Air Tahiti Nui

AKL-PPT-LAX. Horrible flight horrible service. Very slow check in and cramped seats. Service and food on flight fine. However arrived in LAX and they had lost my luggage. Waited 3 hours at the baggage carousel because attendents were disorganized kept walking away and not returning and they had no counter (or system it seems) to handle lost baggage. I was told unclaimed bags were just thrown on the carousel for the next flight coming in and that I should wait around to see if my bags arrived on another flight. Took 5 days to receive my bags. Air Tahiti Nui baggage line never answered my calls went to an answering machine and I left several messages. I only received a call 3 days later saying they had found my bags and they would arrive at my door the next day - which they did not. Wasted 2 days waiting at home for bags that didn't arrive. Finally received my luggage and called to claim my $65 compensation. I couldn't get this either and was told conflicting advice about having to fax someone or having to wait until I got back to Auckland. I was also told that my 2 hour layover was not enough time for the airport in Tahiti to transfer bags to a new plane. Since I had the same layover on the way back I called reservations to see what could be done so I didn't have the same problem on the way back to Auckland - flight change pay for an upgrade mark my bags as priority (I would have been happy with any advice they could give). During this conversation I was talked at instead of listened to treated rudely and the end result was that I was told there was nothing they could do and I shouldn't be so negative. I was told I shouldn't call them anymore. Apparently one phone call is considered harassment. All in all very bad flight and awful service. Even if this flight is a bit cheaper I will gladly pay more and fly Qantas or Air NZ in future. Would not recommend this airline at all.

PPT-AKL. Attentive flight attendants courteous with genuine care. Hot brunch was not the best I've had on Air Tahiti Nui with meal overcooked/overheated. IFE equipment could be updated and it is now redundant compared to other airlines but choice offered makes up for it. The three languages (French/English/Tahitian) used for inflight communication are well enunciated but could be restricted to French and English only as too many announcements are quite distracting.

AKL-PPT. A very enjoyable flight - check in quick and pleasant crew friendly and professional. Food good and nice wine choices. Old style seats really let them down but otherwise nothing to fault

I have flown Air Tahiti Nui several times. I always fly First Class. The level of service on the 2 flights I took on this trip has diminished. The amenity kits are not the same. On the flight LAX to PPT I was given an appetizer that was a joke. A small piece of shrimp with some sauce and 2 pieces of cheese. This is not First Class Service I was used to with Air Tahiti Nui previously. The boarding process is nerve racking. I resent having to go boxed in the buses that transport you to the aircraft. They box you in like sardines. I pay nearly $5000.00 for a one way flight to PPT and get the same boarding treatment was a coach paying passenger.

AKL-PPT-AKL. Did MEL-AKL earlier in the day with Emirates on a seperate booking. Bags checked in through to PPT at MEL did make it with us so no complaints there. Looking at the plane's fuselage the cabin decor and the Tahitian music playing made you feel you are going on a vacation. Inflight crew attentive and friendly especially on the way back. Meals were good. Only sore point was the IFE. It was not AVOD and very limited choices. Had the IFE been better would have scored this flight at 9 or 10.

The overnight flight Papeete to LA was cancelled without notice. We were booked on the flight 12 hours later which meant we could not make any connecting flights that day to JFK as we arrived too late. We were given an hotel room for the night before the flight but had to fend for ourselves in LA for the enforced overnight stop. The reason for the cancellation was not made clear but I would suspect it was none other than not enough passengers as cancellations seems to happen frequently. The same flight the previous evening had also been cancelled. At no time did anyone offer an apology. I would not recommend this airline as they are unreliable.

LAX-PPT-AKL-LAX Economy return. The flight from LAX to PPT was cancelled. I was notified about two weeks before the flight was supposed to leave. I was a bit peeved as the flight from LAX was a connecting flight and the cancellation meant that I had to overnight in LA and take the next flight the following morning. I explained my situation to Air Tahiti Nui and they put me up in a hotel (Four Points by Sheraton)and gave me dinner and breakfast vouchers! The flights were all on time plane modern plenty of room for economy. I'm 5'11 and was comfortable for the entire trip. The inflight entertainment is not as modern as it could be its not on demand but the movie selection is good and there is a nice selection of recent releases. One note of caution try to avoid any stopovers in Tahiti that will be longer than two hours - the airport is old and boring and there is nothing to do while you wait not even a TV to watch. The food was superb for economy and inflight service by the attendants was friendly polite and professional. Topping all of this off is the fact they were $700-$1000USD cheaper than ANZ Qantas or United.

AKL-LAX-AKL (via PPT) First Class. The service onboard is outstanding and pretty difficult to fault. The crew could not have been more professional or pleasant. Food AKL-PPT and PPT-LAX would have been at home in 5 star restaurant (less good on the return but still acceptable). Seats although first generation lie flat were comfortable and all features worked. There is no screen between passengers but I did not feel an invasion of personal space. Boarding on all legs was efficient and every leg left early . The negatives? Ground crew at all three airports. At the initial check in Auckland I did not get the aisle seat I had requested and had been confirmed with the airline 7 months earlier - and had to kick up quite a fuss - miraculously one opened up. The same thing happened PPT-LAX. On arrival at LAX no bags. They were off-loaded at PPT and could not be traced. They did turn up on the next flight: that isn't good enough on economy but it is completely unacceptable in First. The response of the LAX agents could not havee dismissive. Arriving back in Auckland bags (which had first and priority labels) were the last to appear (perhaps I should be grateful that they appeared at all!). So inflight this is a rival to any airline and competitively priced on the Transpacific route; it certainly would have been a "10". If only they could get their act together with ground crew.

The flight attendants told passengers those in-transit to Auckland need not complete the Tahitian immigration forms and we should proceed to the transit lounge. This is what we had expected and made sense. Once off the aircraft though those of us who entered the lane marked transit lounge and walked the short distance to the transit lounge found it locked. No one could tell us why it was locked how to enter the lounge or what to do. We asked the cabin crew as they came off the aircraft and they shrugged their shoulders and walked on. Eventually we realized the only option was to complete Tahitian immigration forms and go into the baggage claim area as it appeared we might be able to enter the transit lounge from there. This however proved not to be true. Again no one seemed to know what we should do even though we kept asking how to enter the transit lounge. I speak passable French so this was not a language problem. Eventually we picked up our luggage and cleared Customs. When we entered the airport terminal I found an Air Tahiti Nui staff and she told us that the transit lounge was not open and we would have to go to a hotel for the night. She seemed unconcerned and disinterested. I then found the security office but they couldn't tell me anything. I returned to the Air Tahiti Nui staff who told me that everyone knows that Tahiti won't let passengers use the transit lounge and we should have known it. We weren't about to spend over $100 to stay in a hotel room for a few hours so along with two dozen other passengers we spent the time in the hot dirty smoky airport terminal. The ATN check-in desks finally opened at about 4-30 a.m. and we were able to get our boarding passes but as Security didn't open for another hour or so we were still forced to wait in the terminal. Once allowed into the departure lounge we found that it was shabby dirty and unpleasant. A small coffee bar sold food but didn't accept credit cards and we weren't about to go back out through Security to find an ATM to get cash in a currency we didn?t need just to buy a cup of coffee. You may wonder why we didn't just go directly to the departure lounge and wait there. Well the ATN staff in LAX refused to give us the boarding passes from Papeete to Auckland. They said that they issue boarding passes no more than three hours in advance. When we arrived in Papeete the check-in counters were closed. Thus we couldn't get boarding passes and couldn't get into the departure area. Three weeks later when departing Auckland I asked an ATN supervisor why they don't let transit passengers use the transit lounge. She said that in their view a layover of that length does not constitute in-transit and that they are unwilling to allow people to use the transit lounge. As ridiculous as this is the worst part is that they don't bother to warn you about it before you travel so you can take this into account when making your travel plans. Upon arrival back in Papeete with only an hour layover we again found the transit lounge locked even though flight attendants assured us we would be allowed to wait in the transit lounge. Instead they simply diverted transit passengers directly into the departure lounge even though most hadn't been issued a boarding pass in Auckland (we had one but only because I went back to the check-in counter and insisted upon it). Obviously they could have done exactly the same thing on the Papeete- Auckland overnight layover had they wanted to do so. I suspect the whole thing is a means of trying to force passengers to spend some money in Tahiti. Whatever the reason it is a shabby way to treat passengers.