Booking Interisland Flights with Air Tahiti in French Polynesia

A motu in Maupiti

When one wants to fly from the main island in French Polynesia, Tahiti, to any of the islands that have an airport, Air Tahiti (not to be confused with Air Tahiti Nui which flies from LAX to Papeete in Tahiti, but doesn't do interisland flights in French Polynesia) is the airline that you'll use (unless you're booking with private helicopter companies, etc.).  Air Tahiti flies to many, many, many different islands in French Polynesia (French Polynesia has about 118 different islands, but only around half of those are inhabited).

Fresh pineapple juice on Air Tahiti.

Air Tahiti has come a long way since I first flew it in 1991 (I flew from Moorea to Tahiti with my family on my first visit to French Polynesia). For instance, now there is an online booking system that customers and travel agents can use. But the online booking system leaves something to be desired. Or at least it did for me when I was trying to book our interisland flights using one of the flight pass deals that Air Tahiti offers.

On our honeymoon we took several Air Tahiti flights.

Normally when one books with Air Tahiti, there is a price per flight, however, Air Tahiti offer various flight passes that offer significant savings to people wanting to visit several islands in French Polynesia.

The last time we visited French Polynesia, we used Air Tahiti to fly from Tahiti to Huahine, to Raiatea (then we took a boat to visit Taha'a and back to Raiatea to catch our next flight), then to Maupiti, and finally back to Tahiti to fly home.

Sunrise in Tahiti.

This trip, we wanted to throw in some new islands, one new island in the Society Islands and then try some of the islands in the Tuamotu archipelago to the north of the Society Islands (French Polyneisa is made of many, many islands spread over several archipelagos including the Society Islands, Tuamotus, Gambier, Marquesas, and Austral). There are various flight passes to choose from that allow different combinations of islands and archipelagos. The one we settled on was called the Bora Bora- Tuamotu pass (this allows one to visit Moorea, Huahine, Raiatea, Maupiti, Bora Bora, Rangiroa, Tikehau, and Fakarava). This pass was perfect for us as it allowed us to visit the islands that we wanted to in the Society Islands (Huahine and Bora Bora), as well as a few of the main Tuamotu islands (Fakarava, Rangiroa, and Tikehau).

The trick to the flight pass is that islands have to be visited in a certain order and backtracking is not allowed to either Tahiti or any other island (with exceptions). That can get complicated in some of the outer islands that have less frequent flights and can only be visited by passing through another island. For our Bora Bora-Tuamotu flight pass, we had to visit all the Society Islands that we wanted to visit first before moving onto the Tuamotu islands. No backtracking through any island is allowed and if you land on an island and you're there for over 2 hours (even waiting to catch the flight to the next island) you can can't go back to that island for an actual visit.  Some of the smaller Tuamotu islands only have flights in and out on certain days, so it makes scheduling a real challenge.

The Air Tahiti online booking system was somewhat frustrating to use. Once I had worked out which order we had to visit the islands and on which days we had to take flights to various islands and then back to Tahit,i I tried to book online, but the system would not recognize the flight pass pricing (with a flight pass there is a set price you pay no matter how many islands in the pass you visit, as opposed to paying for each separate flight). Instead of charging me 517.90 Euros per person, the system was trying to charge me about four times that based on the number of flights I had scheduled for my husband and me (tough to say exactly how much more because while the flight pass is priced in Euros, the individual flights are priced in XFP or CFP or French Pacific Franc, the currency of French Polynesia, so I only did a rough conversion).

A lookout in Huahine.

Unfortunately, Air Tahiti has no phone number on their website to contact them. There is only a contact form to fill in online and then wait for up to several days for them to contact you back. However, luckily on online travel forums I found their phone number and an email address. I initially tried to email them to ask if someone could help me schedule the flights and correctly charge me for the flight pass. As I was nervous that some of the flights would sell out (and my carefully ordered vacation would be destroyed), I called Air Tahiti the next morning, having not heard back. For anyone looking for their phone number, it is (689) 40-86-42-42. Their email is reservation@airtahiti.pf.

I was prepared to speak French if needed, but it made me nervous in case my rusty French betrayed me and ruined my careful flight schedule (plus I wanted someone to look over this flight schedule to make sure it both worked and fit within the very technical perameters of the Bora Bora- Tuamotu pass). My fear was for nothing though. The recording allows you to choose French or English. The Air Tahiti agent I was connected to spoke English, so I didn't have to exhaust myself trying to schedule seven different flights in French. She was able to book all seven flights for my husband and me. Then she was able to send me an email with a secure payment link, so that I could pay for the two flight passes by credit card online (they don't take credit cards over the phone she told me). After I received this email I was able to pay easily. I had a booking reference number that she gave me, so I could look up my flights in their online system and they were all there.

The airport in Huahine.

Here is a list of our flights in the order they occur (it takes two flights to get to Fakarava from Bora Bora, ie. we have to pass through Rangiroa, but since we aren't there for over two hours, we can return there after Fakarava for an actual stay on Rangiroa):

DATE  FLIGHT   DEPARTURE AIRPORT       TIME  ARRIVAL AIRPORT         CLASS  BAG
DATE  VOL      AEROPORT DE DEPART      HEURE AEROPORT D ARRIVEE      CLASSE BAG
13MAR VT 272   PPT-PAPEETE, SOC. IS.   0930  HUH-HUAHINE, SOC. IS.   Y -OK  23K
               TERMINAL D1                                   ARRIVAL:1035    

20MAR VT 272   HUH-HUAHINE, SOC. IS.   1050  BOB-BORA BORA           Y -OK  23K
                                                             ARRIVAL:1115    

22MAR VT 543   BOB-BORA BORA, SOC. IS  1220  RGI-RANGIROA, FR. POLY  Y -OK  23K
                                                             ARRIVAL:1335    

22MAR VT 557   RGI-RANGIROA, FR. POLY  1505  FAV-FAKARAVA, FRENCH P  Y -OK  23K
                                                             ARRIVAL:1550    

25MAR VT 568   FAV-FAKARAVA, FRENCH P  0850  RGI-RANGIROA, FR. POLY  Y -OK  23K
                                                             ARRIVAL:1005    

27MAR VT 552   RGI-RANGIROA, FR. POLY  0930  TIH-TIKEHAU, FR. POLYN  Y -OK  23K
                                                             ARRIVAL:0950    

01APR VT 556   TIH-TIKEHAU, FR. POLYN  0900  PPT-PAPEETE, SOC. IS.   Y -OK  23K
                                             TERMINAL D1     ARRIVAL:1050    


So, from Tahiti (we stay one night), we go to Huahine (7 nights), then we go to Bora Bora (2 nights), Fakarava (3 nights), Rangiroa (2 nights), and then Tikeuhau (5 nights), before returning to Tahiti to spend one last night before returning to Canada (via LAX).

Now that our complicated interisland flight schedule is sorted out, it's time to book the accommodations. . . .

Sunrise over Maupiti.

July 29, 2016- AMS to FRA to BCN, Our First Day in Barcelona

We awoke at the ungodly hour of 4:30 a.m. after less than 4 hours of sleep. We finished packing, had our breakfast in our room, and went and checked out. They removed a breakfast from our bill that we had in fact never ordered or consumed and was a mistake. Other than that, the bill was accurate. They asked for our feedback. We said that we loved the location of the hotel and it’s safe and comfortable and quiet, but the cleaning really left something to be desired. We noticed that the cleaning in our room wasn’t done very thoroughly and they broke a glass a couple of times and instead of replacing it, they’d leave it out in the hallway on the floor. Then we’d have to call down for a glass from the front desk. And they didn’t replace our Kleenex another day. And of course there was the weird electric toothbrush in a glass of water day. But all in all, we’d probably stay there again.

They called a taxi for us and the fellow was there right away. He was very pleasant and chatted with us as he drove us to Schiphol Airport and we discussed polar bears, the north pole, and other important facets of Canadian life.

Bill found the PwC office on the way to the airport.

He dropped us off at the Lufthansa departure section. We had checked in online, but the machines there are only for check in and not for printing baggage tags like in Canada, so we had to get in line with everyone anyways. We sent our bags away and we went through security. April always gets harassed back home and even here, she got the pat down of a lifetime right after being in the screening machine. The woman kept feeling her up and then some guy barked “spread your legs.” Yeah, that’s how you want to start your morning.

Bill was enthralled with the urinal fly and golf hole that you can aim at in the urinals in Schiphol Airport bathrooms.

We walked towards our gate. Bill found a pair of sheepskin slippers at a shop along the way and bought them. They look really snug, but they were too wide at the back for April.

The flight from Amsterdam (AMS) to Frankfurt (FRA) was about 30 minutes late boarding and leaving but made up 15 minutes of time and wasn’t too late getting in. It was a 45 minute flight but they still managed to find time to give us a delicious strudel and a drink (hot drinks were even on offer- hear that Air Canada?).

Strudel doodle doo.

April noticed a drop in the standards of the bathrooms right away from Amsterdam to Frankfurt. No more alcohol disinfecting spray to put on toilet paper to clean the seats and the lighting was worse. It just didn’t look as clean. Still great compared to the bathrooms in a lot of places though.

In Frankfurt we didn’t have to wait long until we boarded, about one hour. There was a stand with many different newspapers for free for Lufthansa passengers to read for free and a machine that made tea, coffee, etc free for passengers. What service!

There is no boarding by zones in these Lufthansa flights so everyone just piles together in a lineup and then merges from various places into one or sometimes two gates. By the time you get on, if you aren’t lining up from far ahead of time, the overhead bin space is taken and you’ll have to put your carry-on luggage under the seat in front of you. It’s not the best system for boarding.

The flight from Frankfurt to Barcelona left around the right time. The flight was about 1.5 hours.

We took a cab from the airport to the W Barcelona, which is right on the water, near where the Olympics Village was.

Cab selfie.

When we arrived at the hotel our room wasn’t ready yet, so we went to the W lounge and had a late, but extremely delicious lunch of local fare. Our server, Marco, spoke English with a textbook middle-England accent. Upon further investigation we discovered that the part of England he was from was Sicily (he had studied in England for four years, however). Our second server was a trainee named Julie who was from the Netherlands (Rotterdam) and was doing a 3 month stint here in Barcelona at the hotel after studying hotel management… we just can’t escape these Dutch people. When April came back to the table and she met her for the first time, Julie did a very visible double take. No April’s not Dutch!

We shared a salad of tuna, chicken, olives, Parmesan cheese, etc. and roasted chicken breast with roasted potatoes and a tomato sauce with perfectly cooked whole prawns. The ingredients were obviously fresh and absolutely flawlessly prepared. And there was good bread to eat with the meal with a variety of different things to dip it in like garlic aioli, tomato sauce, red wine salt, etc… 

We left satisfied and went to the front desk to see if they had our room ready yet. They did not. We sat and waited in the lobby since we couldn’t go far as we don’t have our phones working in Europe for calls when the room was ready. After a longer wait, Bill went up to ask again, the room was finally ready. We were relieved because we were both tired and wanted to get out onto the beach in front of the hotel and have some sun and maybe a little sun and just relax and unwind from the journey of the morning.

Our room had been upgraded to the best available one. This one was on the 14^th floor and faced the beach and the city with floor to ceiling windows and a king sized bed. But our bags weren’t there yet. We called down to try to retrieve our bags so we could change into bathing suits. Eventually the bags were brought up, by which time we had discovered two disappointing defects, the note with chocolates was addressed to someone with a name different that Bill’s name (he’s a platinum member, they should know his name- hellllloooooo!!!) and there was a gross long black hair on the soap dish/soap.The bellman sent a cleaning lady to replace the soap.

Welcome chocolates.

We changed and went down to the beach. It was really, really windy and the towels that they gave us at the beach club were blowing around and slapping at us. It was quite warm out, but the wind made it feel a bit chilly, especially when we waded into the Mediterranean. We both dunked ourselves in and then we lied on our beach chairs and dried off a bit. It was kind of cold in that wind though, so eventually we went back to the hotel.

We had a shower and decided that with a view like ours, we should just order in room service and eat in front of the window. The room service came just as April was nodding off. 

Mmm gourmet dog food and a beautiful view. Our night was set to be awesome.

Can't beat this view.

We discovered the fries were stone cold and seemed to have an extra protein bit deep fried with them, a hair. We called down about this. The woman who brought up the replacement fries was so apologetic. She actually came back later with champagne and chocolate dipped strawberries as an apology. But we told her we don’t drink, so she offered to make some other drink for us. We ended up with a Spanish version of a milkshake (more like iced milk, not thick like what you'd get in Canada or the U.S.), one vanilla (real vanilla beans!) and one chocolate that she dropped off on another trip.

Milkshakes and chocolate covered strawberries.

Then there was another knock and a woman showed up with “a tray for Mrs. Hepburn.” We were both puzzled. It was tea. It had a note hoping that April would feel better. We suppose they must have witnessed her in bed earlier in a robe feeling sleepy at dinnertime and thought that she was sick.

Tea makes everything better, even when you didn't know anything was wrong.

Then there was another knock at the door. This time it was the cleaning lady offering turn down service. We refused this and worked on the blog and tried to get ready for an earlier sleep. And we didn’t even mention all of the different calls we received either. Bill became a Platinum Starwood member from all of his business trips and they certainly seem to be acknowledging that they value his membership. They have been very attentive.

And the view out of this room is absolutely stunning.