Following on from a similar deal two years ago, Alaska Mileage Plan has announced a unique promotion designed to encourage its members to travel with Fiji Airways, whether it’s on points or cash.
Members can choose to either book award tickets for up to 50% off the usual price, or be rewarded with double miles when they book paid tickets on Fiji Airways and credit them to Alaska.
The award sale is likely to be the more interesting angle here, especially since it creates some spectacular opportunities to travel down under to a recently-reopened Australia, with a stopover in recently-reopened Fiji along the way.
Up to 50% Off Fiji Airways Awards
Through March 31, 2022, when you redeem Alaska miles for travel on Fiji Airways up until November 30, 2022, you’ll pay up to 50% fewer miles than the standard rate.
The 50% savings are unlocked when redeeming economy class awards from North America to Oceania; meanwhile, business class awards will incur savings of around 27% off.
Here’s the side-by-side comparison of the standard and discounted award rates, in full:
As you can see, an economy class one-way journey between North America and Oceania, with a stopover in Fiji, only costs 20,000 Alaska miles under this promotion, and that’s a spectacular deal given the long distances you’re travelling.
If you’re comfortable with a long journey in economy class and are simply pursuing the best deal, then it doesn’t get much better than this!
Putting it into perspective, a single signup bonus on the MBNA Alaska Airlines MasterCard (regardless of whether you get the World Elite or Platinum Plus version) will get you a one-way flight down to Australia or New Zealand, and it’s not often we can say that about a credit card that’ll cost you only $75–99 in annual fees.
What Trips Can You Book?
To search for flights, you’ll want to click on “All search options” on the search engine that you see on the Alaska homepage. That’ll bring you to the more advanced search engine, where you can use the multi-city option to plan your trip involving a stopover in Fiji.
For Canadians, this promotion will be most ideally suited to those living in Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, or Kelowna.
That’s because you can catch an Alaska Airlines-operated flight from these cities to Seattle, and then connect to either Los Angeles or San Francisco for your onward flight to the South Pacific.
Alaska doesn’t let you combine two partners on the same ticket, but you can add as many Alaska-operated flights to a single partner airline (in this case Fiji Airways) as you wish.
(If you live elsewhere in Canada, you’d need to book a separate positioning flight to take advantage of this promotion, either to one of the aforementioned cities or to a gateway airport like Los Angeles or San Francisco to begin your Fiji Airways itinerary directly.)
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, you can redeem Alaska miles for Fiji Airways awards to anywhere they fly in Oceania.
So you could plan a trip, for example, from Edmonton to Sydney via Nadi…
…or from Calgary to Brisbane…
…or even from Victoria to Auckland, taking a chance on New Zealand reopening to tourism by late 2022.
There are quite a few very satisfying possibilities, and I’d say this represents one of the best mileage deals for getting to Australia if one is willing to travel in economy class.
If you’re feeling lucky, you could even take a chance on New Zealand or the other South Pacific island reopening by later this year and lock in some discounted flights now.
What About Business Class Awards?
We’ve been speaking in terms of economy class so far. The regular cost for a one-way business class award from North America to Oceania on Fiji Airways is 55,000 Alaska miles, which is discounted to 40,000 Alaska miles under this promotion.
The problem, however, is that Fiji Airways business class availability is rather hard to come by on the flights from Los Angeles or San Francisco down to Fiji. And if you can’t get business class on the nine-hour flight down, it’s not really worth paying an extra 20,000 miles just to fly business on the three- or four-hour flights from Fiji to Australia.
If you do happen to stumble upon available seats in business class, then of course 40,000 Alaska miles for the one-way journey is an excellent deal as well.
The A350 product out of Los Angeles has newer and nicer lie-flat seats compared to the A330 out of San Francisco, but given the general dearth of business class awards, you’d do well to take the San Francisco flight if you can find it.
Earn Double Miles on Fiji Airways Flights
The second component to this Alaska–Fiji promotion is less interesting, but still worth highlighting: if you were planning to travel with Fiji Airways sometime before November 30 of this year, and were thinking of buying a ticket outright, then you can also earn double Alaska miles when you credit those Fiji Airways flights to your Alaska account.
Simply click here to register for this promotion, book by March 31, and you’ll receive your double miles within 4–6 weeks of taking the flight.
What Is Fiji Airways Like?
Back in late 2019, I flew with Fiji Airways from Honolulu to Auckland, with a brief layover in Christmas Island, Kiribati, followed by a long layover in Nadi, Fiji. Overall, I’d describe the experience as a surprisingly pleasant one.
I was seated in economy class during the eight-hour jaunt from Honolulu to Nadi via Christmas Island, and I had no complaints about the flight at all. The economy class seat pitch is about on par with what you’d find on North American airlines – a little on the tight side, but nowhere near the tightness of a low-cost carrier.
The fact that it was a daytime flight, with captivating views of the Pacific islands, probably helped as well, since I don’t think I’d be nearly as comfortable on the red-eyes from the West Coast.
While I was seated in economy, Jessy flew in business class on the same flight, and she too came away with very positive impressions, noting the friendliness of the flight attendants in particular.
We then both flew business class on the way to Auckland, and I can definitely attest to the crew’s warmth and attentive service as well.
Another highlight is the flagship Fiji Airways Premier Lounge at Nadi Airport, which is an outstanding airport lounge featuring delicious food, a traditional Fijian snack cart, barista-made espresso drinks, an open bar, computer workstations with large iMacs, shower rooms, and even a spa.
And the best part? It’s a member of the Priority Pass network, so even if you were to book Fiji Airways economy class under this deal, you’d still be able to access the lounge when departing Nadi with a Priority Pass membership.
As for Fiji itself, the brief 24-hour period I spent there definitely gave me enough to make me want to return. I spent most of the day at the Marriott Resort Fiji Momi Bay, which is among the Marriott hotels you should consider booking before dynamic pricing kicks in.
Conclusion
If you’ve been considering a trip to newly-reopened Australia sometime in 2022, and wouldn’t mind doing it in economy class, then you won’t find much better of a deal than 20,000 Alaska miles one-way or 40,000 Alaska miles round-trip, with a Fiji stopover in one or both directions.
If you’re interested in this promotion, I’d recommend booking sooner rather than later if possible. While the award space is quite plentiful at the moment, it could well get snapped up rather quickly, and who knows if Fiji Airways would decide to release more prior to the end of the promotion on March 31.
This also represents a very unique promotion on Alaska’s part, and I’d be curious to see if there are any similar promotions in the future offering discounted redemption rates on any of their other partner airlines.
