How I Booked a Vacation in Bora Bora (Almost) for Free by Using Points and Miles

15.04.2024 - 20:53 / cntraveler.com / Bora Bora

Flying in business class to a faraway bucket-list destination like Bora Bora and staying in an overwater bungalow can take years of planning and saving. But it doesn’t have to. With credit card points and miles, you’ll often find some of the best deals and availability for free flights and stays within a month—or even a couple weeks—of your travel dates, making a last-minute trip to a paradise in the South Pacific a lot more realistic than it sounds.

Last November, as a holidays-on-the-beach devotee, I’d already used points to book a December trip to Cabo for myself and my husband. But some casual browsing on the Hilton website turned into a total revamp of our plans once I saw something I wasn't expecting: wide open availability for Bora Bora. All it took was a few flight and hotel cancellations, some points transfers from credit cards, and a bit of quick rebooking to pull it off.

Here’s a rundown of how the trip came together (almost) for free.

Ever since I stayed at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island, I knew I eventually wanted to visit the Conrad Bora Bora Nui to see how the properties compared. So from time to time, using the flexible award search calendar on Hilton’s booking website (Conrad hotels are part of the Hilton Honors program), I would scope out upcoming availability.

While looking for 2024 dates, I noticed a stretch of four nights at the end of December available at the standard—in other words, lowest—rate of 120,000 points per night for a King Lagoon View Suite. Because Hilton uses a dynamic pricing model for points redemptions, award rates and availability can change at any time. I committed to checking back every day that week to see if two more nights opened up—for a total of six nights—and sure enough, within a couple days, they did.

Credit cards were a big help in planning this trip. Between my husband and me, we have two Hilton Honors American Express Aspire credit cards, two Hilton Honors American Express Surpass credit cards, and a Hilton Honors American Express Business Card, all of which we use to rack up annual free night certificates. These certificates would have worked beautifully for this trip to Bora Bora, given that Hilton does not cap their value, allowing you to use them at nearly any of its hotels worldwide.

However, I used points that I earned with those cards instead so I could take advantage of Hilton’s fifth night free perk, where any stay that consists of at least five nights is discounted by the cost of one night (the one with the lowest points value). This perk is available to Hilton elites when booking with points; our top-tier Diamond status is an automatic benefit for all Aspire card holders.

So instead of paying 720,000 points for six nights, we paid