Fiji airways has recently started to expand significantly across the pacific with a new fleet, excellent reviews and an increasing reach into Australia. Importantly they are also part of Oneworld Connect meaning you can redeem and earn Qantas Frequent Flyer points from travelling with them. They are now commencing flights into Canberra as its first international destination from July 2023!
What does this mean for reward flights?
While this is great news for people into Canberra, offering a connection on to the US and Canada, it also means increased reward seat availability for everyone. If you have Qantas frequent flyer points ready to redeem then it’s time to get them ready as Fiji airways is a partner airline of Qantas.
As I’ve mentioned before, reward seats out of Australia are especially hard to get as the planes tend to be booked out and using you Qantas frequent flyer points can be difficult for international redemptions. One potential avenue to booking flights out of Australia is to look at cities outside of Sydney as origin points as domestic flights to these other cities are relatively easy to acquire. These can be from cities like Melbourne, Brisbane or Adelaide and now you can look at flights from Canberra airport as well.
Fiji airways offers US connections to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Vancouver and the flight timings appear relatively good with 2 hour connections. As another bonus the additional taxes on top of the fares appear lower than equivalent Qantas and American Airlines flight if you’re willing to accept the one-stop flight over a non-stop flight.
Here’s an example of one flight I’ve found. It does seem like business class seats are harder to come by but if you’re looking for a cheap flight using your points I think this is a very valid option to consider when looking for reward seats. Note that the initial schedule is only twice a week and increasing to three times a week so there may not be much flexibility in the schedule if you need to get somewhere by a certain date.
I like to keep an eye out for new route announcements like this from time to time as it does mean there’s a small window where lots of new reward seats come on to the market. Please note there is sometimes a risk with booking new flight routes as sometimes regulatory or market hurdles may delay the commencement of flights. I have learnt this the hard way personally when Qatar Airways had previously announced Canberra to Doha flights that have now been delayed indefinitely. So while I think it is worth noting these seats, please also be aware of the small risk of last minute cancellations or delays.