Hello all,

Recently took a variety of trips on Air Niugini and thought I'd let everyone know some thoughts about them in case you're considering flying them in the future.

1- My first Air Niugini flight was delayed for 2 days out of Pohnpei and into Port Moresby. It was a 3h 5m non-stop flight with an over 48 hour delay. Insanity. Ground crew in Pohnpei are not Air Niugini employees so information was not provided - just "it's cancelled, come back tomorrow and sit around the airport all day waiting for more info". Did that for two days, plane finally left on 3rd day. Not one apology was ever offered. Not by ground crew, stewardesses, pilot or crew in Port Moresby.

They said hotels would be reimbursed but we needed to find them on our own. I certainly wasn't holding my breath assuming reimbursement would be forthcoming. At Port Moresby waited in 45m line to submit hotel receipts for reimbursement. There were 6 Air Niugini personnel in a booth working as slowly as possible to assist. Others were in line waiting for a hotel voucher for the evening (however, due to lack of info at Pohnpei I already booked a non-refundable hotel in POM on my dime). Grrrrrr. On a positive note, I just received word after 7 days of back/forth emails that Air Niugini will reimburse hotels I paid out of pocket. However taxis to/from hotel and food wasn't reimbursed. Fingers crossed hotel monies actually arrive.

2- Within Papua New Guinea, flights were generally on time for me (30m delays max) - although other travelers I met taking intra PNG flights told me of horrific delays (6-7 hrs+ for 1h flights). Employees at hotels and resorts laughed when we discussed Air Niugini and said long delays are the norm and they see many travelers delayed or stranded.

My point in sharing this is... if you are planning to fly Air Niugini you should if at all possible, leave buffer days on either side and/or leave a lot of layover time if catching an International flight after a domestic one. I didn't realize this was necessary pre-trip and ended up with much lost time at resort destination.

3- I had a decent flight out of POM and off to Hong Kong (only 15m late) and generally a good, albeit bumpy, ride. I was offered an online auction to upgrade to business class on the 6h 35m flight (similar to the one Ethopian employs). Minimum to bid was $400 USD but one could bid much more. $400 would've won easily - biz class was 2/3 empty. I had an exit row economy bulkhead so didn't bother bidding. Inflight food was edible and they were able to supply me with a vegetarian meal even though I didn't previously request one (it wasn't an option during ticket purchase or via "manage my account". That was appreciated.

4- In Port Moresby Domestic/Int'l terminals are not connected and if swapping from one to the other, you will be required to collect bags, exit the terminal, walk to the other one and re-check. Walk is only 5 minutes but check in lines are long. However, here is a trick. Check in online or on your mobile. For some reason almost no one does it (surely no locals do) and so while all the check in lines are long, the one queue for "online check in" is empty. One thing to note, every single time I checked in online (4 flights in total), the seating was different from what showed - so the seat I chose was not the same as the one received. So ask at the check in counter for the seat you want (and don't assume the seat you choose from the seat map is correct).

There is a business class lounge at POM but it's ~$50 USD for a day pass. They do not accept Priority Pass. I didn't bother. Terminal is very small and there is only a bar with pizza, a juicery, or a coffee house with a few sandwiches and cakes. Don't expect much here in the way of food so eat prior to coming if you can.

Good luck.