A big thank you to Fiji Airways for providing us with tickets so we could write this airline review.
I’ve been fortunate to have visited Fiji multiple times but it’s been close to two decades since my last trip. Once you spend some time on the South Pacific nation, comprised of more than 332 islands (110 are inhabited), you will quickly realize that it’s a very special place. Why? At the top of the list are the people who, in my humble opinion, are the friendliest on earth, especially on the outer islands.
Since my last trip, a lot has changed, both in my life and with Fiji tourism. One way Fiji Tourism has changed is that their national airline upgraded their fleet and now flies brand new, state-of-the-art A350 widebody aircrafts (more on them later). And personally, I got married and had two kids, who are now ages five and eight. Ever since they were born, I dreamed of sharing this beautiful place with them and my wife. This year, I realized I could make this trip a reality when I saw that Fiji Airways was having a sale.
Back in May, Fiji Airways was offering a deal to fly from Los Angeles (as well as from other cities) to Fiji for $550 roundtrip per person and it was just $65 more to add Australia (see screenshot above). That’s less than what it costs us to fly from L.A. to Toronto or New York and those flights are a third of the flight time.
Here’s what it was like flying Fiji Airways from L.A. to Nadi in the very back of the plane.
Our flight on Fiji Airways flight FJ811 was scheduled to depart LAX on Wednesday, November 20 at 10:35pm and arrive in Nadi, Fiji (NAN) on Friday, November 22 at 5:45am. Thanks to the International Date Line (IDL), we skipped all of Thursday, which my kids got a real kick out of.
Speaking of the International Date Line, I found a fascinating video (above) on YouTube, which explains all about it and why Google maps is wrong in their mapping.
I did a lot of research for this trip but didn’t assign us seats because we later partnered with Fiji Airways and I had hoped they would put us in Bula Space seats, which comprise the first four rows of economy. These seats have 34 inches of legroom compared to 31-32 inches in coach. 
When I looked at the seat map a week before the trip, I noticed that most of Bula Space was occupied but the rest of the plane was wide open so I started fantasizing about getting empty rows to stretch out in. It turns out that the seat map was wide open because customers didn’t want to pay for seat assignments, which ranged from $70 to $221.
I’m not sure if FJ customers eventually get seats for free but a couple of days before departure, we were assigned row 61 (out of 65) and the seat map was showing sold out. FYI: The last row (65) is blocked off for crew, but I didn’t see any sitting in them and I do know they have a private crew rest in the back of the plane. I saw it when my wife and I toured their brand new A350 aircraft in January 2020, pictured above, just weeks before the start of the pandemic. That’s when the three photos above were taken.
Before this trip, I had never technically flown Fiji Airways, though I’d flown Air Pacific multiple times between 2003 and 2007. A quick history of the airline: Fiji Airways was founded in 1951 but was rebranded as Air Pacific before rebranding back to Fiji Airways in June of 2013. The company today is comprised of Fiji Airways, Fiji’s international airline, and its wholly-owned domestic and regional subsidiary, Fiji Link. They serve 108 destinations in over 15 countries (including code-share). Destinations include Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Japan, China, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and New Caledonia.
In early June 2024, Fiji Airways announced that they would be adopting the American Airlines AAdvantage loyalty program as its own and would receive full membership into the Oneworld Alliance sometime in the next year. I have top tier AAdvantage status (Executive Platinum) but AA elites don’t get any benefits like seat assignments or baggage allowance. However, they do get priority check-in and boarding.
On the night of our departure, I checked out FlyLAXstats on X to see what traffic conditions were like at LAX. Spoiler alert: It was horrendous as usual. Unfortunately, it looks like LAX, like many companies, might be moving away from the social site formerly known as Twitter, as their feed hadn’t been updated in 12 hours instead of their usual, every 20 minutes. I looked the night before and it showed that both the upper and lower levels at LAX were a 10-minute drive, which wasn’t bad at all.
Of course, that wasn’t the case and I didn’t follow my own advice to leave plenty of time. The horseshoe, as Angelenos call it, was a mess as usual. It took over 20 minutes to get to the international terminal (TBIT) where Fiji Airways departs.
Check-in
Fortunately, because we arrived so late, there was no line at check-in. Our agent was very cool but wasn’t a Fiji Airways employee. He was a contractor, which means he works for multiple airlines in TBIT and doesn’t get flight benefits from any of them, which is a bummer.
Baggage allowance
Fiji Airways has strict baggage limits for carry-on as the airline weighs all bags, including carry-on, at check-in. They’re tight on carry-on allowance but generous with checked luggage. Each coach passenger is allowed one checked bag at 30kg (66lbs) and 158cm (62inches) max …
… and one carry-on bag that is 7kg (15lbs) and the total dimensions of the bags must not exceed 118cm (46”) with maximum dimension of 55cm X 40cm X 23cm (including handles and wheels). They do put bag tags on all the carry-on bags showing that they’ve been weighed and if there isn’t one, they’ll weigh the bags again at the gate.
Because I had researched the baggage allowance in advance, I completely emptied out my carry-on bag at home, which turned out to be a good thing since I hadn’t done that in a while. I had a lot of stuff that didn’t need to be in there, including expired medicine and snacks. I also pulled out gadgets I didn’t really need but had kept for those ‘just in case’ moments.
Since my laptop alone weighs four pounds, I wore a Scottevest (a jacket with 20+ pockets that acts as a secret third carry-on) to make sure I didn’t have to check my computer bag.
Security
When we arrived at TSA, I noticed we didn’t have TSA PreCheck printed on our boarding passes. I realized then that I’d forgotten to input our Known ID numbers. The TSA officer said to go back and have the agent input the numbers and reprint the passes to avoid the longer security line. So I did but unfortunately, Natalie’s number didn’t take … so either the agent input the wrong number (I should have asked her to do it again) or it was because Natalie recently changed her name when she became a U.S. citizen. Whatever the reason, it hurt as the regular security line was really long and slow. Our kids didn’t want to ditch their mom so we stood in line with Natalie, which took 20 minutes.
The worst part is that the Clear lane was closed. The agent said they close at 6pm, which is ridiculous since most flights out of TBIT depart at night.
On top of that, I’d put a pair of socks in my Scottevest in case my feet got cold on the plane but foolishly, in our mad dash to get through security, I put the jacket in the first bin along with the tickets. So I had to walk through security with bare feet. But if I had shown my ticket that said TSA Pre, I could have kept my shoes on. Days later, just thinking about walking on that dirty, nasty floor makes the bottoms of my feet itch.
Remote gates
At this point, it was 9:40pm and we were a little worried about missing the flight since boarding commenced at 9:20pm. It didn’t help that Fiji Airways uses TBIT’s remote gates like Hawaiian Airlines, and ours was a good 20-minute walk. We departed out of gate 208, the farthest gate possible.
Of course our kids needed to use the bathroom and while they were in the loo with their mother, I could hear them paging a final call for flight FJ811. A few minutes later, at 9:56pm, they began paging our names. Like a scene from a movie, we ran and I was sweating big time by the time we reached the gate.
The same agent from downstairs said, “Don’t worry! You made the flight!” We were the second to last family to board as I heard a couple from business class was late too. I’m not sure if they made it but after 10 minutes, the flight attendants shut the door.
I haven’t done that walk of shame down the aisle in a while but I’m happy to report that everyone, both crew and passengers were extremely nice as we schlepped all the way to the back of the plane. Natalie apologized for being late to everyone and every last person was kind and polite about it.
As I said earlier, Fiji Airways uses a plush A350 on this route – it’s the Airbus competitor to Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner. The A350 is my favorite aircraft and towards the end of the flight, my eight-year-old son said, “This is the most luxurious aircraft I’ve ever been on!” He’s been on over 100 flights and dozens of aircrafts but this was his first A350 and he was right. Though he hasn’t been on the A380.
FJ’s A350 has a total of 334 seats. There are 33 in business class, which are lie-flat, and 301 in economy (all have a pillow and blanket) and are 18 inches wide and have 31-34 inches of pitch (legroom).
I must admit, I was worried about sitting all the way in the back of the plane since it’s usually bumpier, it’s too close to the bathrooms and you’re last off the plane. But once we took our seats and I saw that we had ample space with state-of-the-art entertainment systems (kids shows, 3D mapping and live camera), I knew that it would be fine. And it was and then some thanks to the friendly flight attendants.
We pushed back from the gate at 10:28pm, taxied for 15 minutes and took off at 10:43pm. Flight time for the 5,519 mile flight was announced at 10 hours and 50 minutes. The cabin lights went on six minutes after takeoff. Shortly after, the flight attendants came around with bottles of Fiji water and cups.
The special meals came out first at 11:24pm. There were a lot of them, including the children’s meals I’d ordered for our kids. It was pasta with breaded chicken strips, served with a cup of apple juice, cheese and crackers, a truffle brownie and a Swiss Miss Pudding. Unfortunately, they couldn’t guarantee there no nuts so we didn’t take a chance with my son’s allergies. Fortunately, like always, my wife had cooked hot food for my son and packed it in a thermos so he had food to eat.
My wife and I split our son’s meal so it didn’t go to waste and passed on the adult meals, which were a choice of chicken thigh teriyaki, a chicken wrap and a veggie option of tofu stir fry with rice.
The food carts come out at 11:47pm and by the time they reached our row, it was 12:22am, just as it started to get bumpy. A drink cart was right behind and they offer free wine but we just drank Fiji water.
There were supposedly snacks in the back galley throughout the flight but I didn’t go back. Instead, I tried to sleep using the Trtl travel pillow. My wife and I were scrambling to find them before we left on our trip and finally found them at the very last minute. We wanted to try them out and they turned out to be a game-changer. My wife fell asleep shortly after dinner and when she woke up, she asked me how much time was left in the flight. When I told her 3.5 hours, she was in complete shock. She thought she’d slept for maybe an hour but she’d slept for five. The Trtl travel pillow has a unique design, completely different from most travel pillows (that I’ve never found to be very effective) and it definitely keeps your head upright so you can nap and not be continually woken when your head falls.
Our kids slept great – especially our little one. The cabin didn’t get too cold until the middle of the flight so I was happy I wore a hoodie sweatshirt and each passenger had a pillow and blanket on their seat, along with headphones for the entertainment systems; my kids watched Moana and Frozen and I watched the map. There was WiFi but I didn’t use it since it was the middle of the night. It cost just $9.95 USD for the whole flight. They supposedly had text for free but it didn’t work the two times I tried.
There were no long lines for the lavatories as there are some in the front and midway of the cabin as well. The bathroom also smelled good, which was a pleasant surprise.
The only thing I didn’t like about the flight was that the A350 has an annoying call button that lights up the cabin with a blue light and a loud ding every time someone presses it.
Surprisingly, four hours prior to landing they turned on the coach cabin lights (5:50am L.A. time and 1:50am Fiji time) to start the breakfast service. Seems way too early. They start by handing out hot fragrant towels. By the time they reached our row, it was 7:35am L.A. time (2 hours and 8 minutes prior to landing). They originally had three options: Pancakes, omelet or a veggie option of roti and rice.
They were out of pancakes but the flight attendant came back a few minutes later and said he’d found an extra pancake meal. My wife was convinced it was the flight attendant’s own meal that he’d sacrificed for her, just to give you an idea how nice the flight attendants are. The pancakes were good.
BTW: I spoke to one flight attendant for a few minutes and he said his favorite destination to go to is L.A. but it’s only for a night. He said that when they fly to Tokyo or Vancouver, they go for six nights since FJ only offers weekly service.
The sky started to get light 1:20 before landing. At 1:12 before landing, they made a prerecorded Duty Free announcement. On descent, we had incredible views of the sunrise on the left side of the plane.
Upon landing, it was a short walk to customs. If you’re staying in Fiji, don’t wait in the long line on the left, just go to the front on the right as the left is for transiting passengers. Interestingly, most passengers (roughly 80%, according to one of the check-in agents) are connecting to either Australia or New Zealand since Fiji Airways is so much cheaper.
The immigration line took 30 minutes because the flight from SFO landed at the same time we did and we were at the very end of the line. But they had live Fijian music in the hall, which made the wait a pleasant experience.
What made our flight a pleasant experience overall is Fiji Airways’ friendly flight attendants and brand new A350 aircrafts; I love how the overhead bins in the middle are up high so it creates more space for the cabin. It also helped that the seats in front of both Natalie and me didn’t have a passenger so they didn’t recline.
I do have a confession to make. In the days leading up to this flight, I started to get some serious anxiety about being in the back of the plane on such a long flight. If you’re a longtime reader, then you might remember that about a decade ago, I coined the term ‘econophobia’ — the fear of flying coach. At one point, I was so spoiled, I would turn down press trips if I had to fly coach. But after my five-year-old daughter was in the hospital a few weeks ago, I kept reminding myself just how fortunate we are to have this experience and our health. When I would remind myself of this, I didn’t care if we had to sit on the toilets. But sitting in the very back of a Fiji Airways A350 wasn’t brutal at all. Shockingly, it was very pleasant. My wife and kids all had a great flight, said they’d do it again in a heartbeat and are looking forward to doing it again on the way home!
For more information, visit FijiAirways.com.
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