Find out in this article how to travel to French Polynesia with your miles and how to stay there with your points to save a lot of money on your trip!

French Polynesia with points & miles

French Polynesia is a region of the world that makes you dream just like the Maldives, the Seychelles, Mauritius or Bali. But unlike these 4 other terrestrial paradises, it was, until recently, still difficult and expensive to get to French Polynesia from Canada.

The new flight between San Francisco and Papeete with United

This was without counting the new flight that United has just opened between San Francisco (SFO) and Papeete (PPT).

And since this American airline is a member of Star Alliance, that means you can book flights with your Aeroplan miles!

Here are the flight times:

This will be operated year-round by a Boeing 787 Dreamliner:

The cost in Aeroplan Miles

The cost in Aeroplan Miles for this flight in the South Pacific region, departing from Canada / USA, is :

Let me warn you right away: there is very little chance of seeing business class tickets for this flight. However, at the time of writing this article, there are a plethora of economy class tickets available with Aeroplan miles.

Round trip from Canada to Papeete with Aeroplan Miles

Here is an example for a March 2019 round trip from San Francisco – 90,000 miles + $74.40 tax:

Here is an example of a fare from Montreal – 90,000 miles and $220 in taxes (plus carrier surcharge on Air Canada):

Multi-destination flight with a stop in San Francisco and/or Vancouver

Due to the length of the trip, we advise you to try to make a multi-destination flight by stopping en route. On this international flight, you are entitled to 2 stops in addition to your destination.

Here is an example with only 1 stop of a few days in San Francisco on the way there – 90,000 Aeroplan miles and $268:

You could also add a stop on the way back, such as Vancouver. At that point, you will need to find availability for each segment and then call Aeroplan to set up this type of trip:

A new option for a mini-tour of the world!

And as Jean-Francois P. mentions in the facebook group “Travel for free (or almost…!) with your points & miles – milesopedia”, this new route opens up a whole new opportunity for a mini world tour!

This type of trip would also cost 90,000 miles in economy and 160,000 miles in business class (with a stop in Papeete, a destination in Sydney and another stop in Singapore for example):

Aeroplan Mileage earning cards

The cards that make it easy to earn Aeroplan Miles in large numbers are the American Express Membership Rewards cards:

• American Express^® Gold Rewards Card
• American Express Platinum Card^®
• American Express^® Business Gold Rewards Card^®
• Business Platinum Card^® from American Express

Please note: The American Express Cobalt? Card earns Membership Rewards points that are not directly transferable to Aeroplan Miles. That’s why we don’t present it as a direct option.

Hotels in French Polynesia with the points

It’s not all about getting an “almost” free ticket with miles! But you still have to be able to afford the stay on site, which is very expensive! Fortunately, there are options here too with Marriott Bonvoy hotel points.

There are 2 hotels belonging to the Marriott Bonvoy program in French Polynesia:

The St. St. Regis Bora Bora Resort with Marriott Bonvoy points

The most luxurious of all, The St. Regis Bora Bora Resort is classified as Category 7 through the end of 2018 in the Marriott Bonvoy program. That is, it is available for only 60,000 points instead of over CA$1,200 per night!

This is typically the type of hotel one thinks of when one thinks of Bora Bora:

Le Méridien Bora Bora with Marriott Bonvoy points

The second hotel, Le Méridien Bora Bora, is also classified as a Category 7 until the end of 2018 in the Marriott Bonvoy program. It is therefore also available for only 60,000 points instead of more than CA$700 per night!

Another landscape to dream about!

This is when you realize the great value of Marriott Bonvoy points in order to obtain this type of hotel!

Marriott Bonvoy points cards

The guides to read when traveling in French Polynesia

The Ulysses travel guides have just released a new book: 50 dream itineraries in all seasons: In the sun, in which a chapter is dedicated to French Polynesia.

Otherwise, you can consult
all other publications about French Polynesia on this page
!

Bottom Line

All this was made possible by the addition of this flight between San Francisco and Papeete. Before, you had to either pay for your ticket or use Flying Blue miles to fly from Los Angeles to Papeete (and the availability was not very good).