It’s an exciting day for Fiji Airways. The airline has just joined the oneworld alliance, as a full member, after previously being a “Connect” member of the alliance. That’s not the only development, though. Fiji Airways has also officially adopted American AAdvantage as its own loyalty program. We first learned about this in June 2024, but it’s now official.
In this post:
Fiji Airways starts using American’s loyalty program
As of March 31, 2025, Fiji Airways has adopted American AAdvantage as its loyalty program. This means that American AAdvantage members will have a more seamless experience on Fiji Airways, with elite members being able to take advantage of oneworld Sapphire and oneworld Emerald perks, including reciprocal oneworld lounge access.
AAdvantage elite perks on Fiji Airways have been published, and they’re more or less what you’d expect, and in line with typical oneworld benefits. I don’t see anything too exciting or out of the ordinary yet. For example, there’s no indication that systemwide upgrades will be valid on Fiji Airways (though it sure would be nice!).
One unique twist of this development is that American AAdvantage now has dynamic award pricing on Fiji Airways, so you can redeem miles on the airline even if saver award space isn’t available. It’s not typically a great deal, but it’s at least an option…
In terms of branding, it doesn’t seem like there’s any white labeling of AAdvantage going on here, in the sense that there’s no “Fiji Airways AAdvantage” program, or anything. Instead, this just seems to be a straight referral to the standard AAdvantage program.
Here’s how Fiji Airways CEO Andrew Viljoen describes this development:
“We are delighted to join the American Airlines AAdvantage program, marking a new chapter for Fiji Airways and offering more opportunities for our loyal customers to experience the magic of Fiji. This partnership will provide a seamless travel experience, making it easier for travelers to reach Fiji’s tropical paradise while enjoying enhanced benefits. With our new membership in the oneworld alliance, we look forward to offering greater connectivity to destinations around the globe, including the U.S., and welcoming more visitors to experience the warmth, culture and beauty of Fiji.”
Meanwhile here’s how American’s VP of Partnerships, Anmol Bhargava, describes this development:
“The partnership between American and Fiji Airways is giving customers more ways to unlock new travel experiences. As part of the AAdvantage program, members flying on either airline can immediately enjoy an elevated travel experience. Travel is better as an AAdvantage member, and American extends a very warm welcome to Fiji Airways customers joining the program.”
Why doesn’t Fiji Airways have its own loyalty program?
Loyalty programs can be big business for airlines, so logically some people might be confused by Fiji Airways’ decision not to have its own program.
Historically, Fiji Airways had the Tabua Club, which was a guest recognition program that offered some perks. However, you had to pay to join, so it was more of a paid membership club than anything, and it didn’t offer the ability to redeem miles.
In the past, Fiji Airways executives explained that they didn’t have a loyalty program because most people flying with the airline are on vacation, and might only fly the carrier once a year or so. A loyalty program can be lucrative for an airline if they can get consumers to engage with the company in all kinds of non-flying ways, and that’s tricky when you’re an airline based on a remote holiday island.
So Fiji Airways has encouraged passengers to credit flights to partner airlines, so that they can be rewarded in a relevant way. Honestly, that seems like a realistic approach to take.
Presumably Fiji Airways sees some upside to partnering more closely with American AAdvantage. I’m not sure what the financial arrangement is here, but it would make sense that Fiji Airways has opportunities to generate revenue for referring people to AAdvantage.
The United States, Australia, and New Zealand, are Fiji Airways’ biggest foreign markets. So I can see the logic for Fiji Airways using AAdvantage, especially since American doesn’t compete directly with Fiji Airways in any markets. It is a bit surprising, I suppose, that Fiji Airways wouldn’t use Qantas’ loyalty program, given that Qantas actually owns a stake in Fiji Airways.
This isn’t the first time that we’ve seen an airline adopt another carrier’s frequent flyer program. However, in the past it has typically been in situations where airlines either have a joint venture, or there’s some equity investment involved (there are a limited number of exceptions). Given that American and Fiji Airways have nothing more than a basic codeshare agreement, this is one of the more unusual ways we’ve seen one airline adopt another’s program.
Bottom line
Fiji Airways has started using American AAdvantage as its own loyalty program, coinciding with the airline joining oneworld. That means the airline is encouraging passengers to sign-up for the AAdvantage program.
The AAdvantage perks on Fiji Airways are more or less just the standard alliance benefits, in terms of lounge access, priority services, etc. AAdvantage members do get access to more award availability on Fiji Airways, but at higher costs.
What do you make of Fiji Airways using AAdvantage as its loyalty program?
Just a datapoint on the preferred seat selection benefit for elite members. A week ago I attempted to book a flight to Australia directly with Fiji as a Oneworld Sapphire member (thru AA Plat) and was told that only I would receive free seat selection at booking. My companion (traveling on the same reservation) would be required to pay $88 to select a seat next to me. I sent them some feedback through their website...
Just a datapoint on the preferred seat selection benefit for elite members. A week ago I attempted to book a flight to Australia directly with Fiji as a Oneworld Sapphire member (thru AA Plat) and was told that only I would receive free seat selection at booking. My companion (traveling on the same reservation) would be required to pay $88 to select a seat next to me. I sent them some feedback through their website explaining how their policy was different than AA's (and most other Oneworld carriers that I have flown) and that it would be helpful if they would disclose the differences in benefits that they provide vs. the American AAdvantage program on their website to avoid confusing other AA and Oneworld customers, particularly those who are accustomed to the AAdvantage benefits. I received the following response from them: "We regret to inform you that, unfortunately, we are no longer able to extend certain benefits, such as sharing Oneworld elite member privileges with a plus one. While we understand this change may be inconvenient, we strive to ensure that all our passengers are informed of our policies in advance. We appreciate your suggestion, and we will certainly take it into consideration as we continue to improve our communication with customers." I know seat selection is not a guaranteed Oneworld benefit and it is left to the discretion of the individual carriers but it's curious that they are adopting the AAdvantage frequent flyer program but not adopting the same benefits.
Thank god they didn't go with QFF. The only use for QFF is EK redemptions, which (I think) have access to a different inventory stock that (sometimes) opens up F seats on flights not accessible to EK Skywards.
Fiji Airways dodged a bullet by avoiding the Qantas FF programme. No matter how bad you might think your programme is, you ain't seen nothing bad until you've tried QFF.
Thanks for this information. It strikes me as a pretty straightforward benefit to be able to simply use AA miles to book Fiji. Given the fact that you can sometimes get good AA awards using Alaska miles, I'd think that could be another advantage (so to speal) of the AA-Fiji relationship.
The Qantas program is pointless unless you're regularly flying long distances in business and/or first class. Without status redemption is notoriously difficult, and ever more so now that OneWorld members are tightening up supply and restricting premium redemptions to their own members.
When flying out of Nadi, you need to learn 1 word: DELAYED
In October 2024 I was able to get two 80k AA business award tickets from a US city to AKL via NAN on FJ. On the way home, I got one from NAN through DFW to my home city for 80k. After that, only 295k tickets were available for several weeks for that route (NAN-YVR was still 80k, but with inconvenient connections to my home city).
I checked it every day, and a month...
In October 2024 I was able to get two 80k AA business award tickets from a US city to AKL via NAN on FJ. On the way home, I got one from NAN through DFW to my home city for 80k. After that, only 295k tickets were available for several weeks for that route (NAN-YVR was still 80k, but with inconvenient connections to my home city).
I checked it every day, and a month later another 80k opened up for the NAN-DFW route, so I immediately booked that as well.
Also managed to book 2 AKL-NAN business class tickets for 30k AA miles + $31.40 per person.