FJ / Fiji Airways (ex-Air Pacific) and AA, miles, awards, etc. (consolidated)
 

Fiji Airways is the rebranded Air Pacific...

Air Pacific Tabua Class via AA Miles? [award]
 

Hi, I was wondering if anybody ever had any success in booking Business (aka Tabua) Class on Air Pacific using AA Miles? I was able to book an Economy Award from NAN to LAX and was told that I should just keep on calling American Airlines Reservation to see if a Business Class Award seat opened up (as the miles requirement is no different) because Air Pacific awards are not available online. Before I put myself through the pain of calling AA Rez every couple of days to check, wanted to see if it was even worth the effort. Would appreciate your thoughts! Thanks!

You can check FJ availability online at QFF, which is free to join. I think that an AA economy award (37500 miles) will not get you into Tabua (J) which is 62500 miles.

It is possible FJ will open a Tabua Class seat at some point - or not; there is no way to predict it. You may also be able to purchase a counter upgrade (read on for most current pricing).

You might also consider NAN-HNL on FJ and HNL-LAX on AA. This is also searchable online at QFF.

I have had luck booking LAX - NAN - AKL (two seats in Tabua) and LAX - NAN not once, but twice. Call me lucky. Enjoyed Tabua class, the food, a chance to hang out in the NAN airport on the way to New Zealand (nice little club in the LL of the airport). Good luck!

I've also booked AKL-NAN and NAN-LAX for two on both legs in Tabua. So it is possible. But we did book well in advance 300+ days.

Thank You!!
 

Thanks everybody so much for all your help! I'm so happy I can check via Qantas as calling everyday did not sound appealing to me at all. I'll keep my fingers crossed that something opens up on my travel date. Sadly I'm traveling on 12/31 so will have to be very lucky.

I'd assume J award availability on FJ is decent given how commonly they offer counter upgrades. I did NAN-LAX return recently (paid cash for it) in J and the cabin was always full, but I did wonder how many paid full fare.

Am also wondering if it will get more scarce/expensive when they replace the 744s with A333s later this year.

My GF and I were successful in booking LAX-NAN-AKL and the return this October in award J. For LAX-NAN, she's in J and I'm in Y and I've been checking daily for award J to open so we can sit together. I figure 3 out of 4 ain't bad.

Also, we were on the 747 on LAX-NAN when we booked but it looks like they've already moved that flight to the A330. There are actually LESS seats in J on the Airbus so hopefully my chances are still good.

I say keep checking and good luck to you.

US$900 when I asked last time I flew FJ.

Then again, they maybe just didn't want to bother doing it so they picked a number from thin air and hope I wouldn't bother them further. They picked right that day. :)

I kinda liked how dingy FJ was. Really looking forward to the new aircraft & have just booked a ticket for later in the year when they should be flying.


ETA: Just had a look at the FJ website and a paid counter upgrade is US$1300.

Ah, yes, last time it was $900; and now $1,300, wow!

I remember when it used to be $750 US LAX-NAN and $750 Fiji Dollars NAN-LAX.

The old Singapore-leased in 747-400s were definitely showing their age. The A330s will be welcome, albeit they will indeed offer less selection for awards (and apparently significantly more expensive counter upgrades).

Ni sa moce, Air Pacific; Ni sa bula, Fiji Airways.

ThanxsisC, you did not have to call QF - you could have done the search online via their website.

Interestingly, booking a $1700 Y fare and adding the $1300 upgrade to J each way at the counter is still cheaper than buying J outright at $5500. (prices LAX-CHC at new year)

Looks like they do a "J seat but Y service" dep counter upgrade for $450. I think I might try that this year, assuming there are any seats available in J at that point.

AA - Fiji Airways - Air Pacific
 

Looking for a flight to Fiji on AA's WEB site and Air Pacific comes up as the carrier that actually takes you there. Doing an Orbitz search and it shows AA but Fiji Air as the actual carrier. I don't suppose either one of those carriers can be used to redeem awards on.

Looked around the AA WEB site and neither was a Oneworld or affiliated airline.

The Redeem Miles page on aa.com has a useful hyperlink.

http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/ea...lines/main.jsp

You suppose wrong :)

https://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/e...lines/main.jsp

These aren't two separate carriers. Although there may be some archaic references on aa.com and elsewhere, Fiji's flag carrier changed its name from Air Pacific to Fiji Airways on June 27. It was and is an earn-and-burn partner, though not a member of oneworld.

For years, flying Air Pacific would earn (redeemable only) ) miles (unless flying as an AA codeshare - but not the QF codeshare), and one could use AA miles for awards. That continues, though Air Pacific, FJ, is now Fiji Airways, FJ. See here on the AA website.

AA has several airline partners that are not oneworld partners, and some of them one can even earn EQ Miles on - such as Alaska.

Thakns everyone!
Very helpful.

A second question: When I look for an award going from LAX - NAN (Fiji) AA gives me the message:

"There are currently no awards available on AA.com for your requested Origin and Destination. Please modify your request or contact AAdvantage Reservations for award opportunities on all AAdvantage participating airlines"

Is this something I need to call AA about or are there truly no awards available? It doesn't even give me the option to look at a full month calendar.
Thanks again.

As an aside.. when looking for revenue flights, AA's WEB site still calls them Air Pacific, not Fiji Airways.

Yep. The name change just occurred recently, and AA's web people are known to be less than lightning-speed fast at updating the ancient site with things like this. And that is also most likely why a number of airlines offering award seats with AAdvantage miles do not show up on aa.com; one must call AA for awards on those airlines, including FJ.

I called AA and they do have coach seats available. Anyone know if J/F are ever opened up?

Or suggestions on monitoring to see if any J/F have become availalbe? (aside from calling them everyday)

Thanks!

See:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...les-award.html

Very nice!
Thanks!!

Pardon me for asking but why does LAX - NAN - AKL seem to give a better upgrade opportunity than just LAX - NAN?
Thanks

Oh and the F/J seats.. Recliners or full flat on the new 330?

Lie-flat.
Pics/info: http://www.fijiairways.com/about-fij...ays/our-fleet/

Lie flat at 8 degrees from horizontal. See above.

Thanks everyone for the replies, tips and links.

Going to the Qantas WEB site allowed me to see when J/F seats are avaialble for AA awards.

Well it makes perfect sense since the J capacity has been reduced to 24 on the new A330-200s and the seats are at least flat at an angle now.

Side note, I booked an award J seat NAN - SYD using my AAdvantage 3 months before departure without any problems and the flight is scheduled to operate on an A330-200.

Sorry to revive this, I'm trying to read through this, but I purchase a flight directly from fijiairways.com, it does say points earned on AA. Does this include EQM? I thought I read somewhere else that the flight had to be booked as an AA Codeshare to get EQM, but now I can't find anything on that. Regrettably, aa.com and fijiairways.com prices for the same flights are significantly different.

Bula! You can not earn EQ miles or points on FJ unless you purchase it as an AA codeshare. USA AMEX Platinum Members Lose Access to Admirals Club/US Airways Lounges 22 Mar 2014"]Link [/URL][/B]to aa.com page on Fiji Airways. (Nor can you if you fly it as a QF codeshare, as FJ is not a oneworld carrier, nor is there an exception.)

You are likely seeing the lowest available fare buckets on FJ sold by FJ, and AA is not selling those.

I was under the impression that QF codeshares (as a result of the Emirates tie-up) now had universal exceptions. That is, if it is QF flight number, it will credit to AA. Note that most of the QF discount Y fare classes don't credit very much...:rolleyes:

Happy wandering

Fred

Thanks! I knew that was true for EK, but I think one should check the QF Forum for QF rules regarding miles earning for QF; that would be a bonus if it di,d , though as you say, not always. Whether it will credit to AA, that's not a question I can answer - my previous experiences on FJ did not credit to AA when flown as QF in Tabua (Business) class.

Anyone see award space between SYD - NAN? Any method of booking this?

I just recently flew LAX-NAN-SYD. Had to call AA to book. I had no problem getting 2 seats in J and changing the dates a couple of times.

If you join QFF (free membership for US residents) then you can see Fiji Airways availability online. You may be able to fly to SYD via AKL if there are no direct flights from NAN. Use the multi-city facility.

Mileage posting time to AA from Fiji Airways / FJ
 

Does anyone have experience around the posting time of FJ flights to partner programs? I flew over 2 weeks ago and still haven't had anything appear in my AA account. I wasn't able to find an answer here through searching, so I thought it would be a nice topic to have started up.

In the AA magazine earlier this month EQM was not checked on the partner comparison in regards to Fiji Airways. I had expected to see a check with an asterisk which states EQM only on AA codeshare/AA flight number.

I've got an excuse to go to Fiji and getting EQM may be the deciding factor on whether I go.

Well, you always, always earn EQMs if you have an AA flight number.

Hi,
is there any other way to get Air Fiji award other than with AA and AS miles ?
Thanks