Don’t forget to check out Costco Travel. I just booked Tahiti through Costco for 10th anniversary. I didn’t want to include flights because I had points on United. When I called I said I wanted a package without international flights. I told them how many nights on each island and preferences for the resort and room type. They were great in taking care of it.
Business class seats will be nice especially for overnight flights. But you need to have a lot of points for them.
And I will say Conrad was the nicest place I’ve ever stayed in my life by far. Beautiful overwater bungalows and crazy nice grounds. The only thing for Conrad is it’s on its own little island so to get to the mainland you have to take their shuttle that only goes to and from the mainland 4 times so your kind of trapped.
Hawaian airlines goes to Tahiti from the west coast and is a partner with JetBlue. The fare was pretty reasonable compared to other airlines.
As far as business class flights, Air France flies it from LAX and United flies from SFO. Delta flies from LAX as well but the flight times are terrible and they fly a very old 767-300
For points on flights on biz – you can do Air France or Alaskan has partnership with Air Tahiti Nui. You would connect from east coast to either SFO or LAX.
Base points room is a villa on the lagoon with pool, they seemed nice and private but you can do cash upgrade
In Bora Bora do lagoon tour with shark/rays – Lagoon Services is very good company
I would target business class seats from the west coast LAX or SFO. Preferably Polaris. If I can add on a first or business class to the award booking great, just make sure you leave a ton of time for the transfer. If not I’d book a cash ticket the day before and stay the night in LA or SF.
Then I’d go back to the hotels and book, might need to supplement with a couple cash days. You should have a good sense of what availability will be so you’re not surprised.
And of course all this should be done as soon as the award calendar opens.