Fiji Airways

Not Verified | I recently had the misfortune of booking a flight with Fiji Airways, and it was an absolute nightmare from start to finish. I was scheduled for a flight from San Francisco to Sydney with a transit through Fiji. Sounds straightforward, right? Wrong. Nowhere on their Fiji Airways website did they bother to mention anything about a transit visa requirement for certain passports if the transit time in Fiji is more than 3 hours. It was a deliberate oversight, in my opinion, a sneaky tactic to squeeze more money out of unsuspecting travelers. I've never heard of any other country requiring transit visa for such short time of >3 hours, how crazy is that? And to add insult to injury, they refused to refund my ticket when I found out about this ridiculous requirement at the airport. Fiji Airways conveniently omitted this crucial information, leaving me stranded with both inconvenience and financial burden and having to change my plans last minute. As if that wasn't enough, I won a bid to be upgraded to business class, thinking I'd at least have a bit of comfort amidst this chaos. But on arrival at the airport, they casually informed me that due to a flight change, they were downgrading me back to economy. Did anyone bother to contact me beforehand about this change? Of course not. And the cherry on top? Trying to get a refund for the upgrade has been an absolute nightmare, with Fiji Airways dragging their feet and taking forever to process it. They're nothing but a money-making scam, with no clear information provided upfront for travelers. They lure you in with the promise of cheap and affordable flights, only to hit you with hidden fees at every turn. Save yourself the headache and choose a reputable airline instead. Fiji Airways should be ashamed of themselves for the way they treat their customers and everyone should know about how much of a joke Fiji Airways is.

✅ Trip Verified | The flight was from Melbourne to Suva with change in Nadi with same airline. The Melbourne to Nadi flight got delayed and i missed the flight to Suva. Instead making accommodation arrangements to catch next day early morning flight, the airline was telling me to go and look for a relatives house to stay in and make my own way to the airport in the morning. It was not until the affected passengers got angry that the airline made accommodation, dropoff and pickup arrangements. Extremely terrible service.

✅ Trip Verified | All our bags were damaged. It was as if the staff had thrown the bags intentionally. The hard suitcase was cracked and the cloth suitcase had its extending handle damaged. In a previous flight the year before, there was no diabetic meal for my father. I asked 2 different air hostess after he wasn't served and each would go to the back of the plane and not return. After half an hour i asked a 3rd air hostess who went back and tried to show us that we did not enter in the preference. Absolutely very bad customer service from baggage handlers to the air hostess who try and hide inside a plane and avoid you and not own up immediately.

✅ Trip Verified |   We flew with Fiji Airways from Vancouver to Auckland, with a stop over in Nadi on the way back. Our flight TO Auckland was fine. Nothing special but nothing terrible. However, our flight from Nadi home to Vancouver was terrible, and enough that I would advise people to avoid Fiji Airways. For some reason they needed to change the plane, but didn't notify any of their customers. So they ended up moving everyone's seats, but not telling them before boarding the plane. We had paid for certain seats as and it was only 5 minutes before boarding that we found that these had been moved. I tried talking to a gate agent - who blamed the check in agent for not telling me - but HE was the check in agent!When contacting Fiji Airways after the flight, their only response was "we're sorry." They did refund the price I paid for the seats I selected (or they are in the process of doing so), but offered no other compensation or act of making it right. Their total disregard for the well being of their travellers is absolutely appalling. In addition, their seat fees, baggage fees and other fees are some of the highest I've ever seen. So their "good deal" prices are rarely that. Save yourself the hassle and book with someone else.

✅ Trip Verified | They included my snowboard gear in the price for the flight out (I checked the website to confirm this, and also double checked with the gate agent in Singapore before checking the bag), then stung me with a 470cad charge for it when I took the return leg of my flight from Nadi. The attendant had no interest in resolving the issue and would not allow me to speak with a supervisor after repeatedly saying 'I don't have the authority to waive the charge'. I've been going through the complaints procedure which has taken weeks now and it's like talking to a wall. Definitely recommend looking elsewhere if you are travelling for an adventure holiday. The rest of the service is very average, the entertainment is limited and food quality is standard-poor. For the extra baggage cost I could have flown direct with a different superior airline. Really disappointing end to my trip.

✅ Trip Verified | The airline is bad with all the food being sub standard and the tickets being overpriced. The aircraft flight was very turbulent both physically and actually. We managed to land about 2h late and we pushed back 1h late. Conclusion, never fly this airline.

✅ Trip Verified | We have had nothing but problems with our booking and follow customer service. A staff member at Melbourne airport did not follow correct procedure and would not allow check in causing my partner to miss his flight and ongoing connections. This cost us thousands of dollars in additional flights. We also emailed the customer care team with updates on our booking references and they still managed to get it wrong and separated us on the return flight. After hours of trying to rectify this they said they would refund an upgraded seat and sit us together. We followed instructions to the letter and next thing we know we get an email saying we wouldn’t be getting the approved refund. Back in the phone and they say no, we are eligible and they will follow up. On and on we go still no refund. Just terrible customer service.

✅ Trip Verified | I am writing to express my deep dissatisfaction with the multiple discrepancies in the information provided by staff, which have led to a significant overpayment on my part and an extremely frustrating experience. If I had been provided with the correct information I would have shipped this bag back to Sydney for $340 through DHL. Which I had organised prior but after speaking with your staff I decided to bring the bag with me on the plane and in the end, your staff damaged my bag and my snowboards which caused irreparable damage. Despite my efforts to clarify the extra baggage fees through emails and calls, I received inconsistent solutions from different representatives. On the 29th December, I sent a detailed email asking for the cost breakdown, it was advised it would be $396AUD for the oversized bags and extra luggage to Sydney. I asked for more clarity and received no response which prompted me to call up. On the 17th of January I was assured that I dont need to pay the $396AUD for the extra oversized bag and that since it is sporting equipment I can split my baggage allowance into two& I had to pay $190CAD for oversize fee, I was assured that I would have notes listed on my reservation to assure this, only to be given conflicting information on subsequent calls and at the check-in counter. The promised email confirmation never arrived, leading to a call on the 18th of January, where a representative confirmed the arrangement and noted it on the system for the check-in staff. However, upon reaching the check-in counter on the 19th of January, there were no visible notes, and the assistance provided was unhelpful. This caused delays and stress at the check in counter whom advised that we need to pay the extra baggage fee & the oversize fee and they will raise a complaint on their end so we can then reach out after to get a refund. Extra paid was $470CAD, which was meant to cover all the way to Sydney. To make matters worse, on the 21st of January, I was shocked to learn that the extra baggage fees were not covered all the way to Sydney, as previously indicated we had to pay another 260FJD, which was strange as we were also advised that we only needed to pay extra 120FJD at most here as we have 2 bags each due to flying business, when it came to check in, it was advised we had to pay again for the extra bag. This has resulted in me paying four times the initially agreed-upon amount, causing significant financial and time-related inconvenience. The total in AUD paid for this service was around $750 AUD. To make matters worse, my snowboards were damaged by the negligence of Fiji Airways staff, these snowboards were new and was damaged in transit from Fiji airlines As a frequent international traveler, I must emphasize that this experience with Fiji Airways has been the most appalling in my extensive flying history. I fly overseas five times a year, and the lack of consistency in advice and misinformation have tarnished my perception of your airline.

✅ Trip Verified |  My family flew with carry on luggage only because Fiji air charges an outrageous $200 per check in bag. But what they don't make clear at the time of ticket purchase is that they only allow 15 pounds per bag. This is ridiculous because an average carry on bag can weigh over 5 pounds empty. I travel a lot for work and every other airline enforce carry on size only, never weight. My wife and I checked in at the main counter and our bags were 2-3 pound over and they wanted $400 from us each way! We managed to comically take some cloths out and wear to get the bags to 15 pounds and then got a tag that we met the weight. Meanwhile my sister-in-law went straight to boarding gate with her carry on and when boarding started Fiji Air started to call out anyone who did not pre-check in at the main counter. Fiji Air keeps scales at the boarding gate(SFO) and they weighed her bag and she was 20 lbs, normal for any other airlines. But they would not let her open har bag and take out 5 lbs, she was made to pay $200 on the spot. $200 is a fortune for her. Fiji Air rakes in a fortune from unsuspecting travelers. Beware!

✅ Trip Verified | Worst airline I've ever dealt with. We had three tickets booked and had them refunded on compassionate grounds (Fiji agreed to a full refund). We had our other flights with Singapore airlines and Air New Zealand refunded immediately without issue. They claimed they made the bank transfer to my bank for the full amounts, but actually short changed me by 100 GBP per ticket. It was completely impossible to talk to someone about this I managed to get one response from someone in accounts claiming they'd paid the full amount but when I spoke to my bank the bank confirmed that the payments were short by a hundred pounds per ticket and it was effectively impossible to talk to anyone from Fiji Airlines about it. The complaint form on their website was practically ignored, I sent through several follow ups. But it was impossible to have a contextual follow-up conversation with anyone (due to having to fill out a website complaints form for every "response" I wanted to send) let alone on the phone. No one would talk to me about it because everyone passed responsibility. This was my first experience with them, and I will try to avoid booking with them ever again. Especially given the context of our compassionate cancelation issue - exactly sort of time when you need great service, and Fiji Airways drops the ball completely. They're very happy to take reservations, but that's it.