Several weeks ago, Fiji Airways revealed plans to launch its longest route yet, offering additional capacity to the United States. There’s now an exciting update, as the flight is on sale. Best of all, there’s plenty of award availability, including in business class.
Fiji Airways plans service to new US destination
As of December 10, 2024, Fiji Airways plans to launch a new 3x weekly flight between Nadi (NAN) and Dallas Ft. Worth (DFW). The route will operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, in both directions, with the following schedule:
FJ890 Nadi to Dallas departing 9:15PM arriving 3:20PM
FJ891 Dallas to Nadi departing 9:55PM arriving 5:20AM (+2 days)
The 6,625-mile flight is blocked at 12hr5min eastbound and 13hr25min westbound. This will be Fiji Airways’ longest scheduled route yet.
Fiji Airways will operate Dallas service with an Airbus A350-900. The airline has four of these in its fleet, featuring 334 seats, including 31 business class seats and 301 economy class seats. Fiji Airways offers a lovely business class experience, with comfortable seats, friendly service, and tasty food and drinks.
Fiji Airways’ current destinations in the United States include Honolulu (HNL), Los Angeles (LAX), and San Francisco (SFO).
Business class awards are wide open!
As flagged by View from the Wing, award availability for this flight has now been loaded, and is excellent, including in business class. There are two best ways to book this:
- You can redeem American AAdvantage miles, at the cost of 80,000 miles one-way in business class; this is the cost whether you’re going to Nadi, or are connecting to elsewhere in the South Pacific
- You can redeem Alaska Mileage Plan miles, and those awards start at 75,000 miles one-way in business class (for a distance of up to 7,000 miles — the cost is 85,000 miles for a distance of 7,001+ miles); you can even have a stopover in Nadi enroute to your final destination in the South Pacific
As of now, award availability is there most days, including for multiple people in business class. I imagine this space will disappear quickly, so I’d recommend booking ASAP. Keep in mind that both Alaska Mileage Plan and American AAdvantage don’t have change or cancelation fees on award tickets.
Expanding to American’s hub seems logical enough
Fiji Airways is currently in the process of becoming a full member of the oneworld alliance, and that’s a process that should be finalized at some point in 2025. On top of that, Fiji Airways is actually adopting American AAdvantage as its own frequent flyer program.
In the past, Fiji Airways’ CEO has referenced how the airline hoped to grow to more partner hubs. Dallas was always mentioned as the first planned new destination, but there had also been talk of Fiji Airways expanding to Seattle (SEA).
So I don’t think this expansion comes as much of a surprise:
- Fiji Airways is all about promoting tourism to Fiji, though admittedly current tourist numbers from the US to Fiji aren’t huge; however, this will enable all kinds of new one-stop itineraries between the United States and Fiji
- Fiji Airways is also big about providing connectivity to other South Pacific destinations, including Australia and New Zealand, so the airline will probably have some attractively priced fares to the South Pacific
- Fiji Airways isn’t the first South Pacific airline to fly to Dallas, as Qantas operates flights from both Melbourne (MEL) and Sydney (SYD)
I do have to say, with Fiji Airways adopting American AAdvantage as its frequent flyer program, I can’t help but be a bit puzzled by the dynamics between the carriers. Keep in mind that American and Qantas have a transpacific joint venture, so they coordinate fares and schedules.
Fiji Airways largely undercuts the major global airlines on price for those traveling between the United States and Australia and New Zealand. So is American happy to see an airline using its own frequent flyer program adding flights to Dallas, or is the airline unhappy about more transpacific competition out of Dallas? The relationships in this industry never cease to fascinate me…
Bottom line
As of December 2024, Fiji Airways plans to launch 3x weekly flights between Nadi and Dallas, and flights are now on sale. This comes as Fiji Airways is becoming a full member of the oneworld alliance, and is also adopting American AAdvantage as its own frequent flyer program. It’s cool to see Fiji Airways expanding a bit further east in the United States, which will open up more one-stop routings.
What do you make of Fiji Airways launching Dallas flights?
 and Dallas (DFW) using Airbus A350-900s.){kind=link}