J Award flight to Honolulu

[trooper]

Air Fiji - went to pick someone up off a flight and they took nearly 3 hours from touch down to emerging. Couldn't get the front left door open!

You can draw you own conclusions.

Air Fiji? If you are going to bash them at least get the name right....

Fiji Airways operate 4 A330 aircraft (3x 200s and 1 x 300) on their longhaul flights. My ONLY reluctance to fly them would be the not-very flat seats in J... but their prices can be very tempting....

 

[Mattg]

Air Fiji? If you are going to bash them at least get the name right....

Fiji Airways operate 4 A330 aircraft (3x 200s and 1 x 300) on their longhaul flights. My ONLY reluctance to fly them would be the not-very flat seats in J... but their prices can be very tempting....

I wouldn't have any hesitation in flying with Fiji Airways.

To be slightly pedantic though, they use Boeing 737s on their NAN-HNL route. Those not-quite lie-flat J seats on their A330s would be a step-up in comparison

 

[UP4014]

Air Fiji? If you are going to bash them at least get the name right....

Fiji Airways operate 4 A330 aircraft (3x 200s and 1 x 300) on their longhaul flights. My ONLY reluctance to fly them would be the not-very flat seats in J... but their prices can be very tempting....

Air Pacific. My ONLY reluctance not to fly them is maintenance.

 

[sanne]

As promised I am back to let you know what happened with my request for 2 J award flights to Honolulu - nothing available even though i had flexibility in dates. It seems that this is one of the most difficult routes to get J award flights. The guy I was talking to was very helpful but of course nothing he could do.

Now what to do. I think my next option is to try for JAL via Tokyo in a few weeks time when their award flights are released. I have never flown with JAL, are they OK? there is a flight with QF to Tokyo that I could book now and then wait/hope that I can get an award from Tokyo to Honolulu. Is this a good idea or not? I'm concerned also re connection in Tokyo. Getting more nervous about this as the years go by. We are getting on a cruise so can't afford to be late. Will go in 2 days early if we can get the flights.

Thanks for any suggestions and help with this.

 

[Mattg]

As promised I am back to let you know what happened with my request for 2 J award flights to Honolulu - nothing available even though i had flexibility in dates. It seems that this is one of the most difficult routes to get J award flights. The guy I was talking to was very helpful but of course nothing he could do.

Now what to do. I think my next option is to try for JAL via Tokyo in a few weeks time when their award flights are released. I have never flown with JAL, are they OK? there is a flight with QF to Tokyo that I could book now and then wait/hope that I can get an award from Tokyo to Honolulu. Is this a good idea or not? I'm concerned also re connection in Tokyo. Getting more nervous about this as the years go by. We are getting on a cruise so can't afford to be late. Will go in 2 days early if we can get the flights.

Thanks for any suggestions and help with this.

Wait until JL flights are released, then book SYD-NRT-HNL together. There are J seats most days and JL has a great J product.

No point booking QF to Tokyo now as their SYD-HND flight doesn’t connect to JL’s HNL flights anyway.

 

[sanne]

Thanks Mattg, great advice. And for the confirmation that JAL are a good airline. I'm guessing I will have to ring QF about this booking as I don't see any JAL award flights online.

I forgot to add that we will be flying from Brisbane.

 

[boomy]

JAL are not ok, they are fantastic! Service much better than QF so nothing to worry about.

Few more options in case JL doesn’t work out using QF points:

NH SYD-HND-HNL using KF/LM miles

OZ SYD-ICN-HNL using KF/LM miles

HA SYD/BNE-HNL using VA miles

 

[sanne]

boomy - that's great to hear about JAL. Unfortunately only have QF points so really hoping we can gets 2 J award seats to HNL.

 

[Limewood]

Does one have to call Qantas to book JL award seats?

 

[boomy]

Does one have to call Qantas to book JL award seats?

Yes

 

[grussellt]

Yes

You can JAL mileage bank to search for awards or use Awardnexus

 

[boomy]

You can JAL mileage bank to search for awards or use Awardnexus

Yes but still need to call QF to book.

 

[sanne]

What time in Brisbane are the award seats released for JL? Is it 10am, same as QF. Thanks.

 

[Mattg]

What time in Brisbane are the award seats released for JL? Is it 10am, same as QF. Thanks.

It may be a few hours later, but I'm not 100% sure. The seats are very unlikely to go in the first hour though, so don't get too caught up on that.

 

[geoffshaw]

I'mm 99% sure it's 11am.

 

[madrooster]

It's midnight GMT time. That is the best point of reference.

 

[sanne]

OK, thanks for your replies.

 

[sanne]

Just to follow up on my initial post.

Yesterday I rang Qantas to book our award business flights to Honolulu. The guy who answered my call couldn’t have been more helpful. Of course there were no direct QF SYD/HNL available, I was not surprised about that. So he booked us on QF Brisbane to Tokyo and then JL to Honolulu. He kindly did seat allocation on both flights.

Not the best option but happy to at least get to Honolulu in business using points on the day we wanted.

Of course there was no points to pay for a phone booking.

128,000 points each and about $660 taxes for the 2 tickets.

Thanks again for help and suggestions.