Air Tahiti Nui has long been a partner of American Airlines, has recently added Northwest Airlines, and was supposed to add Delta — for redemption only. You can spend lots of points to get to Tahiti but if you’re flying Air Tahiti Nui on a paid ticket you’re not going to earn miles — unless you pay to join Air Tahiti Nui’s own program (doesn’t make sense for most) or book the flights as Qantas codeshares.

That’s now changed.

As of August 1, you now can earn American miles when flying Air Tahiti Nui. These are not “elite qualifying miles” so they won’t help you keep your Gold, Platinum, or Executive Platinum status. But they’re redeemable miles.. the kind that will help you earn towards your next award flight to Tahiti!

Most coach fares (Y, M, K, H, T, L) earn miles — however ‘V’ fares do not. Air Tahiti Nui web specials, for instance, are offered as both T and V — with the real cheapies in V — so just a heads up that sometimes the rock bottom specials won’t earn miles.

Business class earns a 25% bonus and first class earns a 50% bonus on miles flown.

Give your American mileage number to Air Tahiti Nui when booking. If the miles don’t post, or you haven’t given them the mileage number, you can send the boarding passes in for credit…