I'm going to Australia, New Zealand and Tahiti in Oct. I am wondering if it is worth it to upgrade to business class on Air Tahiti Nui? Has anyone done this? What are the seats like? How far do they recline?I know that there are alot of differences on different airlines in their business class.Usually I never spend the money to go on business class-I would rather spend the money when I get to my destination but It is SOOOOO far-----flying from JFK. I have flown many long flights ie to Thailand,Egypt,Russia etc and have done quite well but this to me is the Marathan Flight. My husband said that he would give me the upgrade for my birthday, christmas present for this year. The price is an additional $2600 USD. What are your opinions? Thanks.

Who can advise you? I too would rather spend the money on arrival, and so I always travel in economy class, and that's on the run from Melbourne to Frankfurt via Singapore. I'm now used to it. US$2600 would be a useful addition to your discretionary spending budget!

I used to always fly economy so that I had the exta money to spend - HOWEVER - I'm now a business class convert. We now try and fly to Europe - from Australia (so 24 hours plus in the air) for 2 weeks hols each year and I find that the money spent on business class means that I can both enjoy my holiday from as soon as I arrive (rather than spending the first 3 days recovering from the flight) and, at the other end, return to work feeling reasonable. It really depends on a) how long you're in Australia for, and b) how quickly you recover from long flights.

If you don't mind spending some quality time wading through a series of know-nothing phone reps, and/or if you have a really savvy travel agent, find out about a "Circle Pacific" fare using Star Alliance (United, Air New Zealand, Air Canada etc.) or, try phoning Singapore Airlines and see if an agent can tell you anything about a joint Circle Pacific fare sold by Singapore and Air New Zealand. Last I saw (and not sure if still good) a 22,000-mile Circle Pacific business class fare was going for around $5000 on the SQ/NZ combo - that would allow US- Tahiti-NZ-Oz-Singapore-Hong Kong-US in considerable comfort. Probably more than a straight round trip in business to PPT, but maybe not a lot more, and a lot more bang for the buck if you have the time to use the ticket to its fullest potential.

Otherwise I agree that business class' extra cost can be worth it in quality of time spent on arrival, and in making flying fun instead of torture. As always, your mileage may vary

Thanks for everyones opinion. I'm still not sure what I want to do.Your ideal about the Circle Fare is a good one but I am going on a tour that is all ready set up.We have to fly Air Tahiti Nui.Basically, I would like information from people who have flown on Air Tahiti Nui in business class to get an idea about whether the seats were really nice and whether you got a lot of leg room etc. If you fly business class on some airlines like British Airways,Continental or Singapore Airlines their Business Class is really nice but I don't know if an airline like Air Tahiti Nui would be that nice since it is a much smaller airline.So basically that is what I would like to know fron people who have flown business class on Air Tahiti Nui. Thanks

Here's a thread of relevance from flyertalk.com - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=508628

When we fly there in Feb. we had tried for business class and it was $8800 each......we went coach, but when we got to LA, we asked about upgrades and she said it would be $5500 from that point, for that price, we declined. We flew on Quantas, which as about five/six rows of two seats in the back of the plane, along both sides...they were wonderful, the seats were no bigger, but we did have a little space alongside the wall of the plane...we could stow our stuff, the blanket/pillow etc....We anticipated an absolutely horrid flight, both ways, but were very pleased and had no problem at all.