I think). I would definitely reach out to Air New Zealand to see if they will match the fare and allow you to fly back from AKL on Air New Zealand. Also, you might be able to earn partner frequent flyer mileage (something you won't on Air Tahiti Nui proper).

So there you go. The 7 day Windstar Tahiti cruise including air fare aboard the same carrier Windstar uses for $2,800/pp. And this way you can tailor an extended stay for no additional charge; something Windstar won't let you do!

And if you want a relatively cheap first night's hotel (***) stay in the heart of PPT, within short walkinig distance of the pier where you will board your Windstar cruise (meaning you won't have to pay for a second set of transfers), with free airport transfers upon your arrival (a $30 or greater value), let me know.

Hope this helps one or more of you!

This is much appreciated. Thanks for all the legwork.

Can you elaborate on the relatively cheap hotel stay in PPT? We're traveling in December. Thanks!

Hotel Sarah, hotel Tiare, Fare Suisse for example. Not the Ritz or Hilton but you won't spend too much time in your room.

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It’s a great deal for anyone who isn’t deterred by a little rain!

We recently had a day room at Hotel Tiare. No, not fancy. But clean and centrally located. We had a blast spending several hours looking for inexpensive pearls at the Marche. We would not hesitate to spend the night there.