Travel Do not fly with Fiji airway

hi all, just want to post my experience with Fiji airway and why you should NOT fly with them.

A few days ago my wife and I left Hawaii to go to Fiji as our last leg of a 5 week honeymoon. Get to the check in gate and notice everyone is having to put their carry on bags into the dimension box and not 1 bag is fitting in.

We get to the counter and like everyone else our international size carry on didn't fit in. Upon closer inspection not even normal domestic carry on would fit into this tiny dimension box.

The hit us with $120 USD PER BAG fee as it now had to be checked cause it didn't fit.

While waiting in the lounge I took some photos and did some measuring compared to a Hawaiian airline domestic dimension box using my boarding pass as the comparison.

There was an extra 2-3cm of space on the Hawaiian domestic box compared to the international Fiji box.

Not 1 passenger got through without having to pay extra for their carry on, everyone was very angry.

Upon more research Fiji airway dimensions for carry on offer 1cm less length and 3cm less depth than Qantas, American airline and British airway which is completely unfair.

Do NOT fly with Fiji air unless you are happy to pay through the nose with bullshit fees.

Worst thing is, we fly home to Melbourne om Friday with Fiji and will cop it again.
 

alex_is_on_fire

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That sucks mate. Did you book every leg on an International ticket? If so, you should be entited to 23 kg per bag, or something like that.

My story flying in that country: We went from Hawaii to Fiji and then 2 days latter we were onto Adelaide about 3 years ago, not with Fiji Airways but Air Pacific. They are a subsidiary of QANTAS.

Anyway our bags were checked in from Hawaii and we spent our few days in Fiji. Then came time to check them in to fly home. We were 9 kgs over (we were over in Hawaii as well but I dont think they cared) our allocated baggage allowance on 2 bags and the guy behind the counter wanted to charge me $600 excessive baggage fee.

Now, I didn't want to pay this and calmly said I didn't have any money (I did but I wasn't going to pay it). I said I spend every cent in the states and I just didn't have it. He asked again and I got a bit louder, I said no, they checked them in Hawaii and said they were fine. This went on for about 20 minutes. After about 20 minutes, I just getting very pissed off and demanded to see his manager.

As soon as the site manager came to the counter, I said "look mate - I'm not going to pay this stupid fee as they checked them in without a fuss in Hawaii and its your problem now" I was making quite a scene and the misses was backing me up.

In the end, the site manager said - we will check them in but make sure you don't go over. I said, well played mate, good decision and chucked them on the trolly and walked off.

$600 in my pockets I was never going to pay.

Moral of the story: when in an overseas country, make a scene and get what you want. You won't see then again and they want good customer service.
 

Leper

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I'm all in favour of stopping people getting on planes with 12 crates of donuts; 4 goats; 16 chickens etc etc.

Obviously the situation you guys have described is a bit of a money grab, and that sucks, but somewhere in between there is a balance.
 

ash_1050

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You were flying with a budget airline and didn't think to check their baggage policy before flying? That's a rookie error and the airline have done nothing wrong in this instance.
 

alex_is_on_fire

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You were flying with a budget airline and didn't think to check their baggage policy before flying? That's a rookie error and the airline have done nothing wrong in this instance.

Thats assuming the flights were booked as individual fights.

If they were all booked as an international ticket, the baggage allowance reverts to the international carrier.
 
Jul 12, 2011
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Fiji Air is not a budget airline.

I've flown with them twice (LA -> Nadi then Nadi -> Sydney). Both flights on a new A330 plane. Good experience with them other than a bit lacking of movies and tv shows. Only had a small backpack for carry on though so may have made a different don't know
 
yeah definitely not a budget airline.

the flights were all booked through our travel agent, and both of the flights with Fiji air were via a international ticket.

when we left Fiji i was made aware that because its a international ticket and the flight was booked via QANTAS but operated by Fiji Air, that we were entilted to 30kg of checked baggage each as per QANTAS guidelines, so then why are we not given QANTAS carry on dimensions?

after a bit more research on carry on dimensions i found the following:

QANTAS:
56cm (Length) x 36cm (height) x 23cm Depth = 115cm

American Air: 56cm (Length) x 36cm (height) x 23cm Depth = 115cm

Fiji Air: 55cm (length) x 40cm (height) x 20cm (depth) = 115cm

So while all 3 = 115cm you get 1cm less length and 3cm less depth with Fiji Air which are the key dimensions and reasons as to why nothing fits inside the box.
 
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