Getting to Tahiti

Getting to Tahiti isn't as easy as you think it is. (Not that everyone thinks about going to Tahiti, but they should, because lying on a beach somewhere in French Polynesia is a damn sight more comforting than watching the news.)

Getting there:

First you fly from Atlanta to Los Angeles.

Then you take your luggage from the Delta terminal and go to the terminal for Air Tahiti Nui. 

Once you get there, you check in, go through all the security and customs stuff, then wait 6 or so hours. Why would you do that? You would do that because there is one flight a day to Papeete, Tahiti, from LAX, and it leaves at midnight. Your Delta flight from Atlanta arrives at 5 PM, PST. Got it?

The flight to Papeete from LAX is 8 hours. Since you are sitting in coach, you will drug yourself and try to sleep, reminding yourself that whatever discomfort there might be is trumped by palm trees, blue water and warm sea breezes.

The return from Tahiti has its own magic. One leaves Papeete at midnight on Air Tahiti Nui. Eight hours later one arrives in Los Angeles. It is morning. You take your bags, ride the shuttle to the Sheraton where a room is waiting and you sleep. Why are you doing this? Because the Delta flight home (when you fly SkyMiles tickets your options can be limited 2 days before Christmas) doesn't leave until 11:30 PM. 

You will check in at Delta, fly the Red Eye, and arrive in Atlanta at 6:30 in the AM. You will be home after a marvelous trip and intimate knowledge of not one, but two, airline schedules.

It's something to think about.