Air Pacific right across the Pacific

[N860CR]

A few pictures from the SYD-NAN leg:


Entree dish



And the four images below:

1) Main
2) 747 Legroom and IFE
3) Cabin
4) NAN J Lounge

 

[N860CR]

Boarding was called early for the NAN-CXI leg. Everyone was onboard by 2345 and we pushed back not long after (about 10 minutes early). Fiji Water bottles were handed out on departure as well as glasses of OJ (no sparkling wine tonight). J Cabin was full (including 1 FJ engineer who got off on CXI). Y Cabin was very empty (66 seats taken all up). I had two friends travelling in Economy and they reported a fairly comfortable flight given the light load.

J Seat was comfortable itself, however row 1 doesn't offer a lot of legroom. I think row 2 is the way to go for the overnight leg.


Meal service got going fairly quickly which was appreciated given the short flight of 4H 25M to CXI. Oddly enough, the choices were the same as the SYD-NAN sector. There was no pre-dinner drink service and my G&T arrived just before the meal along with a bowl of nuts (no Buja mix funnily enough). The drinks were very very strong, which some would appreciate, however it even hit my gin limit! Three of those and I had to put the brakes on.

Dinner was fine again. Roast Chicken this time (sorry, no pics). I tried then to make the most of the night leg and get some sleep in. Fortunatley, the seat is actually quite comfortable and I managed quite a lot of sleep (although broken). I woke about two minutes before landing into CXI and got a good view of the coral atol. It was quite nice fromt the air and I'll try to take some photos on the return leg (when the suns a little higher and I'm a little more awake). It's a very interesting terminal on the ground, about the size (and quality) of Moranbah or Blackwater. The ground stop is scheduled for about an hour and transit passengers can't get off, however everyone seemed keen to take photos from the door. Unfortunatley, one French passenger had a "Visa issue" and delayed departure by another hour. I'd share the goss, but I slept through it all and only had it reported to me after landing in HNL (when said pax was standing at the baggage claim - so I guess he got through ok).

Takeoff was aggressive from the short CXI airstrip (they did refuel on the ground) and I fell asleep right away, waking just before landing into HNL. The crew were very distressed that I hadn't had breakfast (slept right through it. Was reported to be pancakes which were quite nice) and ran around pouring OJ and water while on descent. That was much appreciated. Overall the crew were very good on this leg. Friendly, efficient but not intrusive on a flight that really offers limited sleep oportunities. Total flying time was 4:30 NAN-CXI and 2:55 CXI-HNL.

Overall, it was quite a pleasant trip from NAN-HNL and one I would consider again. The ground staff and lounge staff in NAN get half marks (however that seems to be a common theme in Fiji with front-line admin staff. Seems they miss the "friendliest people" memos!) but the flight was quite good (as good as an overnight flight can get). It's worth remembering that no airline offers a proper "J" service between Australia and Hawaii. The FJ 737 J seats sit somewhere between the Qantas 767 domestic J and Intl J seats (can't remember which is Millenium and which is Dreamtime) and was good enough for me to sleep in. I guess you could argue that a direct SYD-HNL would be more comfortable as you could get a straight leg of sleep on the longer flight. If I did it again, I'd skip the CXI stop (didn't seem all that interesting at 6am when I was wrecked!) and go the SYD-NAN connecting to direct NAN-HNL. If you're going to do 4:30 straight in a 737, you might as well do 6:30 and get it all over with.

I'll try to add more photos on the return (daytime) flight.

 

[N860CR]

Big G&T's NAN-CXI





CXI Stop


CXI Stop

 

[N860CR]

The return...

HNL-CXI-NAN

HNL put me in a bad mood. The checkin guy was very chatty and friendly, marking us all to use the "Gold Lane" at security which was much appreciated. The TSA woman wasn't happy with this and screamed at us to join the line of the poor. I felt special thrusting my J boarding pass at her! Security experience was otherwise ok, however we all got put through the "cancer machine" and weren't given the option of the frisking (I was in the mood for a morning fondle... but moving on).

Up the the QP me thinks. It's just before 10am, HNL is still a QP until 11am. Walking up, there are multiple signs saying "The Qantas Club" and even the button in the lift says Qantas Club. I present our boarding passes to the QF uniformed agent at the door and he advises, "this is an Admirals Club, you can't come in". Why, I ask, for it is before 11am and it doesn't become an AA club until after that. "No, it's after the departure of the QF services". I argue, that's not what Qantas publish. He advises, "doesn't matter, today is a Jetstar day. It's only Qantas 3 days a week" and proceeds to rattle off the days of the QF flight. He adds "I'm just about to leave". I suspect he's paid until 11am... I walked out without much of a fight. My understanding is that, as WP/SG on a QF flight numbered ticket, one should have access to the QP. Just as you would if departing Sydney on QF391 to Nadi.

I sulk for an hour... but get over it.

Boarding is easy again and the flight is pretty empty. This time we were two of only three in J, the third turning out to be an off duty staff member. An American couple attacked the CSM while we were on the ground demanding upgrades to the empty J seats as they had been rerouted off the LAX-NAN flight and suffered an overnight in HNL. They didn't join me up the front, fortunatley.
Just OJ and water on the ground.

Once airbourne they started the lunch service. I found this a little odd as on the shorter sector to CXI we were offered a full three course hot lunch, however just a cold snack on the 4:30 flight to NAN.

Lunch consisted of a starter of crab meat salad, choice of chicken curry, beef filet or vege pasta for the main and a cake of some sort for desert. Overall it was quite nice, however the crab was very.... well crabby. I stuck with sparkling wine on this service to avoid a repeat of the massive G&T's (which left me feeling a little worse for wear in HNL!). This was fine until I drank them out of wine.

CXI looks much nicer during the proper daylight hours. A few people got off and about 20 got on (I noticed most of those getting off seemed like the NatGeo type). The American couple who didn't score their upgrade decided they wanted to get off for a smoke. Surprisingly, the FA let them off and they lit up on the tarmac... needless to say the Captain wasn't happy when he saw it during his walk around and gave the FA a good serve. Luckily, we only spend about 50 minutes on the ground before heading off on the 4:30 leg to NAN.

We were served a light snack on this leg. Either a cheese plate or antipasto (the FA didn't seem to understand this, I had to result to pointing at it on the menu and still got an odd look). It was nothing special and by the time we reached NAN I was keen for dinner. I had to return to G&T's on this leg after the sparkling ran out. The crew spent the flight hiding behind the curtain and we had to stick out heads in if we wanted anything.

All in all a pleasant trip. Of our 7 bags, 6 were off quickly and 1 took 20 minutes... great! While waiting I got a TXT from Qantas advising the mornings NAN-SYD was delayed (although it didn't say by how much) so I went up to the departures level to find out what was happening. Turns out it was delayed until the following night. Oh no

Luckily, I had the most helpful Qantas rep sort out all my flights for the next day. I could have just taken the direct BNE, however I was worried that I'd need to fight for my SC's for the original booking. I had hoped to be able to go via SYD to drop off a few things, however I couldn't get any seats into or out of SYD on QF domestic that day. In the end, she booked me NAN-BNE-MEL-BNE. The MEL turnaround was nothing more than a waste of my time, but it did get me the SC's I needed to maintain WP without a fight. To her credit, she didn't even hesitate about my odd requests and got the whole lot processed very quickly. Two of the people I was travelling with had a connection out of BNE on a seperate ticket and she even moved that flight earlier to save them waiting in BNE all day. Top marks for QF in NAN!

 

[N860CR]

I'll briefly run over the dull legs home...

NAN-BNE

Another 737 which was packed in the back (no doubt due to the delayed SYD flight) however half full in J. The service was friendly again (same CSM as the SYD-NAN from last week). Standard FJ breakfast offered of omlette or pancakes. Both were quite nice, however I don't really do breakfast so it's usually wasted on me. I managed to snooze most of the way back, the seats in row 2 of the 737 have heaps more room so it was quite comfortable for sleeping. I'd recommend the second row if you're on the FJ 73s at any point.

Customs in BNE was very easy. The lines for passport control were long, however nobody was using the smart gate for some reason so I got through there quickly. Bags took about another 10 minutes and it was maybe 5-10 minutes before being waived through quarentine without having the bags checked. Interestingly, the AQS guy approached me while waiting for my baggage (and I was expecting to be given the green stamp) however looked at my card, asked if I had anything to declare (no) and then just gave it back to me.
There was a bit of an issue with the tagging of our bags at the domestic transfer. In NAN they could only get them tagged to MEL and the QF lady in BNE was having the same problem. After a few calls it turned out that they can't tag a bag back through the port you're departing from, so I had to collect in MEL and recheck them. Didn't cause too much of a problem.

BNE-MEL

Just a standard domestic J run, however had great service from the FA Tanya. I'll be recommending her to Qantas for an Excel award. It's really nice to see a crew member who is clearly enjoying her job! She went out of her way to be friendly and chatty to all of the passengers (in a full J cabin). Never once was a drink empty and she made very sure to explain the food and wine selections in great detail (which is always appreciated). Myself and the two passengers behind me were having the sparkling wine which ran out (not many of the little bottles loaded), however Tanya did a great job of running through all of the other options (I leant something, they have Baileys on domestic runs).

Only negative was that the hot option was a fish so I went for the cold chicken salad which was quite nice, but I'd been keen on a hot lunch of some sort. I've noticed QF domestic J is frequently keen on fish which seems odd to me, but I'm not a fish person.

MEL-BNE

The last leg finally came around and I was feeling a bit torn. My situation has changed a bit in the last few months so this was to be the last J flight for me for nearly a year. That said, I was a bit over aeroplanes!

This time it was a nothing special but perfectly fine domestic leg. The (significantly older) crew did a good job without being outstanding (I did have to hit the call bell for a wine refil, which I see as a no-no on QF J flights). There was no hot meal options, so we could select either a trout salad (fish again!) or a cheese plate. For a 5pm departure, I had hoped for something a little more substancial.
Arrival into BNE was on-time.

Overall

Generally I was quite happy with the whole trip on both QF and FJ. The delay issue was handled very well in NAN and to be honest, I don't think QF would have done as good a job of fixing it in Australia. The issue at the HNL QP was frustrating, however I have been in contact with QF via Twitter and they've been quick to admit an error was made. Will be interesting to see how they try to resolve it.

I'm going to make a bold call... however when you factor in cost, comfort, food, service and SC/FF point earn, I believe Air Pacific (via QF codeshares) offers the best product from Australia to Hawaii and probably Australia to the mainland USA. The total cost of the trip was ~$3300 and it earned 560SC. This compares to 360 on QF (BNE-SYD-HNL-SYD-BNE) for a cost of close to $10,000. Maybe JQ compares... however again the SC earn is a lot lower and the product far poorer than FJ's. A trip from Australia-NAN-LAX on FJ costs about $3500 and is 747 all the way. Really, nobody can match them for value across the Pacific.

That said, if you can afford QF/VA, it's miles ahead and I'm looking forward to my next big J trip that includes QF, CX and BA long-haul.

 

[Meggsy]

I'm going to make a bold call... however when you factor in cost, comfort, food, service and SC/FF point earn, I believe Air Pacific (via QF codeshares) offers the best product from Australia to Hawaii and probably Australia to the mainland USA. The total cost of the trip was ~$3300 and it earned 560SC. This compares to 360 on QF (BNE-SYD-HNL-SYD-BNE) for a cost of close to $10,000. Maybe JQ compares... however again the SC earn is a lot lower and the product far poorer than FJ's. A trip from Australia-NAN-LAX on FJ costs about $3500 and is 747 all the way. Really, nobody can match them for value across the Pacific.

Nice report danielribo. Certainly some food for thought in your summary for people on a budget but looking for some relatively easy SC's. Thanks for the info.

 

[Isochronous]

BYO IFE, though - especially if you're not flying J. Have you flown the QF 767 from SYD to compare with FJ?

 

[N860CR]

I have, quite a while ago (although the thing hasn't changed in a long time). Y is pretty average (same cabin as domestic Y, no IFE) however the J seats aren't too bad. I'd say they're about equal with the FJ 747 J seats but a bit better than the FJ 737 J seats.


If you're doing it in Y there's probably very little difference between QF and FJ other than the price and the fact that you have to stop in NAN.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Were the FJ airfares "Biz Saver" fares booked into "Z" class & if so, did you earn points & SC for them?