FJ (Air Pacific) fares to the US

[Isochronous]

I'm interested in getting to the US in Jan/Feb next year and thought trying FJ via NAN might be a good option in terms of price, and also because from what I understand it would also earn me QFF SCs and points. That being said the airpacfic.com booking engine isn't great and despite listing a lot of US Cities (they recently inked a codeshare deal with AA), it often refuses to give me options going to anywhere other than LAX or HNL.

What's the best way to book on FJ? FJ website? Other places, TAs? Does anyone have any experience emailing the [email protected] address?

Also do people find better value booking Aus-NAN separately from the NAN-US leg, or has anyone tried booking NZ-NAN-US?

 

[serfty]

Try nesting a separate Oz to NAN return booking around a NAN to USA return booking - it's often less expensive and may give you more options.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Try nesting a separate Oz to NAN return booking around a NAN to USA return booking - it's often less expensive and may give you more options.

to get the cheapest price FJ business class tickets to the USA, you need to book as three separate tickets - AU-NAN (o/w), NAN-USA (return), then NAN-AU (one way). Buying the last segment separately saves a lot of $$ as its priced in FJD.

 

[ftm]

Air Pacific combine their fares with a range of carriers within the US - including US Airways, Delta, American, Virgin America and Frontier Airlines. I'm not sure if their website is up to being able to work those into the other components of the fare, so let me know if you need a hand and I can see what's possible.

Great tip from MEL-Traveller - I love quirks in fare pricing like that!

 

[Isochronous]

Great advice - I've played around and what you've been saying is true.

I have 2-3 questions I'd hope to pick your collective expertise on (and that of the forum):

1. I have a choice of flying NAN-HNL or NAN-LAX in J. Going to LAX is $288 extra, but nets an extra 80SC at $3.60/SC. LAX also uses a 747-400 compared to a 737-800 to HNL. What's the difference in comfort levels? IFE is also important.
2. I need to get to east coast - BOS or NYC most likely. Are there better AA YUPP runs out of HNL, or should I just fly LAX-LAS and start there? I'm mostly interested in Domestic First for the transcon, seeing as I expect the business trip trans-Pacific will be enough to get me to Gold with AA economy flights, and I doubt I'll be able to make Plat.
3. Creative routings to get to BOS/NYC/maybe even DC?

 

[Taezar]

Not a single FJ flight has been on time for me, plus 3 cancellations ( not including the cancelled flight they uncancelled after we lined up to be rebooked). Multiple tickets would scare the hell out of me, w FJ.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Great advice - I've played around and what you've been saying is true.

I have 2-3 questions I'd hope to pick your collective expertise on (and that of the forum):

1. I have a choice of flying NAN-HNL or NAN-LAX in J. Going to LAX is $288 extra, but nets an extra 80SC at $3.60/SC. LAX also uses a 747-400 compared to a 737-800 to HNL. What's the difference in comfort levels? IFE is also important.
2. I need to get to east coast - BOS or NYC most likely. Are there better AA YUPP runs out of HNL, or should I just fly LAX-LAS and start there? I'm mostly interested in Domestic First for the transcon, seeing as I expect the business trip trans-Pacific will be enough to get me to Gold with AA economy flights, and I doubt I'll be able to make Plat.
3. Creative routings to get to BOS/NYC/maybe even DC?

FJ's B737 service is just a regular recliner with about 50' pitch. Nothing to write home about. Someone has written a trip report about it - I thought it was on AFF - but maybe airliners. You could google it. In terms of YUPs - you can travel from HNL for just a few $$ more than leaving from LAX - BUT you get a lot more SCs because of the 2556 mile F segment. The cheapest and best value YUPs at the moment would be something like HNL-SJU. That about $700 all up one way. (Leaving from LAX was something like $5xx)

Not a single FJ flight has been on time for me, plus 3 cancellations ( not including the cancelled flight they uncancelled after we lined up to be rebooked). Multiple tickets would scare the hell out of me, w FJ.

appreciate the feedback. My friend also did this multi-combination and everything was on time... so i guess you win some and lose some The only issue they had was that you have to collect your bags in NAN each time - but with a three hour connecting time they said it was fine.

 

[ftm]

Why not combine all the way through to the east coast on the same ticket?

Sent from my HTC Velocity 4G using AustFreqFly

 

[Isochronous]

FJ's B737 service is just a regular recliner with about 50' pitch. Nothing to write home about. Someone has written a trip report about it - I thought it was on AFF - but maybe airliners. You could google it. In terms of YUPs - you can travel from HNL for just a few $$ more than leaving from LAX - BUT you get a lot more SCs because of the 2556 mile F segment. The cheapest and best value YUPs at the moment would be something like HNL-SJU. That about $700 all up one way. (Leaving from LAX was something like $5xx)




appreciate the feedback. My friend also did this multi-combination and everything was on time... so i guess you win some and lose some The only issue they had was that you have to collect your bags in NAN each time - but with a three hour connecting time they said it was fine.

They don't check luggage all the way through? WTF?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

They don't check luggage all the way through? WTF?

Well - maybe they through check if you but a through ticket but I think their through fares are about double the triple ticket purchase - so nearing $6000. My friend who did it said it wasn't too much trouble - priority luggage and priority check-in then back to the lounge. Given FJ's business class fares are in the same region or cheaper than QF's Y+ fares, with the extra miles and SCs it seems a reasonable trade-off. (Although undoubtedly the catering and IFE is better on QF Y+)

 

[Isochronous]

So can someone tell me what their 744 J product is like? I get the impression their 737-8 product is basically QF Domestic J?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

So can someone tell me what their 744 J product is like? I get the impression their 737-8 product is basically QF Domestic J?

you can google something like 'trip report Air Pacific' and you'll get some results. There's a couple of trip reports out there that I know of.

The 737-8 product is like QF domestic as you say - but with a greater seat pitch. I think somewhere in the region of 50'.

The 744 J seat is 'sort of' the same as the old QF F seats circa 1999 before they switched to the flat beds... so around 62' pitch and about a 60 degree recline (although their website says the pitch is 57' - but i think they might be a bit wrong with this). But from what i can see the leg-rests aren't horizontal as they were on the QF F seats. (Speaking of which - I do miss those! They were some of the most comfortable seats ever!!)

here is the trip report for the B737 J class: http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/trip_reports/read.main/201161/

oh - and here is the front J cabin 747 (actually it looks like it might be 57' - dun know how they manage that with just 4 rows...):
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/othe...comfort-air-pacific-business-class-seats.html