Fiji Airways Will Adopt American AAdvantage Miles As Its Currency
Fiji Airways, which has been an American Airlines partner for years, joined oneworld as a partial (‘connect’) member at the end of 2018. It was complicated, with unclear benefits for customers that varied by oneworld partner. Now they’re working towards joining the alliance as a full member.
And in somewhat surprising news, they’re adopting AAdvantage as their frequent flyer program at some point next year.
Expanding programs to cover only partially-related airlines is something we’ve seen before. For instance:
- British Avios and other IAG airlines like Iberia and Aer Lingus use Avios as their currency. That’s been expanded to Qatar and Finnair, and they’re working to expand this even further.
- We’ve seen airlines come and go from use of Flying Blue point as well.
- And we’ve even seen work on American Airlines expanding AAdvantage, for instance South American low cost carrier Jetsmart has been working on this for three years and it’s expected to come to fruition later this year.
Fiji Airways doesn’t have a points program. They’re the primary carrier at their destination, and haven’t seen the need to invest for locals. For foreigners, if you’re going to Fiji it’s probably only once and you’re not going to stay loyal to the airline. There are passengers who connect over Fiji, of course, and where points could sway their choice of destination and therefore carrier. But they haven’t previously invested.
It’s unclear what the details of this will look like – whether earning rates on Fiji Airways will change – but it will help with oneworld integration, allow easier earn and burn, and will mean clearer standards for elite recognition. Perhaps at some point upgrades using AAdvantage miles or systemwide upgrades could even be possible?
However they’re a surprisingly useful partner, flying from Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Honolulu and via Fiji to places like Auckland, Christchurch, and Wellington in New Zealand as well as Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Adelaide in Australia – plus Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore. I’ve had good luck, for instance, organizing business class awards from Australia to Japan.
