Sorry this reply is so late, but I have been working overseas.

My wife and I were in Tahiti and Bora Bora, as part of a longer trip, earlier this year. We went there Eastwards, via Australia and the Cook Islands, but to go direct from the UK would probably be best West via Los Angeles.

We booked our full trip through Trailfinders and they were excellent to deal with. I had two separate three-hour sessions in their Glasgow office, fine tuning the details of the trip. It was time well spent as planning is everything.

Give them a try and at least then you will have prices to compare against any web searches you do.

If you have any specific questions about Tahiti or Bora Bora, drop me a pm and I'll help in any way I can.

Hi there, The easiest and cheapest way to the FP is Via LA and flying with Air NZ.

We were looking at going for our honeymoon (June 27th '08) but we couldn't tie it in with the other places we wanted to go before and after the FP as we wanted to buy a RTW ticket. So for our South Pacific leg of our honeymoon we decided to stay at the boutique beach villas Etu Moana on Aitutaki in the Cook Islands!

We also found Trailfinders excellant and very knowledgeable but we decided to book with Tavel Mood. Another good agent for the South Pacific is turquoiseholidays.co.uk

Good Luck!

James

Several of the flights on our trip were with Air New Zealand and, to be honest, I can't think of a good word to say about them.

We flew from Tahiti to Los Angeles with them and, in a flight lasting over 8 hours, they showed only two movies, both of which were at set times. Compare this with Singapore Airlines (a choice of around 30 films plus other entertainment - all starting at the same time) and Virgin Airlines (a choice of around 50 movies plus other entertainment - all of which could be started / paused / stopped at any time you wished).

Food choice was also poorer on the Air NZ lights, as was the quality.

The staff were far less pleasant on the Air NZ flights than any of the other airlines we used.

However, the worst problem we encountered came on a short trip from Rarotonga to Papeete, where they managed to lose one of our suitcases. Within our planned stay at Tahiti, we had our 4 days in Bora Bora built in. luckily for us the suitcase lost was the one with the sundries, toiletries, towels & etc., rather than one with our clothes in, or the stay in Bora Bora would have been ruined for one of us.

We did not get our suitcase back until we returned to Tahiti and, to this day, they have never told me what happened to it, (i uspect it stayed on the plane which was carrying on to LA). At no time did any Air NZ staff speak directly to me, dealing only with hotel staff, both at Bora Bora and at Papeete. Promises made regarding compensation were never kept, in spite of the fact that I lost a whole day in Tahiti trawling around a Carrefour supermarket replacing all the necessary goods that had been in the lost suitcase.

I was told that I would receive an upgrade on my onward flightto LA and, that if no upgrade seats were available, someone would have the standard compensation money watining for me at the check-in desk. Needles to say, when we arrived at the check-in desk, no-one ther had ever heard of me or knew what i was talking about.

In October of last year, after half a dozen e-mails from me to the Air NZ London office, they eventually agreed to pay me the standard compensation, (a princely sum of £75), and yet, three months later that has still failed to arrive. The money is not the real issue here, but the poor customer relations is, for me, a burning issue which I will not drop.

No doubt the experience with the suitcase will make it sound as though it may have prejudiced me against Air NZ and caused me to exagerate on my other points. I can only assure anyone reading this that nothing could be further from the truth.

I can only speak from personal experience but, to reiterate my original point, I can't honestly think of one positive thing to say about that airline. It was when compared to other airlines that they really fell down.

Perhaps others have had different experiences with them that have been far better than my own.