Hubs and I spent a lot of time discussing Tahiti as our honeymoon location. We decided on a place where we could relax and in the midst of planning a wedding, the idea of planning a honeymoon was just to exhausting. We decided to get some down time after the wedding before tackling the idea of booking our honeymoon.
My first stop was Costco Travel where they offered the BEST DEALS on Tahiti. After discussion and hours on Tripadvisor, we picked the Tahiti/Moorea/Bora Bora package. Hours on the phone and some quick math, I realized that it would be cheaper for me to book the flights on my own instead of having Costco do that. In addition, we got an free upgrade into Business Class on Air Tahiti Nui. THANK YOU AIR TAHITI NUI!! 
We finally took the plunge and booked our lodging and transfers through Costco and I booked our international flight and inter-island flights separately.
Coincidentally, within weeks of booking our trip, Groupon launched its “Groupon Destinations” and on the very first day was the $500 for $1000 Classic Vacations Tahiti Offer. I read through the fine print and quickly bought it. They wanted me to book a hotel through them but after finaggling through 3 supervisors and a manager and me squawking that in their fine print it said that it was “good towards hotel, transfers, and or excursions” they finally relented and let me book excusions with my $1K of credit. 😀 (Ironically… the same deal came up again a few weeks ago and I sent it to some friends flying out there for their honeymoon and the fine print said “must book hotel.” I wonder if my squawking had anything to do with that…
We booked our package with Hilton and Visa Signature was also having a deal where we got Hilton Gold Status. I called the hotels down in Moorea and Bora Bora to log my Hilton number since Tripadvisor mentioned that there were issues with the hotels looking them up. Thankfully I did since we got multiple upgrades at both resorts on the house. 😀
Air Tahiti Nui only flies out of LAX so I was on the prowl for good deals. I was considering using the Buy 1 Get 1 Free coupon codes I got at the Virgin America SF Giants game to book our flights down to LAX and back but decided that since we were flying out on a Tuesday, the standby slots should be good.
Overall, booking through Costco, scouring LivingSocial and Groupon, and having our company’s standby flights really made a difference in our honeymoon. We got the most bang for our buck in the sense that:
1) We got a free coach to business upgrade on Air Tahiti Nui both going and coming back… which was a big deal since we were red-eyeing out and red-eyeing in. I didn’t see any value in spending a night in Tahiti.
2) Groupon blessed us with $500 for free!
3) Hilton Moorea Lagoon and Spa upgraded us twice to a Overwater Bungalow and then to the Panoramic Overwater Bungalow (Sunset View) instead of the Garden Bungalow we booked.
4) Hilton Bora Bora Nui upgraded us from an Overwater Bungalow to a Deluxe Overwater Bungalow (with a mountain view… we had one of the 3 or 4 bungalows that had the amazing view of Mt. Otemanu. This was a huge debate for us since when we were picking through the various packages Costco offered, Hubs really REALLY wanted a view of the mountain. Most of the Bora Bora resorts are located on Motus (islands) away from the main island of Bora Bora. Hilton is one that faces away from Bora Bora and towards the sunset so this was a HUGE! We got some AMAZING views from our bungalow for free!
Overall, I think I spent hours on the phone with Costco negotiating out the best possible deal and hours with Classic Vacation to redeem our Groupon voucher; time spent was worth every single penny.
Business Class tickets were going for about $4000-$4200 per person at the time we were flying. We paid around $1400 per person for coach so we got a nice $3000 perk between the two of us.
Moorea Bungalow Upgrades: Difference between the Garden and the Panoramic was about 400 dollars… spanned across 3 nights it was a $1200 perk they gifted us.
The difference in price for the Bora Bora bungalows was about $250 a night which worked out to $1250 for all the nights we were there.
Given the budget Hubs gave me, I managed to finaggle an extra $6000 give or take out of everything. 😀
If I have any advice, it would be to figure out which hotel chain you’re at and then get into their rewards program. I heard that the Intercontinental offers a “VIP” program that you can pay to get into that gives you upgrades when you check in. Given that these bungalows out in Tahiti cost so much, it would be useful to pursue that. We were lucky to have Hilton Gold status via Visa Signature’s promo which came in very handy. The upgrade in Moorea was definitely much appreciated.
Coming up next… Excursion Planning!