Booking for Fiji – one seat from one bucket, and one seat from another

• Booking for Fiji – one seat from one bucket, and one seat from another
• Qantas Business Class Lounge – Fiji Airways
• Review: Sydney to Suva QF343 / FJ940
• HOTEL REVIEW: Grand Pacific Hotel, Suva, Fiji
• Suva – not a tourist mecca – but tropical
• Suva to Labasa on Vanua Levu, Fiji on an ATR

Resistance is futile

Who can resist a trip to a tropical island at the end of winter?

Certainly not me. I’m off to Fiji this weekend for 10 days, staying in Suva, and then a four-night flop-and-drop on Savasi Island.

I’ve only been to the Pacific once before, for Christmas in Vanuatu. It’s not that I don’t like the Pacific, it’s just that in terms of service value-for-money, Asia has nearly always won out.

You can get immaculate service in Asia – but my experience in Vanuatu taught me that there is a certain warmness and joy in service you receive in the Pacific, which is not always present in the service you get in Asia. We shall see if that remains true.

Booking the trip

We purchased our Business Class airfares back in March of this year, initially so we could take advantage of a double status credit offer by Qantas. However, our trusty travel agent at Out and About Travel pointed out that the Qantas status points offer only applied to flights on Qantas metal, and not codeshares. But since we would be away partially in school holidays, it was still a good idea to book early.

We ended up getting Business fares out of two different fare buckets for the Sydney – Suva, and Nadi – Sydney legs. One for AU$1,529 and one for AU$1979. The cheaper bucket only had one seat left. Added to this, we needed economy flights from Suva to Labasa, and from Savusavu to Nadi. All up, the two fares came to AU$1,988 and AU$2,437 excluding merchant fees.

We’ll be travelling on QF343, operated on a Fiji Airways 737-400 with a scheduled flight time of 4 hr 10 min for the Sydney – Suva leg.

Expect reviews of Fiji Airways and Fiji Link flights, and the Grand Pacific Hotel in Suva, plus plenty more.

Bula! until later then.