Hello everybody. This trip report is my first one, so I hope it will be within the forum rules and also be useful or interesting for some of you. Sadly I can´t find the way to upload pics here, so it is a text only report.
This September my wife and I decided to give a rest to our favorite Caribbean destinations and celebrate our six years of marriage anniversary in a slightly different and more exotic destination. Living in a city close to one of the most arid deserts in the world -Antofagasta- we like travel to places with a lot of green, lush vegetation and white sandy beaches. But after several years going to the Caribbean Sea, we needed a change.
After some research we agreed our destination : Bora Bora, French Polynesia.
1.-Planning the trip
We learned very soon that compared with our Caribbean trips, traveling from Antofagasta to Bora Bora demands a greater dose of patience and good planning.
Latam flies once a week from SCL to PPT, with a “short” stopover of around two hours in IPC - Easter Island. However, we want to stay 9 days in Bora Bora. With this in mind, we found that the best option will be flying SCL-AKL, taking the Latam flight 801, and then take the Air Tahiti Nui flight 102 from AKL to PPT. This option gave us two advantages. First, considering the flight schedules, we could stay exactly nine days in Bora Bora, taking the “long road” vía AKL to go, and then flying the shortest trip PPT-IPC-SCL for our return trip. And second, having 12 hours between our arrival and departure times at AKL, we have the chance to take a quick tour around the city of Auckland. I know, I know, a city like Auckland deserves much more, and is almost insulting to be in such beautiful city and make such a short visit, but it was that or staying at the airport trying to kill the time with some good plane spotting. Acceptable for me, but not for my wife, so, walking around Sky Tower and Viaduct Harbour will be.
With the long haul flights solved, and the activities in Auckland planned, it was time to arrange our “short haul” trips within Chile (ANF-SCL-ANF ) and within French Polynesia (PPT-BOB-PPT ).
The flights from and to Antofagasta were easy to plan, we just had to pick flights with a good timing and margin to cope with our schedule for the international flights to AKL and from PPT.
But the flight to reach Bora Bora was more complicated. Our flight TN102 AKL-PPT has a scheduled time of arrival at 23:05
At this hours, there were no chance of taking a flight to Bora Bora. The best option was to book a one night stay at the Tahiti Pearl Beach hotel, and then take the first direct flight PPT-BOB the next day.
After a quick search on the Air Tahiti website we selected the flight VT-412, scheduled to take off at 10:20 AM.
A few minutes later, after checking our hotel booking in Bora Bora and the check out date, we selected our flight from Bora Bora to PPT, VT-429. Selecting this flight had the downside of a long wait, of more then six hours, before boarding our flight PPT to SCL. But the options available for later flights had their own problems : no direct flights from BOB to PPT, the risk of being stuck in some place for a tech problem with a shorter time to connect to our LA flight, and the imposition to pay the fee for a late check out at the hotel, or even worse, paying another full day at the hotel only to go out that same afternoon.
After at least two hours doing simulations and comparing options for flight schedules, we finally selected and completed all our trip :
Fri Sep 14, 16:35, ANF-SCL on LA133-A321
Sat Sep 15, 01:15, SCL-AKL on LA801-B788
Sun Sep 16, 16:05, AKL-PPT on TN102- A343
Sun Sep 16, 10:20, PPT-BOB on VT412- ATR72-600
Return
Mon Sep 24, 18:25, BOB-PPT on VT429- ATR72-600
Tue Sep 25, 03:20, PPT-IPC-SCL on LA836 - B789
Wed Sep 26, 05:11, SCL-ANF on LA 128- A321

At this point, with all the flights ready and the hotel rooms booked and confirmed, I thought we were ready.
Wrong.
A quick check on the transportation system of Bora Bora demonstrated I was missing a crucial detail: There are no roads connecting the airport with the resorts. After a couple of e-mails with the staff of our hotel, this last, final trip was arranged, since our hotel own their own fleet of speedboats to transport their customers from/to airport.
Finally, we only have to wait....for almost two and a half months.

But the time never stops, and finally the day of our departure we were ready to go.

2.-Flying away
Our first flight ANF-SCL was onboard CC-BED, an Airbus A321. As usual we took seats in the third row, 3A and 3B, this seats are charged with an extra fee but allows a preferential use of the overhead bins and priority to disembark at destination. The seat pitch is acceptable for today’s standards, and Latam offers a good app to see a decent variety of IFE on your own device. There are no PTV on the narrow body fleet of Latam Chile ( never been on board a Latam Brazil plane, don’t know about them ).
As many of you probably know, there is no free meal or snack of any kind in the domestic routes of Latam Chile. If you want something to eat/drink, you can buy it selecting your choice from the Mercado Latam Menu located in the seat pocket. Prices are ok but the menu is limited. The flight was uneventful and smooth, departing and landing on time.
With almost 6 hours before boarding our flight to AKL, we wrapped our bags with protective plastic plus the SafeBag insurance, requested an early check in for our luggage at the Latam counter and went to migration control. A smooth ride through all the controls and we’re ready to go.
Since we have free access to the Latam Lounge, we decided to kill the time eating some fresh food and drinking some Chilean wine until boarding.
At 12:15 we arrived at our gate and get in line to board our aircraft.
I bought our seats online and Latam sold me two Space Plus seats in row 13. But only the 787-9 has this seating, and when I saw our aircraft at the bridge it was a 787-8, reg number CC-BBJ.
The gate agent apologized and told me that all I can do is request a refund from the airline after return, since the Premium Bussines section was full and we cannot get an upgrade even if we pay for it.
Ok, a 12 hours flight in a standard economy seat was not our first choice, but at this point we didn’t really have any other option.
The flight departed on time and contrary to my expectations, there was zero turbulence through all the flight.
We´ve got dinner and breakfast in this flight. With my soul full of pain (since I love Latam), I have to admit that the quality ( of both meals ) was really underwhelming. I know, I was flying in Economy, but for God´s sake, the tickets SCL-AKL are not that cheap, no matter the cabin you´re seated, so, a cold, boring and small plate with a few ravioli and a glass of wine can´t be the best thing you can bring to your customers. I don´t expect lobster, I can even accept a good ravioli, but well done and with a little of caring for the customer. The breakfast was equally disappointing.
Sleeping more than half of the flight time, the ride didn’t felt so tiresome anyway and before 5:00 AM local time we were doing our passport control in New Zealand.
I did some research a few days before travel, and had everything planned for our stop in AKL. After passing through security and customs, we went to the Smartcarte deck and leave our luggage in custody until our next flight.
Now with a light backpack each, we were ready to go to the SkyBus selling point and get the round trip tickets to the city and back. Less than 10 minutes waiting and a bus with a friendly, funny driver appeared. He asked where we’re going and he laughed with my wife’s answer : The Starbucks please !

Being completely dark, we didn’t have the chance to see nothing really interesting in the first part of the trip. Our bus arrived to downtown with the first lights of the day and the bus driver even walked down from his seat and accompanied us to the corner, showing us with his hand our beloved Starbucks in Queen St.
Knowing Sky Tower will not open before a couple of hours, we took breakfast and took advantage of the wi fi connection to check our phones, mails and WhatsApp.
With the sun already illuminating the city we started our walk around. Less than 20 minutes later we were breathing the fresh air at Viaduct Harbour.
Open seating Cafés and small stores are already open and the city is starting to show its life style despite being Sunday and early morning.
Several people doing sports, running, riding a bike or just walking.
After some time we walk back to Sky Tower and with our tickets in hand boarded the elevator. What a ride !! That thing is fast !!!
The views from the tower are just amazing. We visited levels 51 and 60, walked through the glass floor and I even managed to locate AKL airport in the distance, with the helpful assistance of an Air New Zealand 777 taking off at the right moment.
After an unforgettable morning walking around Auckland it was time to catch our SkyBus to go back to the airport.
Upon arrival some people was already in line at the counter of Air Tahiti Nui, so we decided to get our luggage back from custody, complete the check in process and eat something before boarding.
With some extra time at hand, a short visit to the duty free stores was the best option to use our last NZ Dollars.
Around 3:00 PM local time, we were ready at the gate waiting for our next flight with destination Papeete.
Some interesting aircrafts were partially visible from our gate, with an Emirates A380 parked at the distance and an All Blacks 787 closer to our gate.
For some reason, when I did a check at Seatguru before selecting our seats for our flight to PPT, didn’t saw any comment about seats in row 15, so I picked 15L and 15K. When we arrived at our seats we were surprised that there’s no window for this row. Being a night/overwater flight, we were not very disappointed since there wasn’t anything interesting to see, but I guess some people could be very upset with a window seat ....without window. You´re all warned now, if you really want a window, don´t pick row 15 in TN A340s.
The seat pitch and general shape of the Air Tahiti Nui aircraft was very good considering the long career of this frames overflying the Pacific Ocean. The cabin and seats fabric, in my view, have a beautiful decoration combining the usual interiors of every airframe with turquois and blue sky colors, the Tiare ( Tahitian Flower ) is in the headrest of every seat, and you feel the identity of Polynesia as soon as you step in. The food, after our bad experience in our previous flight from SCL, was fantastic. It was the first meal I really enjoy on a flight in a long time. The service and the IFE were also good. Remarkable detail: We get an amenity kit with socks, a wet regfreshing mini towel, an eye mask and ear plugs, flying Economy. Are you listening Latam ? Thumbs up for TN, and by the way, as an aviation geek, I was already paid just for flying with the airline that has one of the most beautiful liveries all over the world. The airframe for our flight AKL-PPT was F-OJGF. It was really nice to fly in one of this old, reliable tahitian quads before her retirement ( TN is replacing the A340s with Dreamliners in the short term ).
We landed at PPT ahead of schedule, before 11:00 PM. Less than one hour later, we were already in the Tahiti Pearl Beach hotel, for our overnight stay waiting our last, final flight to Bora Bora. Our accomodation was a very spacious, two story suite, with ocean view. Not lavish, but way above the standard room, the welcome amenities and details were fine and in general, not luxurious but more than enough for just a stay of only a few hours. We had the oportunity to rest, take a long and warm bath, change clothes and refresh. The next morning we woke up to a sunny view of Moorea, the ocean and the hotel beach and gardens from our balcony. It was also the first time we saw a long beach with black, volcanic sand.
After a very decent ( and pricey! ) breakfast we were ready to check out and take our taxi ride back to PPT airport. The domestic terminal is basically a small appendix of the international terminal, so we found our way to Air Tahiti counters quick. After checking our luggage we went through a very detailed scrutiny in the security area, my wife even had to remove her shoes since she was wearing a pair of Guess with a metalic decoration. The domestic gates at PPT are two or three, squeezed in a really small space, probably not bigger than a medium sized house. The good thing is, you can see the ramp and the runway from the gates, smell the fuel, see the action while the ground staff prepares the ATRs for the next leg, and walk directly to the rear of the aircraft for boarding.
Our flight from PPT to BOB was on board of an ATR72-600, F-ORVN. Seating is random, you can basically choose any seat along the aircraft. We took the third row, right side seats, about one meter ahead of the propeller of the engine number two. Believe it or not, my last, previous flight in a turboprop, was around 1988, flying a domestic flight from Montevideo to Salto, in Uruguay, on board of a Fairchild FH227. My wife, although a frequent flyer, didn´t had very clear how many years ago she took her last flight on a turboprop. With this in mind, flying the ATR was a nice, different experience compared with the A320 we get on and on and on in our normal life. Despite the short flight time, around 45 minutes, a complimentary fresh tropical juice was offered and you can also buy extra beverages for a very reasonable price. The paper cup has a beautiful picture with one of Air Tahiti´s ATR on the runway, with palmtrees and blue ocean in the background. Delightful. The flight was really smooth and we arrived at Bora Bora right on time. At this point, we had left our home in Antofagasta more than 50 hours ago.
Despite the predictions from some of our friends and relatives, my wife didn´t kill me in the process of traveling from Antofagasta to Bora Bora, probably because Auckland is really beautiful and the hotel in PPT was very good and provided a good, deserved rest and refreshing time for her. So here we are, alive and kicking, in Bora Bora Airport.
Our hotel ( as many others ) has a counter at the airport and only a few seconds after entering the terminal we already have our (flower made) neckless, and a welcome -non alcoholic- drink. The baggage claim is a sort of fixed metalic platform where every passenger can pick the luggage. This is, by far, the most beautiful airport terminal I have been. Paradise on Earth : No secutiry controls, no X Ray machines, just a few seats, a small store with local souvenirs, and two gates to walk to/from the aircraft parked a few meters away. Outside, no roads, no traffic jams, not a single taxi driver trying to get your attention, instead, a dock with multiple positions for the different boats doing the shuttle to/from the hotels and resorts, and a stunning view of transpartent blue water, clear skies and the mount Otemanu, the highest point of the Bora Bora island.
We were the only two passengers using boat transfer, so less than 10 minutes after landing, we were already riding the waves of this beautiful place.

3.- A Superb Experience.
That is the only way you can describe our stay in Bora Bora. The place is magnificient. Our hotel was a medium ranged price, it wasn´t the most expensive available, but wasn´t cheap either. Some highlights : Welcome amenities, a bottle of french Champagne, macarons and fresh fruit. The Bungalow was very spacious, nicely decorated, clean and comfy.
The food had two faces. The breakfast buffet was only standard, nothing special compared with the breakfast buffet we´ve seen at five stars Caribbean Resorts. But the things really improved for lunch and dinner. The three restaurants available had very good quality food. Pricey, but good. The beach was spectacular, and the staff, was always friendly and dedicated.
Downsides: Some of the staff at the hotel had only basic English knowledge, and my absolutely non existant understanding of French didn´t help to comunicate with some of them. Nothing that the old technique of finger pointing or hands signals can´t fix anyway. Probably an obvious statement, but I strongly recommend to do some water activities in Bora Bora. We took a couple of days off from the beach and went to jetski adventure, a nice experience, and the best of all, swimming with sharks and stingrays. Definetly not something you do everyday in your day to day life. Other thing very different compared with our tipical caribbean destinations : Tip is considered offensive in French Polynesia. A good change from our caribbean friends who extend the open hand waiting for the five dollars bill every time you ask for anything.

4.- Nothing last forever, time to go back...
The days in Paradise are over and it is time to take the boat ride back to Bora Bora airport. There are other two passengers with us on board, apparently mother and daughter. The boat this time is different, slightly smaller, but damn that thing is fast!! We were in the airport only a few minutes after departing the hotel, and there is some people already waiting for the flight to PPT. This is the last direct flight BOB-PPT of the day. The aircraft for this leg was F-OIQV, an ATR72-500. The flight took off on time with the last rays of the setting sun on the horizon. When the aircraft reached cruise altitude a beautiful full moon was visible to the left side of the aircraft. Air Tahiti didn´t assign seats for the flights so we took seats at the third row, left side, ahead of the propeller pf the enigne number one. I don´t know if it is entirely true or just a personal feeling, but I always try to take seats ahead of the engines to get less noise through the flight. Our arrival at PPT was uneventful and after retrieving our bags, we took a walk around to the different areas of the terminal to see where could be the best spot to spend the next +5 hours waiting for our Latam flight back to Chile, with stopover at Easter Island. The airport was semi-deserted since only two flights will be departing until the next day, the TN flight to LAX departing around 12:30 AM and our flight to SCL, scheduled to depart at 3:20 AM. Sooner than later we found that there were only two options to kill the time at PPT that night : McDonalds, which have some tables and seats to eat and rest, and the Newrest facility where you can use better seats if you buy some food and drinks. Having our last meal many hours earlier at the hotel, the latter was the best option. A couple of burguers with french fries and soft drinks were really helpful. By the way, there is no free wi fi at PPT. But you can buy wi fi cards at the Newrest desk. We bought some cards and was a good decision since the waiting time was long.
Thankfully our flight LA836 was departing on time. At the counter, a nice lady handed off our boarding cards. Wait a minute. There are two seats assigned for each. I asked why. She says "you are in row 20 from PPT to Easter Island and in row 44 from Easter Island to SCL". I said no way. Row 44 is the last row at the back. She said " but you requested the seats on the website". Again, my answer was no. I never did that. If I decide to change my seats, I´ll do to get better seats, not worse. We both were calm, and discussed all this in a very civilized and friendly manner. The lady called the supervisor. The friendly tone and civilized conversation continued with the supervisor, and after a few minutes she came back with good news : Latam apologizes for this inconvenience, and we will have to change seats at Easter Island, but from row 20 to row 14. Deal. Since this time our aircraft is a 787-9, I know row 14 has Space+ seats, so I took it without hesitation. Sort of a compensation for my Space+ seats for SCL-AKL that we never get.
A quick pass through migration and security controls and we´re already at the gate waiting the boarding call. The aircraft was already being prepared at the gate. Reg number was CC-BGH, as expected, a Boeing 787-9. While waiting the boarding call, my wife, a daily TV consumer, says with a worrysome tone that there are some famous people flying with us, and that can be a bad sign. After a couple of minutes trying to identify the "famous people", I discover Amaro Gomez Pablos, a former CNN journalist, and Paz Bascuñán with her kids ( She´s a famous actress in Chile, and granddaughter of the former Chilean President Patricio Aylwin ). I try to convince my wife that a couple of famous chileans on board means nothing. Then she explains what really upsets her : If we crash, the headlines will be " Amaro Gomez Pablos and Paz Bascuñan, along with other 250 people, died in plane crash". What really freaks her out is being "just one of the other 250 people".... I´m speechless with that logic. She explains to me that when a Chilean Air Force Casa 212 crashed some years ago, all the media talked about a TV presenter, Felipe Camiroaga, almost ignoring all other 20 fatalities of that crash. I was trying to drag the conversation away from that topic when finally the boarding call was made and finally,after a long wait, we are walking to the stairs attached to the 789. We boarded through the gate closer to the wing leading edge, so the first steps on the stairs were extremely close to the left engine. Walking a couple of meters away, that thing is really massive !!
Departure was on time and despite being slightly jet-lagged due to our recent changes in locations, I managed to get a very good sleeping time until we were close to Easter Island.
The food on this flight improved compared with the cold ravioli we get flying to AKL, but nothing to write home about. The captain made a PA announcement and told us that the Island was overcast, with light rain and around 22 degrees celsius. We spent 9 days in Easter Island in June, 2015, and I have to say that the weather was basically the same for almost half of our stay. That green lush vegetation needs water to grow...
After landing and leaving the aircraft we walked to the terminal to do the migration controls and officially return to Chile. The next four and a half hours of our travel will be in a "domestic flight" from IPC to SCL. Regarding infrastrtucture, nothing has changed at Easter Island´s terminal since we visited this remote place three years ago. There are new rules for visiting the island, trying to reduce the impact massive tourism can cause to this small and confined territory, but the terminal building is basically the same small, tiny facilty that feels completely crowded with the pax on board of a 789. Around two hours after landing, the boarding call started and we walked under a persistent rain to the aircraft. Finally, for unknown reasons, we get our famous Space+ seats on row 14. My wife is not very tall, to say it politely, so nothing changed too much for her. But this seats are a real pleasure for me, compared with the standard Economy seats. Having long legs is good some times, but not when you have to fly Economy. The difference in comfort is notorious, and I feel upset for not getting this seats in our flight SCL to AKL, the longest we took for this trip. But it is what it is.
We took off under the rain and climbed to the sun a few minutes later. The sunset came quickly and we were once again surrounded by darkness, so it was time to use the IFE.
After less than five hours of smooth flight we landed at SCL. Surprisingly, customs didn´t pay too much attention to our luggage, and being checked for migration in Easter Island, we were out of the terminal before 22:30 PM. We have the hope of changing our 5:00 AM flight to other one departing earlier, so we asked the Latam agent about that. Sorry folks, there is not a single flight before yours. Ouch. Six more hours to wait for a flight. There is a Holliday Inn at SCL. I propose that option to my poor tired wife. She doesn´t want, and instead proposed a visit to Donkin Donuts to have some sugar in her body and a hot capuccino. It was a very good idea, since SCL lacks of any seating-rest area for transiting passengers. A real shame. Chilean authorities should know this is the country´s main gateaway. The image of people laying down randomly on the floor or in the closed counters, is pathetic for a country that presumes being a regional leader. I just hope the new SCL under construction solve this issues, it is not acceptable.
After a couple of hours waiting we get hungry and luckily, the Santa Brasa restaurant was open all night. A good grilled beef and hot tea cups encouraged our bodies to face the last, more tiresome stage of our trip. At three o clock we checked our luggage and walked thorugh security to board our last, final flight back home.
Our last flight of the trip was on CC-BEP, an A321. This was the one and only flight with consistent, light to moderate turbulence through all the flight. However, maybe with a good amount of acumulated tiredness, we slept like babies from taxiing for take off until touch down in Antofagasta.

Considering all the factors involved, I think the result of this trip is really positive, it wasn´t perfect, we hadn´t any upgrades neither at the hotel or the flights, but except for the Space+ seats in our flight to AKL, we get all the services we paid for, and we were able to celebrate our six years of happiness in a beautiful place.

Thanks for reading and all criticism, advice, corrections or just comments are welcome, best regards to all.

Gonzalo

Thank you for taking the time to read, it is long but detailed which I guess is the best way to make it useful.
We stayed at the Sofitel hotels, our category in the fidelity program and the rate we paid allowed to use both facilities in Bora Bora ( Marara Beach and Private Island ).
We spent most of the time at the beach side since that was the purpose of travel specially for my wife ( mine was the ride in the Air Tahiti A 340 !!! )

Rgds.
G.