Hogsback is a place I intend to visit on my upcoming trip to Africa. It’s great that they are getting more recognition for the endangered Cape Parrots!
I will be flying into Port Elizabeth and renting a car. King Williams Town also has a decent population of Cape Parrots.
Click on the photo from original article for full story!
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Tahiti Airport Motel isn’t an eco-lodge by any sense of the word, however unless you have enough IHG, SPG or Club Carlson points, you will will probably find yourself staying here in between flights to the amazing Polynesian islands where you find the rare birds.
This is how close it is to the airport – literally right across the street and up a short hill. I have to admit giggling over the Trip Advisor reviews where people say they paid over $20 for a taxi to come here! In this photo, we have just come out of the terminal and there it is, you can’t miss it!
Follow this little side street (note the mural) up the hill to the reception.
Since I always want to earn more miles if possible, I used Rocketmiles to book this hotel. There was a promo running last month and I got 3000 bonus miles which posted very promptly so I am am very impressed with the service! If you join using my links (the 3000 mile bonus one may not be working when you read this), then you and I both get 1000 miles bonus!
Prompt point posting from Rocketmiles!
The rooms were in nice bright colours, clean and had free wifi so I quickly caught up my emails. I was so paranoid about missing our expensive flight to Ua Huka, I set 4 alarms – my phone, my husband’s phone, the clock in the room and the wake up call from reception! All went well, actually my iPhone woke me but I can confirm that the reception was within 5 minutes of the time I requested the wake up call.
Breakfast officially starts at 6am but they will let you have it early if you have to check in very early to your flight. Our flight to Ua Huka left at 0630 am! It’s a simple continental breakfast but fills the spot!
The one thing I really like about some of the Pacific Island airlines is the way they incorporate their culture into their national airline. Air Tahiti Nui won’t be the choice of those seeking aspirational awards because J class is only a recliner, not lie flat. See my post on how to book award seats on Air Tahiti Nui.
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But the economy is a good deal for those redeeming economy as the cabin has a 2-4-2 layout so couples can grab seats and be sure of not having to share a 3 seater with a stranger. We got lucky with a plane that had lots of empty seats so my husband shifted into the aisle across while I kept the 2 seater so we could spread out and pretend we were in J.
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I loved the blue and green colour scheme and the way the FA’s wore typical Tahitian clothing, it makes you feel like your holiday has started already!
The most important tip I can give you about seat selection is AVOID THE MIDDLE ROWS INBOUND TO TAHITI!
Upon arrival at PPT, they disembarked from both the front and rear staircases, leaving the middle row passengers as the last ones off the aircraft.
A Hawaiian Airline plane had arrived just before us and the immigration lines were horrific! They seem to take forever processing each person and there were only 3 officers on duty. They do try to make it bearable by having a nice Tahitian band and dancer to welcome and entertain the new arrivals.
This is the series that launched 1000’s of people into the hobby of birding (or bird-watching if you prefer). Now available as Instant Streaming from Amazon.
This is my affiliate link so I do appreciate you using it for this or any other purchase.
Air India has finally joined Star Alliance!
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This is great news for eco-travelers as India has some amazing places to see birds in the wild! I’ve been to Coorg, Kerala, Wayanad (accessible from Bangalore) and Bharatpur near Jaipur, Agra & Delhi. You will also have more flight options to Sri Lanka using Star Alliance partners where more beautiful endemic birds await! See my guide on getting to India and Central Asia for more information on how many miles you need.
The domestic route possibilities are very interesting, especially when you consider how large India is and how difficult it is for a foreigner to book train tickets without an Indian mobile phone! These routes haven’t been loaded into United’s booking engine yet so I can’t wait to see what they price out at!
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If you live in India and want to learn about possible credit card deals specific to Indians, Live From A Lounge can help you. The blogger lives in Mumbai and is familiar with the Indian frequent flier mile scene.
During our recent French Polynesian adventure, ramen noodles weren’t the only cost cutting measure we had to take. Sometimes transit times between Australia and the Pacific Islands can be terrible, even requiring an overnight stay. Lounges close around midnight and reopen for the first international flight of the morning, around 5am-ish. So no matter what class you are traveling in, you will be kicked out for a few hours in any case.
Depending on how long the layover is, you could go to a hotel in the airport vicinity and maybe have a morning of sightseeing. Be aware that not all airport hotels have free courtesy shuttles. My usual go-to brand, IHG charges $6 one way on top of the cash or points for the room so that’s $24 round trip+ for a couple. That may not sound like a fortune, but it’s a savings if you need to get the budget down a bit.
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I did have a look through Trip Advisor and saw quite a few reports about people having pre-booked airport hotels and then the shuttle didn’t show up or they had to fork out for a taxi.
Fortunately the Auckland airport is safe and comfortable if you want to just stay airside overnight. If your flight arrives after 11pm, the transit security probably won’t be manned so you have to use a phone near the door to call them down to let you in. Don’t bring any duty-free or lags as they will take them away.
There are couches where you can stretch out on the lower shopping level and various options for food ranging from Burger King to various cafes and bars. They keep the lights on all night but I used a sarong wrapped around my head to block the light and my backpack as a pillow.
You can get 30 minutes of free internet per device. I tried deleting the cookies and using a different email, it didn’t work so it still manages to keep you limited unless you want to pay for more minutes. I had downloaded some movies and books so I had plenty to do while waiting. This isn’t the first time we did this, we usually get stuck overnight when traveling to Rarotonga or Papeete but this was the first time we didn’t have lounge access since I got heavily into the miles and points game. Air New Zealand used to be more generous with J class award seats.
It may not be the most comfortable night you will ever spend but overnighting in Auckland on the cheap is definitely survivable!
Flights within French Polynesia are operated by Air Tahiti (not to be confused with Air Tahiti Nui, the international carrier). Flights are all one-cabin but they won’t be full as they can’t sell all the seats due to weight restrictions landing on the smaller islands.
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The two biggest problems are:
1. You can’t use miles to book these flights. Air Tahiti doesn’t have any partnerships with any other airline. You could use cash back type points such as Ultimate Rewards or Barclay’s Arrival points.
2. The flights are VERY expensive! Those of you who have been to Bora Bora ain’t seen nothing yet, but now you know why we had to resort to ramen noodles to at least make up a bit of the budget! They accept most major credit cards so at least you will get a decent amount of miles from the bank!
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Air Tahiti Destinations
You can download a timetable for all Air Tahiti flights. They are updated twice a year, in March and September. As you can see above, most flights to the outer islands go via Papeete but within each island group there are connecting flights. You can’t go from one island group such as the Australes (where Rimatara is located) directly to another group such as the Marquesas (where Ua Huka is located).
In my case, I was targeting two specific bird species which are only found on two specific islands and I was limited by both time and money. Therefore all we could do was buy two round-trip tickets from Papeete to Ua Huka and Rimatara. For those who have more time and money, you can get island passes which give you several flights within an island group. There are strict rules associated with these passes, you can see more here.
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If we had more time and money to spend, we definitely would have gone for a Marquesas Pass. Even just flying over the various islands, I could see they were stunningly beautiful, would put Bora Bora to shame!
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Pass fares are offered to adults (over 12 years old) and children (2 to 11 years). There are no Pass fares for infants.
As a general rule, all Passes start and finish in Tahiti or Moorea.
You do not have to visit all of the islands included in your chosen Pass, but at least two islands must be visited.
Each island may be visited only once (a single stopover per island); returning to Tahiti while using the Pass is not permitted.
All of your flights must be confirmed at the time of issuing your ticket.
The length of your trip may not exceed 28 days from the start date, including for Passes with one or more Extensions.
These fares may not be used in conjunction with other fares offered by Air Tahiti and are applicable for payment by cheque, credit/debit card or cash only.
Transits or stopovers in Tahiti while using your Pass are not permitted, except:
For these exceptions, a maximum transit of 24 hours in Tahiti is permitted.
A single stopover is permitted per island.
A transit (stop lasting less than 24 hours) with a change of flight number is considered a stopover except for flights from Bora Bora via Rangiroa to Tikehau, Manihi or Fakarava. For these flights, when there is a flight number change with a stop of less than 2 hours in Rangiroa, such a stop may be considered a transit rather than a stopover.
All of the islands from a given archipelago must be visited before moving on to the next archipelago (e.g. for the Bora Bora-Tuamotu Pass, all of the islands from the Society Islands archipelago must be visited before moving on to those of the Tuamotu Archipelago).
Within a given archipelago, the islands may be visited in any order, subject to feasibility with regard to Air Tahiti’s flight schedule.
An Extension may not be purchased on its own; it must be combined with one of the Passes.
Extensions must be used before or after the Pass.
It is permitted to purchase both Extensions.
A 24-hour stop in Tahiti between Pass and Extension is permitted.
The first thing you need to deal with is that flights into PPT, the international airport of Tahiti, French Polynesia are very limited. Coming from Australia, our only options were through Auckland. People coming from North America can connect through LAX and Honolulu and people coming from Europe could connect through Paris.
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Air New Zealand is the only Star Alliance airline serving Tahtiti. You can get an idea of availability on United’s site. I couldn’t find anything until Feb 2015 and economy class only.
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For the last year, NZ has not been releasing any seats at all between Brisbane and Auckland so even if I could have snagged a couple of rare AKL-PPT seats I would have had to pay extra to get us to Auckland. I didn’t like that option! Air New Zealand used to be more generous with award seats, in 2011 I redeemed business class to Rarotonga but these awards are a thing of the past.
LAN is the only OneWorld member flying to Tahiti so unlikely to be of use to people reading this blog, especially since AA no longer offers RTW mileage awards.
Air France is the only Skyteam member that serves Tahiti. From Paris, one way awards start at 40,000 miles economy and fuel surcharge varies.
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From the USA, rock bottom ex-LAX seems to be 30,000 miles with 146 EUR fuel surcharge.
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The real challenge is trying to get connecting flights on Delta to LAX to hook up with your AIr France flight to Tahiti. I tried a few random dates in late 2014 and mid 2015 using flexible dates and couldn’t find anything to use as a screenshot example.
Air Tahiti Nui serves Auckland and LAX and is a partner of both American AAdvantage and Delta’s Skymiles. For Americans, you will face the same problem trying to get low-level award space on Delta from your home airport to LAX and Delta charges a fuel surcharge. AAdvantage has better availability for domestic USA awards to LAX.
For Aussies, you will fly on Qantas from Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne to Auckland, then transfer to Air Tahiti Nui. Award space was pretty good as long as you avoid holidays. You can see Qantas award space easily using AA’s tool.
Sometimes Air Tahiti Nui availability can be searched using the Flightstats tool.
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If the systems are hooking up, you can see the fare buckets still available. This is what it will look like using the more easily searched AKL-BNE route. Ecomony seats are W class, business seats are I class. More information and photos of the cabins can be found on Flyertalk. Business seats are not lie-flat and it’s only a 4.5 hour flight so in most cases economy will be sufficient.
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One last option is Hawaiian Airlines. If you are a member of their program, you can redeem online at these award levels.
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Otherwise, Hawaiian Airlines partners with many other frequent flyer programs such as United Airlines, American Airlines, US Airways, Alaskan Airlines, ANA, Korean and Virgin Australia so you may be able to use their miles to construct an award Mainland USA – HNL-PPT.
In summary, getting to Tahiti using miles is one of the most challenging awards you will ever book so you do need to plan well in advance and research your airlines and award levels. I found the easiest option for availability to be on American’s AAdvantage program but as usual, your miles may vary!
Last month, I snuck off to two of the most fascinating islands in French Polynesia for birders – Ua Huka and Rimatara. Although I was pretty much unplugged for this trip, I did have blog posts queued up for auto posting so no one probably even noticed I was away. But now it’s time to ‘fess up and introduce you to two amazing islands that most travel bloggers have never heard of, let alone traveled to!
Location of Ua Huka and Rimatara in relation to Papeete and Bora Bora
This map shows where we were in relation to the two French Polynesian islands most other bloggers have been posting about – Tahiti and Bora Bora.
This trip was a bucket list journey for me in which I got to see one of the world’s most beautiful birds – the Ultramarine Lorikeet for the first time………………….
Ultramarine Lorikeet
……………………and to see the beautiful Rimatara Lorikeet, previously seen in Atiu in their original homeland of Rimatara!
Rimatara Lorikeets
I have many more photos of these gorgeous birds, I haven’t really sorted through them all yet so as this journey progresses you will get to see a lot more………………and yes they will be clear shots!
This is one trip you can’t do totally with miles and points. I had originally planned to do it in Feb 2015 with AAdvantage miles redeemed on Qantas and Air Tahiti Nui but brought it forward to June 2014. All the recent devaluations have spooked me a bit and this is one trip that could be vulnerable to the new US/AA merger. Air Tahiti Nui is a partner of AAdvantage but not US Airways and even then they are only a half partner. You can redeem but not accrue miles on Air Tahiti Nui using AAdvantage and they are not in OneWorld or any other alliance. Theoretically, I should have been able to do this trip with Star Alliance partner United or even US Airways before they merged but it’s been over a year since Air New Zealand has released award space in ANY class – economy or business on the Brisbane-Auckland route and space between Auckland and other Aussie airports is extremely limited. I felt it was a situation of book now or possibly lose my chance to get the flights to Tahiti on miles period!
Once in Tahiti, we still had to get to the islands of Ua Huka and Rimatara. The only way to do this is on Air Tahiti (not the same as Air Tahiti Nui) and you can’t use miles, you MUST pay cash and these flights are not cheap! I’ll be going into detail in a later post but now you know why we ate ramen noodles for most lunches (and will be eating them a lot at home for the next couple months)!
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Here’s part 3 of the series I shared yesterday, enjoy!