Anyone been to Easter Island using FF points from Oz?

[Bill Gillespie]

Hi, I would love to get to Easter Island, and hope to go via Papeete rather than via Santiago. Every time I try to to a provisional booking on Qantas using award points, it fails to find any flights at any time of year in any class. This is despite the fact than LAN Chile is a oneworld partner to Qantas, and Easter Island is actually a drop-down destination in their web search engine. Any advice would be welcome. Otherwise I'll ring QF FF and see if they can tell me what's what on the phone. cheers, BG

 

[cove]

Hello Bill,
I dont know the answer but calling Qantas would be a very good start.

By the way our friends went there for the eclipse and did it thru Santiago. They were lucky with the clear skies that night.
They did say there would never be a reason for them ever wanting to go to Easter Island ever again!
This family are seasoned travellers and they had the view of this island as being very unsuitable for a holiday unless you love bleak dots in oceans.

 

[straitman]

Hi, I would love to get to Easter Island, and hope to go via Papeete rather than via Santiago. Every time I try to to a provisional booking on Qantas using award points, it fails to find any flights at any time of year in any class. This is despite the fact than LAN Chile is a oneworld partner to Qantas, and Easter Island is actually a drop-down destination in their web search engine. Any advice would be welcome. Otherwise I'll ring QF FF and see if they can tell me what's what on the phone. cheers, BG

Bill Gillespie,

Welcome to AFF.

I would do as cove says. The FF centre often has availability that is not visible on the web site. If you are lucky you could also talk them out of the assisted booking fee.

 

[Bill Gillespie]

Thanks very much, Cove.
I appreciate the comments about EI being bleak and I know that the weather is very unpredictable and often unaccommodating. I would like to see the statues and local museum and landscape for a few days, nonetheless. I think I know why Qantas
has no FF awards there as they seem to have dropped their own flights to/from
Tahiti and use the Tahitian airline for holiday packages, in which case they probably have no FF seat availability. cheers, Bill

 

[cove]

Hello Bill,
Let us know what you think.
If you do photographs I know that we all love trip reports sprinkled with pictures.
You may have to do Santiago as your hub.

 

[kamchatsky]

Hi, I would love to get to Easter Island, and hope to go via Papeete rather than via Santiago. Every time I try to to a provisional booking on Qantas using award points, it fails to find any flights at any time of year in any class. This is despite the fact than LAN Chile is a oneworld partner to Qantas, and Easter Island is actually a drop-down destination in their web search engine. Any advice would be welcome. Otherwise I'll ring QF FF and see if they can tell me what's what on the phone. cheers, BG

Hi Bill,

Qantas actually does not fly to Papeete, but using code-share with Air Tahiti Nui. I do not believe you can actually redeem this as an QF award. You can buy a ticket though.

Another way to go to Papeete from Australia is to fly Air NZ via Auckland. You can redeem ticket to Papeete using Star Alliance airlines awards. For example, using Singapore Airlines Krisflyer, you can redeem "Aust major capital cities"-Auckland-Papeete on NZ for 25K points in Economy, or 35K points in Business. I have done this myself twice (from Sydney) and they have excellent product range.

You can then redeem QF award on LAN between Papeete and Easter Island.

Of course, if you do go to Papeete, make sure you go to Moorea at least. It is absolutely beautiful and is only 30 minutes ferry away from Papeete.

 

[NYCguy]

This family are seasoned travellers and they had the view of this island as being very unsuitable for a holiday unless you love bleak dots in oceans.

Bleak dots in the middle of the ocean have a particular beauty and the isolation is part of the attraction. I'd rather go back to Easter Island than to some sterile, cookie-cutter resort on Bali, Fiji or Guam. Bland, bland, bland. Easter Island is certainly worth a visit, and yes, you won't need to stay for more than a couple of days, but sitting amongst the Moai, listening to the roar of the Pacific, on one of the most isolated dots of land on the planet, my partner and I found it very grounding.

 

[Stephen65]

I agree with NYCguy. My wife and I stopped off for three days via Papeete about ten years ago. We had a great time. There are plenty of good sights to see in 3 days provided you hire a 4WD to get around the island.

 

[drron]

As hs been said you cant get a QF award via Tahiti as the QF flight to Tahiti is a codeshare on TN.There are reports on FT that LAN awards are hard to come by and especially IPC-Lan is the only operator,popular destination=very few award tickets.
Certainly worth trying an Air NZ award to Papeete and then ring QF re possibility of award on LAN to IPC.
But another who agrees it is a great place to visit-it can be done on a Globalex ticket.