Fiji Airways A350 bookings: equipment swap risk?

[twiningb]

I managed to get some J seats on FJ for a speculative trip March next year. The routing is SYD-xNAN-LAX, with the 359 for both sectors.

Looking at FlightAware for the last couple of weeks, NAN-LAX has been almost always the 359 but there are a couple of 333 cycles in there. And SYD-NAN has been mostly the 359 but with a few 333 rotations and even a 332.

Would these have been scheduled like that, or are they saying A350 at booking time then doing an equipment swap to an A330? I would tolerate an angle-flat six-across A330 for the daytime SYD-NAN sector (although I avoided the more convenient MEL departure so as to get the A350) but the ten-hour NAN-LAX sector would be miserable with the A330 config.

 

[Mattg]

The A330 flights were most likely scheduled as such.

There's always a risk that there could be an equipment swap, especially as FJ has a small widebody fleet. That said, NAN-LAX normally gets the A350s as a priority and the A330s normally go to SFO (and soon to be added, YVR).

 

[jb747]

March next year….is pretty much an eternity away at the moment. Time enough for anything to happen.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Agree with mattg. the LAX route is the flagship and seems to get the 350 scheduled as the primary aircraft. That being said when I flew to LAX in late march i was surprised to see an a330!

Having looked pretty extensively for Alaska Airlines FF availability TPAC since 2020… the LAX route on FJ has almost entirely been on the 350 (no availability) compared to SFO on the 330 (reasonable availability).

 

[twiningb]

Cool. Well, it's booked for now. I have also set alerts on every QF/AA/UA nonstop SYD/MEL/BNE/AKL-LAX/SFO/DFW/IAH/YVR for a couple of days either side and will swap if something opens up.