BDU: Flying to Los Angeles

BDU: Birthday Down Under - Trip Planning
BDU: Flying to Sydney
BDU: Park Hyatt Sydney
BDU: Sydney Activities
BDU: Sydney Opera House
BDU: Flying to Uluru and Back
BDU: Uluru and Kata Tjuta
BDU: Park Hyatt Melbourne
BDU: Melbourne Activities
BDU: Flying to Fiji
BDU: Hilton Fiji
BDU: Snorkeling Trip
BDU: Flying to Los Angeles
BDU: Hyatt Regency DFW

Our flight was scheduled to leave at 9:40 PM.  The folks from Rosie Holidays picked us up in plenty of time to make our flight.  In fact, there were very few people in line at the counter when we arrived.  Since C and I were flying in business class we were able to walk right up to the counter.  When the agent realized D was with us, she allowed her to use our line as well. Very nice!

The Nadi airport was undergoing a large renovation while we were there so there wasn't much to see once we got through security.  Even now, nearly a year later, the renovation is not complete but it looks much better than it did while we were there.  Ben, of One Mile at a Time, was there just last month and you can check out his post to see more up-to-date photos.

We made our way to the Fiji Air Tabua Lounge.  Our business class tickets afforded entry for C and me and my Priority Pass Select card (a benefit of having the Citibank Prestige card) allowed D to enter.

Fiji Air Tabua Lounge Entrance

The lounge is quite small but then Fiji Air doesn't operate many flights that time of night with business class cabins so it was never totally full.

There was a small selection of food but since we'd had dinner at the hotel I wasn't particularly hungry.  There were meat skewers over rice in the warming tray and some sort of soup, perhaps split-pea?, in a crock pot. Salad, wraps and finger sandwiches were also available.  I don't recall anyone eating but they'd probably recently had dinner as well.

Fiji Air Tabua Lounge Meat Skewers

Fiji Air Tabua Lounge Soup

Fiji Air Tabua Lounge Salad, Wraps and Sandwiches

There were some refrigerators with various kinds of cold drinks, a coffee machine and a small bar.  I assume the bar was a serve-yourself as I never saw anyone tending it.

Fiji Air Tabua Lounge Cold Drinks

Fiji Air Tabua Lounge Coffee Machine

Fiji Air Tabua Lounge Bar

The lounge is not fancy by any means.  But it was air-conditioned better than the main terminal (which is open-air at some points) and it had wi-fi and comfortable seats.  Important things!

Fiji Air Tabua Lounge Seating

We stayed in the lounge for about an hour before we decided to head for the gate.  However the escalator upstairs to the boarding gates was blocked and dozens of passengers were congregated at the bottom.  Once we were allowed upstairs I noticed that several gate areas were undergoing construction/renovation and I am guessing that's why were prevented from coming upstairs earlier.

Then I heard my name on the loudspeaker and realized I'd been selected for secondary screening.  Ugh.  They actually took us over to an unused gate area that had no podium or seats for the screening.  There was a small room - barely larger than a closet - where we went one-by-one to answer a few additional questions.  Not overly painful, just annoying.  And by then boarding was well in progress so I was a bit rushed taking photos of the cabin and I apologize for the picture quality.

I actually like the color scheme of the cabin.  A creamy white for the seats with accents of dark brown.  I will forever associate this scheme with Fiji now.  My biggest gripe about the business class cabin is that when Fiji Air overhauled their fleet in 2013 they installed angle-flat seats.  I can only guess they were much cheaper now that most airlines have lie-flat seats in their business cabin.  While many airlines have all-aisle access in business class with 1-2-1 seating, Fiji Air is using a 2-2-2 configuration.  But if you want to fly non-stop from Fiji to the US, Fiji Air is your only choice so you can choose the convenience of a non-stop flight vs. the comfort of a lie-flat seat and the several extra hours required to fly Air New Zealand to the US via Auckland or Qantas/Virgin Australia via Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane.

Fiji Air Business Class Seat

If you want a better look at the seat, check out these photos from Australian Business Travel.

Directly in front of the seat was a nice large TV screen and two small storage compartments.

Fiji Air Business Class TV and Storage

The entertainment controller was under the center armrest and was intuitive.  The light switch and paging system were included on the handset.

Fiji Air Entertainment Controller

Flip open the armrest and find the controls for the seat itself.  At least the photo acknowledges the bed is angled!

Fiji Air Seat Controls

We pushed back from the gate on time but did not get too far away when we were called back because some of the luggage did not get screened.  So we were delayed probably a half-hour or more while that got done, so it was after 10 PM before we took off.

Dinner service began rather quickly once we reached cruising altitude.  The flight attendants were all Fijian and while they were friendly, the service was not especially polished. But that's the sense of most things in Fiji so I found the service very authentic.  Here is the menu:

Still full from our dinner at the restaurant, I skipped the appetizers and just had the chicken entree and the dessert.

Chicken and Rice

I seem to recall the chicken had a bit more fat than I like but that it was not bad at all.  The rectangle of fried rice was a bit odd-looking, though it tasted fine.

Though I'm not a huge cheesecake fan (why have cheesecake if there's chocolate, duh?) I had the pineapple cheesecake and it was very good.  At least they gave us a couple of bites of chocolate to top it off.

Pineapple cheesecake and chocolate

The amenity kit was also a "very Fiji" kind of thing.  It was cloth with their logo on one side and the back is stamped in the same brown-and-white pattern as our pillows.  It contained the usual items.

Fiji Air Amenity Kit

Before we turned in for the night we filled out cards with our breakfast orders. We could choose from three types of juice and a couple of sparkling drinks. To start there were two choices of yogurt and we could order fresh fruit. Two types of cereal were available along with full, low-fat and soy mile. We also put in an order for how many packets of sugar or sweetener we wanted. From the bakery, croissants were available as was two types of toast. The usual coffee, tea and hot chocolate choices were available along with appropriate condiments. The main course choices consisted of a cheese omelet, braised mushrooms, grilled chicken sausage, sweet potato & hash browns, ratatouille, pork bacon – or the “all of the above” choice.

Not being a meat eater at breakfast, I opted for the cereal and fresh fruit, followed by the omelet. The cereal and fruit were fine – kinda hard to mess those up – but I recall the omelet being a bit greasy. I didn't finish it. But the food served its purpose and kept me from being hungry.

Fruit and cereal

Egg and tea

Despite our late start, we landed on time in Los Angeles. C and I both have Global Entry so we zipped through the kiosks and were at the luggage belt before the luggage arrived. Since we had plenty of time before our connecting flights, we watched for D's suitcase so that she was able to go directly to the exit queue. Because it was quite lengthy we said our goodbyes there (she terminated her travel in LA) and went through the much shorter exit lane for Global Entry. From there we were able to load our bags on the belt for our connecting American Airlines flights. After some time in the AAdmirals Club in Terminal 4, we caught our respective flights: C to Chicago and me to Dallas. Since I’d arrive in Dallas quite late, I would overnight there before catching my final flight back home. Our two-week adventure was almost over!

Our flight paths home