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ADVERTISER DISCLOSURE: DaddyTravelsNow is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as MileValue.com This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.
I’m one of those people who tends to get a sudden urge to book something. Whether it’s a big trip or a small one, I get this adrenaline rush. And that’s what happened here. Thanks to Beverly S., a good friend, and rock star travel enthusiast. She and her husband, Ryan, visited Conrad Bora Bora Nui. Click here for a room tour video.
Beverly and Ryan are active members of my Facebook travel group page, Daddy Travels Miles & Points. She came across a wide availalbility of standard rooms at Conrad Bora Bora. Here’s what Beverly wrote:
Wide standard reward availability for the Conrad Bora Bora Nui from December to March 2024. 120k Hilton points per night, 480k points for 5 nights with 5th night free. Standard award availability is notoriously difficult to find there, so definitely jump on this chance if you’re able to. Whenever I’ve seen this come up in the past, standard award availability is almost all gone again by the next day.
NOTE: Please know that availaibility is subject to change.
Image courtesy of HIlton
Points hoarder
There is no denying that if you’ve been following me on my Facebook group page or on my Instagram account, you would know that we are huge Hyatt fans. This means that while I have loyalty accounts and points with HIlton, Marriott, and IHG, I very rarely use them since Hyatt has been quite good to us. What’s my point? When Beverly posted that 480,000 points were needed to book 5 nights at 120,000 per night, and you get the 5th night free, I quickly looked at my Hilton Honors account, and voila, I had more than enough points earned with Hilton, and this aspirational trip was suddenly within reach.
How did I earn my Hilton points
480,000 points? Where in the world did I get those points? You guessed it. Sign up bonus offers from American Express Hilton credit cards. There are different credit card offers during the year, and you could click here to check the latest offers:
American Express has year-round offers, and there are times when the offers are increased where you get to earn more points, or receive FREE night reward. That was my strategy. I applied for different cards when there were increased sign up bonus offers. Nancy and I partnered in applying for these cards separately and we were able to combine our points easily.
The chicken or the egg
Ok. So which came first? The hotel booking or the flight booking? I made a conscious decision to book the hotel first. Why? These deals with the Conrad Bora Bora DO NOT last long. The 120K per night tends to get snapped up by those looking for a low-cost booking like myself. I had nothing to lose. I had the points, I was still 4 months away from my target travel dates. So I booked our hotel stay first. I looked for 5 nights that were charging 120K per night. I found 5 nights in January 2024 in a King Lagoon View Suite. I snagged the 5 nights once I saw they were available. If things change, I could cancel up to 30-days before check in and with no penalty.
King Lagoon View Suite
The flight
This is what I learned. From the US, one would have to fly to Tahiti first via PPT, from there, you then take a 50-minute flight to Bora Bora. Once you arrive in BOB (Bora Bora Airport), you take one more ride, a short boat ride to the resort.
I wanted to see if I could find a way for me and Nancy to fly business class by searching via Air France and American Airlines. Unfortunately, my dates would not work with the available dates that I found via American Airlines (flying Air Tahiti Nui).
With Air France, while there were business class seats avaialble on our travel days, a sweet spot would be to find something in the range of 63,000 – 74,000 per person each way. However, luck was not on my side. For my travel dates, one way from LAX to PPT was going to cost 547,000 miles per person….so yes, that was only for a one-way for one person. And if two of us were going, we would need over 1 million points for our specific travel dates just to fly business class one way…..NO WAY!
$10.10 to South Pacific (Bora Bora) using points
We are no stranger to flying coach/economy. I checked Air France website, and plugged in my dates, and found 57,000 + $20.20 for 2 passengers. That’s 28,500 points per peson + $10.10 in fees. For the return flight, it was also another 57,000 points + $146.10 for two of us. This means, we would need:
LAX-PPT – 57,000 + $20.20
PPT- LAX – 57,000 + $146.10
Total round trip for two = 114,000 + $166.30 But it gets better.
Take advantage of Transfer Bonus offers
At the time of my booking, lucky for us, there was a 25% transfer bonus offer from American Express to Flying Blue (Air France/KLM). So instead of transferring 114,000 points, all I needed to transfer were 93 000 points in order to get to 114.000 with the 25% bonus. That’s about 46,500 points per person and we were able to book two round trip tickets from Los Angeles to PPT flying coach.
What if we paid cash for our flights
If we had paid for our flights in cash, that would’ve cost us $2,438.50 for the two of us. Instead, we used 93,000 American Express Membership Rewards + fees of $166.30 to fly to Papeete and back to Los Angeles.
Cash rate from LAX-PPT round trip for 2 in coach
I know it’s not first class nor business class
In my mind, it’s what I value most. These rooms at Conrad Bora Bora Nui opened up a few days ago, and many others have began grabbing different dates to take advantage of the deal. I figured, we’re no strangers to flying coach or economy, therefore, to use 46,.500 points per person round trip, we get to fly to the South Pacific for the very first time.
Not too shabby
So there you have it. We booked our 5 nights valued at $8,305 + our flights worth $2,438.50. This would have easily set us over $10,700. But instead, we used our points that we’ve earned from our credit cards, and the only out pocket we’ve had to pay were the fees of $166.30.
My to-do list
I already booked a hotel near the airport in PPT when we arrive. Since we’re arriving early evening, we chose to just stay the night at budget airport property for around $100 per night, and used the $50 hotel statement credit with our Chase Sapphire Preferred.
I have yet to book the round trip flights to BOB Airport, around $300 per person
Plus, the shuttle boat ride from BOB to Conrad Bora Bora (approx $22 round trip)
Which credit cards earn points that work with Flying Blue/Air France/KLM
The good news, just about every major credit card company out there has a partnership with Flying Blue/Air France/KLM.
The reward programs that work are the following:
Chase Ultimate Rewards
American Express Membership Rewards
Citi ThankYou Points
Capital One Miles
Marriott Bonvoy
BILT Rewards
The following credit card programs are Flying Blue/KLM/Air France transfer partners.
American Express
These points with American Express Membership Rewards transfer at 1:1 ratio to Flying Blue. These are some of my favorite cards that earn Membership Rewards
BILT is one of the credit cards that came out within the past couple of years. When you ask the typical huge expense, the answer is pretty standard – rent and mortgage. This is where BILT comes in – you can earn points when you pay rent.
Editorial Disclosure – The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuers, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuers.
Editorial Disclosure: Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
