pipeliner

My spouse and I just used FJ in January to go to New Zealand. We started looking for seats 330 days out and FJ typically released either one or two business class seats at the 330 day window, which are quickly scooped up.It was hit or miss whether it would be one or two seats. Also, in August of 2023 and 2022, they released a lot of business class seats.

nsx

I just flew FJ from NAN to SFO. At least half the business class seats were empty. FJ is leaving money on the table by not offering these seats for miles. They had a sign at the front counter offering purchased upgrades, but I didn't ask how much that would cost.

United finds ways to get revenue from virtually every business class seat across the Pacific. Why can't FJ?

boxo

FYI, there's one NAN SFO 55k J seat on 11/22.

lovefly88

Was able to book:
AKL-NAN (3 days)-SFO-JFK in J for 55k last night for ticket #1

Ticket #2 was same as above but only to SFO as no availability showed to NYC. This was for end of schedule.

is it very likely that space would open for SFO-JFK and if so, how do I add a flight on, just call AS? Any extra charges most of time or they can tack on for free?

lensovet

You’d call them, extra charges are going to be for airport taxes. You have to call as text support still can’t help with this even when you have a card on file.

Omnivore

Just got two last weekend in J SYD-NAN-SFO-AUS, so they do release two. Was hoping to not be on FJ because I've already flown it but you take what comes up!

fly747first

UA has a huge revenue merchandizing team whilst FJ is a tiny airline and they barely have enough corporate staff. I agree with you that FJ is leaving money on the table but they just don't have the bandwidth and don't think they will want to invest in more staff.

eponymous_coward

FJ would still be leaving money on the table vs. offering the seats at closer to market-clearing prices. What a partner airline sends for miles redemptions is scraping the bottom of the barrel compared to actually selling J. But of course us FTers want FJ to leave money on the table so we can fly for cheap. Proper market clearing prices for premium products gets you to DL and SkyPesos.

fly747first

I think you are missing the entire point. FJ widebody flights often depart with many empty J seats. I have flown FJ at least 12 times in the last two years and every single time, there were at least 8 seats open up front. FJ doesn't seem to be optimizing its inventory since they are essentially only making a couple award J seats available per flight and they never go back and revaluate each flight even if the premium cabin is wide open. If FJ could actually fill these seats with full-fare passengers, then by all means they shouldn't release more award space just so that some people can fly for free, however, they aren't selling the seats. I think FJ is an incredibly adorable little airline and love their J product, yet it is clear that they aren't very analytical in their business approach.

DL has a huge customer base which they have made addicted to cobranded AMEX cards and thus, it is rare for DL's premium cabins to go out empty given how aggressive DL is trying to sell upgrades left and right; entirely different story compared to FJ.

eponymous_coward

Selling upgrades = doing your best to hit a market clearing price. “They should open up award inventory for partners because their cabins are half empty” = “they should continue to do a terrible job at pricing their J product for the market but get some pennies on the dollar from FTers via partner airlines and banks selling miles”.

I would guess they should do what Icelandair does for Europe… except for AU/NZ…

rkelleytwo

Has anyone seen any 2025 availability yet for Fiji Airways (FJ) Awards Using AS miles?

I was able to price out BOS-SFO-NAN-AKL for October, 2024 at 55k - what we actually want is Feb 2025, and haven't seen a single biz availability yet in the year (only Main/Economy).

Wondering if biz seats are released at a different time, or demand is just high and I'm late on them? Thanks!

lovefly88

Was able to snag x2 AKL-NAN-SFO, plus x1 - JFK for Feb 2025 last week. Just have to hope space opens up for one more award for the SFO-JFK or worse comes to worse have to buy a ticket.

nsx

Getting those pennies beats getting nothing for empty seats, and it requires no elaborate new software. I’m sure United spent a lot of money to build their suite of upgrade options with finely tuned pricing.

boxo

Calendar shows 2 x 55k J NAN LAX on Oct 15 and 1 x 55k J on Oct 20.

thomas22

So finally, after months of trying I was able to book one seat to SYD at about 320 days out for 70,000 miles.

I will keep trying for the other seat I need or will have to pay cash if necessary and then book the return when they become available. We were hoping to go in December for the 25th anniversary or our honeymoon there (used UA miles for first at 120,000 each round trip) but could not find any reasonable business miles seats in that time period and I am not paying $11-13k pp roundtrip. Current cash price is about $6.6k roundtrip so say 4.7c /mile ignoring $53.70 in mileage fees)

Can anyone tell me how to choose seats? Can't do anything online with alaska, do I call alaska or fiji?