Air Tahiti Nui

My sister booked to fly to New York from Sydney on Air Tahiti months ago. Arriving at the airport on the day of departure she was informed that the flight was cancelled!! 30 hours into her trip and she is still stranded in LAX (having flown via Auckland) trying to get New York. I strongly recommend you avoid this airline, nothing but frustration and indifference. What a way to start a holiday!!

My husband and i recently took Air Tahiti Nui to CDG (Paris) from LAX. Going there was great, but when we were returning on 4/29 our flight was cancelled. But they did put us up at PULLMAN hotel near the CDG airport. AGAIN, the next day me and my husband got to the airport at 6:45 am for a 11:30 am flight. After standing in line for 2 hrs they cancelled the flight again.. At that point, they proceeded to take all the passengers going to Tahiti and 1st class passengers and getting them a place on Air France direct flight to LAX, but for the rest of the LAX passengers with final destination was LAX they offered us connecting flights on American through Dallas. My problem with Air Tahiti Nui was I paidd for a direct flight and therefore wanted a direct flight home after waiting an extra day. For Air Tahiti Nui my time and money was not important as the first class passengers and people travelling to Tahiti. I would not take this airlines ever again because they are not reliable and not fair to their passengers. Better to take Air France! PS. I got angry with the Air Tahiti Nui clerk at the counter and he finally got 4 people going to LAX on Air France, so we did get home on Air France after all but after much problems from Air Tahiti Nui's repres.

Heres the full story.

I had the worse experience of my life with Air Tahiti Nui. I had booked the flight to Paris, France through STA travel. The flight was scheduled to leave at 12:30 pm on August 17, 2007. I checked the flight status online and it was set to arrive as scheduled.

My friend and I, who were traveling together, arrived at the airport at 8:45am. The office did not open until 9:30 am even though they had attendants at the flight counter, we weren't offered assistance until 9:30 am. Once open, they ushered us to the counter only to inform us that the flight had been delayed indefinitely, but that they were trying to get the passengers onto an Air France flight. After about 1-2 hours of waiting, they finally informed us, after much hounding and digging, that we might depart on our original flight at 9:30 pm but that they were not sure.

After getting flights for all the passengers with connecting flights they finally inform the passengers left over that they can either go home or be sent to the Marriot Hotel with meal vouchers where the airline would contact the Hotel with information on the flight. My friend and I decide to stick it out and go to the Hotel for the later flight. By now, several hours have passed and we do not finally check in until about 3:00 pm. While in the hotel, we continually ask the front desk for information. However, they were clueless and knew about as much as we did, which was nothing. Finally, we get our meal vouchers at 5:30 pm. During 3:00pm-5:30pm I continuously called Air Tahiti Nui to find out the status of our flight (most of the time the phone rang indefinitely). Not only that I checked online which stated that the flight was set to arrive on time. It was not until around 5:00pm (8 hours after the flight attendants had informed me of the delay) that the website had updated the flight status to "possible delays." Furthermore, when I did finally reach their automated system, it informed me that the flight was scheduled to leave at midnight. I called 10 minutes later to get a confirmation on the flight time from an actual person. The person told me that that was incorrect, and that instead they expected the flight to leave the next morning, August 18, 2007 at 9:30am, with the plane arrive at 7:10 am. I asked her if anyone would be there to assist me three hours before the flight departure time, since no one had showed up until 9:30 am last time. She said she did not know but assumed there should be.

My friend and I woke up at 5:30 am in order to make it to the airport in time, but by now had become very skeptical about the efficiency of the airline and decided that no one would probably show up until 7:00 am, so did not check out until 6:30 am. Upon checking out we run into another stranded passenger who informs us that she was informed that the plane would leave at 12:30 pm. We arrive at the airport expecting the airline to be open by 8:30am, as their automated system had told us all the previous times I had called. All the other stranded passengers thought the same thing since they were already waiting in line before we had even arrived.

From then, we heard stories about how they came at 11pm only to find no one there and that they too only heard bits and pieces of information from other people, but nothing concrete. Instead of opening at 8:30am as their automated system had informed us, the airline opens at 9:30am and instead of telling us what is going on, they told us that they were in a meeting and that we need to wait off to the side. Upon walking over to the other side I glimpse a sign that they had put out the night before stating that the stranded passengers should return at 8:00am, however they did not even open until 9:30am as I had stated earlier.

After hours of waiting around, the airline finally informs us that they have a flight for ALL the stranded passengers on British Airways, and that we should all give them our passports so they can take down our names and prioritize the list. Little did I know that prioritizing the list meant making sure the people who paid the most got flights while the ones who did not were left stranded. A first list comes out and we are not on the list. People from the flight that had been canceled August 18, 2007 got sent to British Airways before us. Finally the final list comes out, at which point an attendant informs the crowd that she needs a pair of 2 travelers. My friend and I speak up and inform her that we are two passengers. She tells us she has opening seats in the flight that leave in one hour. The man with the list however, tells her to not take us because we are on the list to board British Airways. I follow the woman and then decline the offer when she informs me that we would be split up (as students flying out of the country for the first time and already having a bad experience with this airline we did not want to be split up), since we had been told they had seats for us on British Airways. Only to find out that they do not have seats for us and gave away the seats on their Tahiti flight to two other people. When we asked why they had told us they had seats for us when they did not, they simply stated, "well we offered you other seats." I replied, that "yes they did, but they told us we had seats on British Airways and did not inform us of the split or the fact that we really were not on the list to board British Airways." I asked her if she could fix the situation. She said there was nothing she could do. At which point I had had enough and told her that I had been waiting for over a day and half for no information whatsoever. She informed me that since I had student tickets we were on the bottom of the priority list and we were not their priority and that we could either wait until Tuesday to leave or go find another flight. We finally left and booked a new flight with our travel agent. Never again will I ride on Air Tahiti Nui.

Based on several trips, I would say that this airline sets a standard of courtesy to its passengers that is superior to other airlines flying from Los Angeles to New Zealand and Australia. Optional stopover in Tahiti can be a nice addition to a trip.