Today I want to talk about Fiji Airways, and about how good they are doing on their flagship routes between Los Angeles and Nadi and between Nadi and Sydney in business class. The flight is mostly served by one of only few A350-900 Fiji Airways has in their fleet. The plane is, as it is with most A350’s, quite new and offers the most up to date standards within the airline industry. So, let’s dive into what my experiences where, flying LAX-NAN-SYD in August 2022.
Firstly, let’s have a look at the check in, the check in opens 3h prior to departure, which is reasonable. Though the queues where insane even though I arrived right when check in opened. Checking in, the staff asked me to present loads of covid certificates that where not necessary anymore for an entry into Australia at that time. This, I have to say was an issue anyways, the crew also seemed not too up to date on the covid regulations. Just prior to landing in Sydney, they asked us all to quarantine after arrival until our arrival test is negative, this is a rule that wasn’t in place at the time travelling.
Well, after this smaller issue, it was lounge time! Fiji Airways is a OneWorld Connect member, I don’t know exactly what this is, but it seems like a “membership light”, this also meant, to my surprise, that there was no OneWorld lounge access provided, instead we got an invitation to the Star Alliance Lounge in LAX. This lounge impresses with an awesome view over the Tom Bradley Terminal from an indoor terrace and offers plenty of food and drink options. I also really did appreciate the option to take a shower. At the time I arrived at the lounge, the lounge was completely overcrowded, which lead to an unpleasant experience at the beginning of my visit. Later, it emptied, and I enjoyed my stay.
At almost 11pm, boarding started and as Fiji flies from the newly built new satellite building, you must take into account a lengthy walk from the lounge to the plane. Arriving there, the boarding was straight forward and soon after, I sat in a wonderful reverse-herringbone arranged seat.
The seat is one of my absolute favorites, I do like the arrangement, that is also a 1-2-1 config, a lot, but the coloring and design of the seat make it to one of the most beautiful out here in the skies. It offers loads of storage in your armrest, but also you get some reasonable placed storage along the windows (Or towards the middle if you’re in a middle seat). The seat is comfortable and of course can be turned into a 180° full flat bed. Waiting at the seat is a pillow in the wonderful looking Fiji Airways design as well as a thin blanket. Also, you find a bottle of, of course, Fiji Water in the armrest storage.
Service wise, when arriving at your seat, you get a hot towel and to choose a welcome drink, the options are standard. Given the time, I opted for orange juice, which turned out to be a big mistake, it tasted terrible.
Learning from my faults, I went for champagne after takeoff, this was accompanied by some salty treats. The champagne was okay but definitely isn’t my favorite. Foodwise, the crew insisted on taking the menu away from me right after I ordered, which I absolutely disliked, since I firstly don’t know what I ate, also they did bring the wrong choice, but I couldn’t correct them since I didn’t remember my exact choice. Anyways, mystery food tasted good, I really loved the presentation.
Right after dinner, it was time for bed, the crew was keen to help setting up the bed which I did appreciate! I think it’s always nice to get your bed set up by the crew instead of doing it yourself. The bed was great, the seat was covered by a mattress pad which was unexpected but extremely generous by the airline, also a thick duvet was provided. I was absolutely blown away by the high quality regarding they are most of the time, the cheapest airline on those transpacific routes.
I woke up right before breakfast service was about to start. The crew brought some hot towels and a cup of coffee to wake us up, then the food followed. Here I was especially surprised, the food was insane and, since I don’t like egg dishes that much I was pleased, that they had other things on offer, such as Crêpes.
Arriving in Nadi, I had to deal with the “covid-police” they didn’t believe me, that I visited 8 countries within the last month, so I had to explain them my whole trip. Eventually, they got it and let me transfer. Arriving in the lounge, I was greeted by one of the most appealing lounge designs I’ve ever seen. The lounge offers a real green-wall which gave it a tropic appearance. There is a bar, a buffet and various seating options, ideal for a short refreshment between two long or medium haul flights.
Afterwards, I decided to go and explore the airport, the airport is extremely small, but offers everything you’d expect from a bigger airport too. One thing I want to notice that you are walking over some kind of balcony before entering the jet bridge to the plane, where you can watch the planes up close and without any windows in between, quite unique in my opinion. Talking of boarding, boarding was supposed to start soon, so I went to the gate and was greeted by chaos, I got pre-checked just to get the info, that the plane isn’t ready at all, so I was sent back to the lounge just to notice 1 second later, that they started boarding. So, nothing with priority boarding today but anyways, it was the exact same plane as I came in on before, so I didn’t miss out on a lot by arriving a little later.
At my seat, there was nothing different to my previous one just, there was no amenity kit. Also, it is notable that there was no bedding provided on this shorter 4h flight. The service was the same as before until the main course. The main course this time was again, breakfast, but luckily another choice. I went for the waffles, hoping they make it up to the level of the Crêpes… they didn’t, they were a little dry, but this did not matter too much, it was okay.
The rest of the flight, nothing happened, so I decided to go on a walk through the cabin and discover the economy class. The seats where comfortable and offered all amenities you get to see on every other economy class seat. There was nothing notable.
Shortly after, it was time to land in Sydney and getting my adventure to an end.
Now, on the long-haul flights with Fiji Airways, you get an Amenity Kit, the one of Fiji looks insane in my opinion, as it features the lovely patterns, that you can find all over the aircraft they have. But I must admit that the quality really doesn’t live up to my expectations. It contains an eye mask of which the color for example is already peeling off. You also get socks, earplugs, a dental kit and some hand disinfectant and body lotion, no other cosmetics. I think it’s okay for the price, but I think it is one of the worst Amenity Kits in terms of content, that I’ve ever seen.
So, ending, I want to talk about the crews I experienced. The first purser was insane, she was hard working and trying everything to ensure a fast and professional service. Her colleague who worked with her in my row wasn’t that enthusiastic, but she did an okay job. On my second flight, the crew was, in contrast to the first one, verry chatty until they found out that I review their flight, then they got extremely reserved and didn’t want to talk to me anymore, I had the feeling, they tried to avoid me even though I didn’t film or took pictures of the cabin for example. Kind of sad, since I think this did gave me a not too good impression of them.
So, I want to conclude my review, saying that Fiji Airways is worth it, but you shouldn’t expect too much. The policy with the menu card isn’t favorable since I really do like to know what I eat and considering drinks, I’d like to see what options are available during the flight. Also, I wasn’t too happy with the fact they messed up my food order, but this can happen to everyone on every airline. A bit sad was, that the crew wasn’t too open in adapting to their customers needs and preferences. But they do a good job and ensured a safe travel, which is the main reason why they’re there, so it was all right. Food was good and the seat just awesome as mentioned before. Concluding, I’d give them a solid 7/10 points, I’d definitely fly them again but I’m also not blown away by their overall performance.
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