Air Tahiti Business Class Review

Booking

Back in February, 2022, Conrad Bora Bora had wide open standard night points availability. I booked 5 nights for December to coincide as an anniversary trip. I originally booked Air Tahiti Nui business class with their daily flight from Los Angeles with American miles that cost 80K miles per person. Then in late March, Air Tahiti announced a new 2X weekly flight to Seattle and new partnership with Alaska airlines that would start in October, 2022. In June, the flights became bookable with their new partnership with Alaska. There was availability for my desired date plus Alaska charged less miles (60K per person) than American. I cancelled my original ticket and booked the direct Seattle-Papeete flight for 60K miles.

Ground Experience
Seattle is my home airport. As business class passengers, we could use the dedicated check-in lane for business class which was fast and efficient. Unfortunately, it seems Air Tahiti Nui doesn’t participate in TSA Pre-check (neither one of us had it on our boarding pass), but we did pass through security quickly with Clear instead.

Instead of heading to the lounge in the south terminal, we opted to instead head over to the north terminal to Bambuza, which is a Vietnamese themed restaurant that participates in Priority Pass. We had a late breakfast here utilizing Priority Pass benefit ($28 per person).

After the meal, we headed over to the south terminal where our flight was departing from. Look at the beautiful livery on the plane. After a brief delay, boarding started shortly after we arrived to the gate.

Cabin & Seat
Air Tahiti Nui’s 787s have a total of 30 business class seats, spread across 5 rows in 2-2-2 configuration. Air Tahiti Nui chose B/E Aerospace Diamond seats in business class (this is the same seat I flew JFK-SEA on daytime DeltaOne flight), which are fully flat seats that are at a slight angle to the aisle. They efficiently make use of space because they have footwells that are underneath the seats in front. The seats aren’t exactly cutting edge, although Tahiti is mostly a leisure destination for couples. Generally it is intentional to choose a configuration where one can sit next to a seatmate for primarily leisure routes.

I opted for the window seats in row 3. Business class was about 2/3 full at departure with most of the window seats taken and the middle seats empty.

Each seat has a small storage compartment to the back of the seat and to the side, which is also where the headphone jack is located, as well as a bottle of water. Above the footwell there’s also a rack where you can place things during the flight, though just be aware those things can easily fall out.

The seat controls were located on the center armrest between seats. Underneath the center console were power outlets, with both 110v and USB outlets. Also to the sides of the center console were the entertainment controllers.

Our flight was a daytime flight departing at around 11am local time (departure) and arriving to Papeete just after 7pm local time (arrival). Particularly for a daytime flight, the seat was comfortable. I also took a short nap. In full recline, the seat provides 78 inches of pitch.

In-Flight Dining
A few minutes after settling in, we were offered pre-departure drinks. We both opted for sparking wine. I love how they add the logo to their stemware.

With a daytime flight, we were served lunch to start. Service started about 45 minutes after take-off. The menu consisted of a couple appetizers, choice of main (select from 1 of 3) and dessert.

With lunch as the main meal, there was proper service with the appetizers first presented on a single tray.

For the main, I opted for the beef filet while my wife ordered the scampi shrimp. I found the beef to be a bit dry but my wife enjoyed her main. We were also given a choice of bread from the basket.

I opted for a glass of wine to accompany the meal. My wife wanted tea. I liked how they presented a tray to choose from.

About 90 minutes prior to landing, the final meal service started. Although arriving in the evening, it was a breakfast dish. There was a small side salad, fresh fruit and quiche all served on one tray. The dish tasted pretty good.

Overall, I’d say the food choices were pretty average for business class. The food was good, but nothing was particularly outstanding either.

Amenities & Service
With the new 787s, the in flight entertainment screen was very good in terms of responsiveness and screen quality.

While the system itself was high quality, the movie and TV selection was quite limited. There were only about a dozen movies and a similar number of TV shows. Particularly for a daytime flight, I wish there were more options available. However, I did find enough programs to watch to keep myself occupied for the flight (including a short nap). I would bring an extra entertainment device though with the limited options available.

The 787’s also have wi-fi. Business class passengers get a code for 10MB of free wi-fi, although that will only last you a few minutes at best. Otherwise, wi-fi pricing for the flight is quite expensive. I did not pay for any additional wi-fi beyond the limited amount provided by the free code.

Air Tahiti Nui provides a well stocked amenity kit. I replaced an old amenity kit with the one provided by Air Tahiti Nui for my travel essentials as the size of the kit was ideal for packing travel in the future.

Overall, I found the service of the flight attendants to be fine, but lacking polish. For example, there was quite a delay to refill hot water for my wife’s tea and missed my refill of coffee at breakfast prior to landing.

Overall Impression
I enjoyed that it was a daytime flight so that it was easy to adjust upon arrival (did you know that Tahiti is in the same time zone as Hawaii)? While the seat isn’t cutting edge, it’s a solid product especially when traveling with someone. The biggest drawback was the lack of entertainment options and ridiculous pricing for wi-fi. I would love to visit Tahiti again and would definitely consider flying Air Tahiti Nui in the future. It was a solid, but not spectacular use of Alaska miles.