Well look at that! Fiji Airways joins oneworld as a full member

Anyone who reads my posts regularly will know that I’m a total oneworld alliance fanboy. It’s quite difficult to pry me away from those airlines thanks to my frequent flyer card. Therefore it’s always fantastic when a new member arrives, so the news that Fiji Airways joins oneworld is welcome indeed.

Of course, they are not yet a full member – it is happening within the next 12 months. However, that is a very short space of time, mainly because the Nadi based carrier is already a oneworld Connect member. In fact, the only oneworld Connect member, so who knows what will happen there.

Fiji Airways Joins Oneworld

The press release is filled with the usual statements about how happy everyone is about this, so there is no need to repeat it here. Let’s get down to brass tacks – where do they fly? What kind of aircraft do they operate? Are they any good?

First up, their frequent flyer programme is called Tabua Club. Unusually, the airline has their lounge food menu online, which certainly whets the appetite. I see they also offer a Bid to Upgrade function, which I quite like. As to be expected most of the airline’s routes are in the South Pacific where they are based. Codesharing extends the network quite substantially as you can see on the route map on their website here. A modern fleet comprising of four Airbus A350-900s, four Airbus A330s, five Boeing 737 MAX 8 and one Boeing 737-800 serve the airline and business class is offered on all flights. According to their website, the Airbus A350 is primarily deployed on their services to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sydney and Auckland. That makes quite a lot of sense, being their longest routes. It looks like anyone choosing to fly with the airline would have a pretty good time. Fijians are known for loving children, so families would be especially welcome.

Overall Thoughts

The news Fiji Airways joins oneworld is happy news indeed. I’m itching to fly them, maybe something like Sydney – Nadi – San Francisco, or even Sydney – Nadi – Honolulu and then connect onwards from there (on Alaska Airlines, of course!).

It’s also great to see the alliance expanding, with Oman Air set to join during this year, followed by Fiji Airways after that. Irish frequent flyers still wonder if Aer Lingus will return to the fold someday – here’s hoping!

What do you think of the news about Fiji Airways? If you’ve flown them, what are they like? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image by Mitchul Hope on Flickr via Wikimedia Commons.