Air Pacific is soon to become Fiji Airways, in a (in my opinion) excellent piece of rebranding and core product development, bringing on 3 brand spanking new Airbus A330’s throughout 2013.
They’ve showcased the new Fiji Airways livery and new interior for their A330s which begin to arrive in March 2013. It looks like a great product compared to the existing offering, with modern lie-flat recliners in business class. There’s a great overview of the interior and branding on AusBT.
This is all great news for Qantas Frequent Flyers looking to travel across to Fiji or over to Los Angeles via Nadi, despite the ongoing difficult relationship between it’s majority shareholders – the Fijian government and Qantas (who own 46% of the airline, but seem to have minimal control over it’s direction.
Qantas, unless it manages to exit Fiji Airways ownership, I imagine will continue to partner with the airline for codeshares and and as a frequent flyer partner. Redemptions to Fiji currently come in at 36,000 points one way for business class.
American and Alaska also codeshare and partner with Air Pacific right now, so plenty of options to earn and burn points on modernised travel with Fiji Airways in future.
Air Pacific offer some great business class fares to the US and are a usable option between Sydney and Hong Kong too, if other point redemption options aren’t available.
While it would be great to see their two 747’s dressed up in this way, it probably won’t happen as the A330’s are coming in to replace these ageing beasts.
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