Tahiti May 21, 2018. First timer needs help please!

We are considering a 10 day Windstar cruise of Tahiti and the Tuamotu Islands for our 35th anniversary as the sailing is on our anniversary date of May 21. We would be flying from San Francisco, probably connecting in LA. Here are my questions:

How to get the best fare? We are newbies. Can our travel agent get a better price?

Do the listed fares include airfare? We want to use miles, will we get a credit? Or what?

Do you recommend Windstar over Paul Gauguin? We are very active in our late 60s. We hope to scuba dive, snorkel, and be very active with water activities. Which is best cruise line for us?

We would probably buy cheapest category. How is movement, etc. forward or aft?

We may want to add a few days before and after either in Tahiti or on another island. Ideas?

Any other advice or suggestions is very much appreciated. If we decide to do this we will book very soon IF that is the best way to get a good price. Thank you!

The price will not include airfare unless it says it does. If you want to use miles, just go to the airline site you have miles with and see if that will work. I believe that the air options to Tahiti are limited. Delta (Air France), Air Tahiti Nui both leave out of LA. We flew on Air Tahiti Nui, and it was the most uncomfortable flight I have ever flown. Our friend flew on Air France, and said it was fine. There may be a flight that connects through Hawaii, but only on certain days.

We were on Windstar in May 2016 and loved it. As to when to book it, there are usually good sales over the Thanksgiving weekend and around Christmas. Windstar does have a policy that they will match the price if it goes lower after you purchase it with either lowering the fare, an upgrade or on board credit. They decide what you get, and there has been much discussion on these boards from people on this.

Have a great time.

I have cruised Tahiti on both lines and much prefer Windstar. The cheapest category cabin is fine. I have never picked a specific cabin on any Windstar cruise and they've all been fine.

The PG forum here will just tell you how wonderful PG is, especially the service. Most of the "regulars" have been cruising that line for many years and woe to anyone who has anything negative to say. I found the service sadly lacking.

I wrote a several part review of my cruise on PG, which is posted in that forum, and I was basically called a liar.

You don't want to spend several days on Tahiti. Look at Moorea.

Have your TA check the price, but I've never found it cheaper booking through my TA.

You will have to connect at LAX. The only two airlines that fly LAX-PPT are Air Tahiti Nui and Air France. You may have difficulty finding award ticket availability. What airline are your miles with?

Hi. Thanks for the info so far. Our miles are with American and Air Tahiti Nui is a partner. I would call American 330 days prior to the day we want to fly and try for my free seats. We often get our free seats with miles almost a year in advance. I know Air Tahiti Nui is not supposed to be comfortable but we flew them from Paris to LA and had to problem. We may have to bite the bullet and reserve now, and then hope the price drops. It is soon expensive! But for our 35th anniversary we just may go for it! I think we would spend a few days on Moorea before and maybe a couple days after on Tahiti but away from the main city. More suggestions are welcome!

I have cruised Tahiti on both lines and much prefer Windstar. The cheapest category cabin is fine. I have never picked a specific cabin on any Windstar cruise and they've all been fine.

 

The PG forum here will just tell you how wonderful PG is, especially the service. Most of the "regulars" have been cruising that line for many years and woe to anyone who has anything negative to say. I found the service sadly lacking.

 

I wrote a several part review of my cruise on PG, which is posted in that forum, and I was basically called a liar.

 

You don't want to spend several days on Tahiti. Look at Moorea.

 

Have your TA check the price, but I've never found it cheaper booking through my TA.

 

You will have to connect at LAX. The only two airlines that fly LAX-PPT are Air Tahiti Nui and Air France. You may have difficulty finding award ticket availability. What airline are your miles with?

I agree that the cheerleaders over on the PG forum are ridiculous. To them the PG can do no wrong and might as well be the Holy Grail. We found them to be lackluster. Certainly no where near the service, food quality, and over all experience we got with Windstar. PG was very "mass market" in feel.

We flew Air France Premium Economy and it was terrible. I am not sure I'd fly either of the choices from LA and might opt for Hawaiian Air should we ever return.

I totally agree with Ducklite's comments. PG is a much larger ship and feels very mass market.

We flew AF in regular Economy. Food was inedible, but flight was so empty, we all got our own row of seats, so it was bearable. The flight's not that long.

Air Tahiti Nui may never release any award seats to AA for this flight. I did a quick look at AA and picked random dates next year for this routing and couldn't even find one available award seat. This is a very popular routing and service is limited.

If you choose PG with "free air" if you book your own air, your cruise fare will be reduced; showing of course, it's not really "free."

If you purchase tickets, you can fly HNL-PPT on Hawaiian, but they offer this routing only on Saturdays (both outbound & return).

We did use our mileage for business class for Tahiti Nui through AA, I did reserve 332 days out and it was only from Tahiti to LA, we did the Trans-Pacific with WS, rather 19 days on a ship than 8.5 in the air. We thought the Tahiti cruise was glorious in every way possible. This was in May and we had almost perfect weather. If it rained it was for 10-15 minutes at most. We saw the PG at one port and we felt so fortunate to be on a smaller ship with sails, Have a great time.

I checked Air Tahiti NUI (ATN) Facebook page up to Dec. 2015 and while they have'd some good deals, they almost always comes with lots of conditions, ie, max. days on Tahiti, days of departure, etc.

Not retired yet but know I know i could have probably cut my fee in half by traveling in the rainy month (Sept. Feb.). Better price for airline and hotels/pensions not busy. If we do it again, we might get the airline first and wait for a last minute deal with WS - if not, we could secure accomodations very easily and spend a nice relaxing 10 days in Moorea.

We're biting the bullet this summer and will be in Polynesia 8 days prior to the cruise to attend Heiva Tahiti 2017 ( first three weekend in July), France Fête Nationale (14th) and a few tour.

PG is more expensive mostly because they do 10-12 days itinerary.

Thank you all for the information. I really feel Windstar is a better fit for us than PG. I am going to try for the miles with AA and Tahiti Nui. I know you have to call or go online 330 before the date. But if I can be flexible with the dates and get free airfare it would be great.

Award tickets may be released any time, not just 330 days in advance. Good luck.

Thank you all for the great info. I called American Airlines to find out about Air Tahiti Nui, a partner of American. They do release a few seats so we will just have to stay on top of it to get the free airfare. We are now looking at a July 1 sailing as I am hearing that the weather is better in July and it is 11 days instead of 10. Plus a tiny bit cheaper. Thoughts about July vs. May? Thank you all!

I agree that the cheerleaders over on the PG forum are ridiculous. To them the PG can do no wrong and might as well be the Holy Grail. We found them to be lackluster. Certainly no where near the service, food quality, and over all experience we got with Windstar. PG was very "mass market" in feel.

 

We flew Air France Premium Economy and it was terrible. I am not sure I'd fly either of the choices from LA and might opt for Hawaiian Air should we ever return.

Hi Ducklite, We were considering AF-PE. Would you mind sharing about your experience? Thank you!

We booked the day bookings opened to select the seats we wanted. We were unable to check in online and were at the airport waiting in line before the counters even opened. We waited at the counter for over two hours while they made numerous calls to Paris. They could see our reservation but couldn't check us in. By the time they got it sorted our seats had been given away. Another hour to get that fixed. Flight left late (or we would have missed it because of their computer issues!). Cabin was in terrible condition, broken lav, broken seat, dirty cabin, same plane and seat in both directions, no apologies. Had the same check in problem on the way back, same poor attitude. They give you a six ounce bottle of water, if you ask for more you would think you were asking for the Crown Jewels. Surly service at best, the flight attendant allowed some guys seated in economy to congregate in the galley area by our seats between PE and business, got noisy and rude. Also allowed someone from economy to allow their screaming riddler to run up and down the aisle past our seat for over an hour. Greyhound would have been a better ride, at least we could have brought our own food and water on board.

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Oh, and their PE seats were the hardest, most uncomfortable seat I have sat in in over 40 years of flying.

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Some of the newer Air Tahiti Nui planes are nice. The food going to Tahiti is passable in coach but coming back to the states the food is very unappetizing. If you can get to the airport just as they open the ticket counter you may be able to upgrade to business class for a sum (used to be $900) and that makes for a great trip with better food and more important more leg room.

We have never been able to do the same from Tahiti to LAX.

If you can be flexible with your days going in and out, you may be lucky with your mileage fare.

PG's air includes transfers, day room in and out and a tour besides the airplane ride.

Thank you. My travel agent has booked the cruise for us. I am going to meet with her tomorrow to go over details. We booked cruise only, and the cheapest category, B, and cabin 133. We will work on the flights when they release those dates in August.

I know Tahiti Nui is not well thought of here. Luckily my husband and I really are fine with any airline, pretty much. We flew them from Paris to Los Angeles a couple years ago and I don't remember anything negative. We would most likely never pay more for business or first class. I can bear anything for 9-10 hours. Just not a big deal to me to have great food and leg room on a flight. I would rather save the money for extra nights in hotels pre-cruise and more scuba diving. Although we were lucky enough to get free first class seats roundtrip from LA to Lima, Peru on Lan Airlines (another partner of American Airlines) 3 years ago. It was great but I didn't get any more sleep and can't remember that the food was so special.

I am just hoping that because we have flexibility with our dates before and after the cruise we might be lucky enough to grab some free seats. We are fine arriving 1-4 days before the cruise and leaving 1-4 days after. Hopefully that flexibility will work in our favor.

We booked the day bookings opened to select the seats we wanted. We were unable to check in online and were at the airport waiting in line before the counters even opened. We waited at the counter for over two hours while they made numerous calls to Paris. They could see our reservation but couldn't check us in. By the time they got it sorted our seats had been given away. Another hour to get that fixed. Flight left late (or we would have missed it because of their computer issues!). Cabin was in terrible condition, broken lav, broken seat, dirty cabin, same plane and seat in both directions, no apologies. Had the same check in problem on the way back, same poor attitude. They give you a six ounce bottle of water, if you ask for more you would think you were asking for the Crown Jewels. Surly service at best, the flight attendant allowed some guys seated in economy to congregate in the galley area by our seats between PE and business, got noisy and rude. Also allowed someone from economy to allow their screaming riddler to run up and down the aisle past our seat for over an hour. Greyhound would have been a better ride, at least we could have brought our own food and water on board.

 

 

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Hi Ducklite, Thank you for that feedback! Ive heard similar from other reviews Ive read. Turns out were going to scrap Tahiti until 2019 and try Windstar through Panama Canal/Costa Rica instead.

We have booked our cruise! It is the 11 day Tahiti - Tuamotou Islands cruise. We sail on July 1, 2018. We switched to July from May as I know the weather will be better, the cruise was one day longer, and it was slightly less expensive. We will be trying to get free seats with our miles which may be the toughest part of this. I know Tahiti Nui does not release many seats to American so I will have to stay on top of it and check every few days starting 330 days out.

I will wait a while before starting a roll call since it is over a year away but we will be looking for advice on scuba diving and possibly some private tours to share. We are not usually too big on cruise line excursions but I will be starting my research soon! So excited to do our first Windstar cruise for our 35th anniversary!

I called Air Tahiti with 332 days out got 2 seats in business class with miles in minutes, couldn't believe it. I have no status just miles. I used American miles. It was an excellent experience, very comfortable with beds, great friendly service, not one complaint. Good Luck. Great trip ahead.

Strenz, thank you! I am hoping for the same thing. We have plenty of miles with American. Did you call Tahiti Nui directly or American Advantage number? We usually go through American and then they will use their partner airlines. Not sure we have enough for business class but we will surely hope for the free seats. So glad to hear that it can happen! I will be on the phone 332 days out for sure.

KathiB - Looks like we'll be on the cruise following yours. And we will be celebrating out 35th anniversary ( as well as my wife's birthday ) on that trip. I too had been weighing between PG and the Wind Spirit. Windstar had a huge leg up on the other guys because we did a cruise on the Wind Surf in Europe this May and it was absolutely wonderful. I am sure they'll have that same level of excellence in Tahiti. Plus for me, the ship just looks nicer - I've got a think for sails. So I'm curious, what was it that influenced your decision to go Windstar?

Howellmc, I have been dreaming of a Windstar cruise for many years. My husband and I used to own sailboats in Southern California and used to race our last boat. I have always loved being on a sailboat. So that is one thing. I dislike large cruise ships. I hope to never go on another ship over 1500 guests. Just a personal preference...I do not need all the entertainment, shops, climbing walls, and bells and whistles of the mega ships...to me cruising is about the ocean, the ports, good food, and friendly people. So the size of the Windspirit really appeals to us. We love water sports and so the possibility of paddle boards, kayaks, and swimming off the back of the boat sounds great. We are also scuba divers and this cruise has a few great locations for diving. I did lots of research and asked lots of questions. Lastly, is Tahiti and French Polynesia. I can't think of a better way to celebrate our 35th anniversary! Congratulations on your anniversary and for picking a great cruise!

Kathieb, I had to call Air Tahiti directly and they were lovely. We took the cruise in May of 2015, we repositioned with Spirit across the Pacific and then did the first Tahiti cruise. So coming home I secured miles business 332 days out in 2013. Since I live outside of Boston we have always used American and I always call at 3 am, yes am, to be the first to get those two seats when we go to Europe, free business. I have arthritis and at night my legs bother me and I am tall, business helps with the over night flight, I arrive in Europe ready to go, not dead with pain. There s no way I could afford business normally. I have been doing this for years and it works. You will have a great cruise, our trip was fabulous.

We are big WS fans. Hapy Sailing

Thanks for the info. I will definitely call Air Tahiti Nui and check if they have inventory before calling American. I always thought it was 330 days prior but you mention 332 days. I will probably go with the earliest date to be safe. any other tips are welcome! Thanks.

Air Tahiti and Air Tahiti Nui are two different airlines.

I don't understand some of the award booking discussion here. Usually, if you are trying to book award travel, you must go through the airline where you've banked your award miles; in this case AA. Air Tahiti Nui has to release award tickets to AA. There is no set date when award tickets are made available. Sometimes they show up when the booking window opens or they could be available any time up to right before the flight takes off. Sometimes they are never available.

I have never, for example, have called Lufthansa to book an award ticket on their metal using UA miles. I have to see what's available going through UA, and it must be booked through UA.