Fiji Airways Will Adopt American’s AAdvantage Program

Fiji Airways has revealed that it will join the Oneworld alliance as a full member in 2025. The airline will also adopt American Airlines AAdvantage as its loyalty program.

In 2018, Fiji Airways became the first (and only) Oneworld Connect member. This is a “lite” form of Oneworld membership where Fiji Airways provides some of the benefits of the Oneworld alliance benefits, but is a step down from full membership.

One of the requirements to become a full Oneworld member is to have a frequent flyer program with points and status tiers. One of the reasons Fiji Airways could not become a fully-fledged Oneworld alliance member back in 2018 is that it didn’t have this – and still doesn’t. But that will have to change soon.

Tabua Club

In lieu of a traditional frequent flyer program, Fiji Airways currently has a paid subscription program called Tabua Club. This is similar to paid Qantas Club membership in that it comes with benefits like lounge access, priority check-in and extra baggage allowance when flying with Fiji Airways.

Frequent flyers who are Tabua Club members can also upgrade to Tabua Club Plus to receive additional benefits. But there is no such thing as Tabua Club points. Instead, passengers can choose to earn points and status credits with one of the following partner airline loyalty programs:

• Qantas Frequent Flyer
• Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
• American Airlines AAdvantage

Why Fiji Airways doesn’t have a proper frequent flyer program

Why doesn’t Fiji Airways have its own points program? Fiji Airways CEO Andre Viljoen explained in a recent interview with Forbes:

Here’s the logic, if we start our own frequent flyer program, holiday members have less reason to join because they may only visit Fiji once or twice a year. When they spend money on credit cards in their home markets or fly to other destinations, they want to earn miles with programs that are more relevant to them.

This is the reason why we rely on partner programs to help elevate our offering. As a oneworld connect member, travellers can earn in any oneworld loyalty program. With such a small local market, we just don’t see a need to start a loyalty program that may not appeal to travelers looking to rack up points.

The majority of Fiji Airways’ passengers are inbound tourists or people connecting via Nadi between Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands or North America.

Australia and New Zealand make up 65% of the airline’s revenue and traffic, while the United States is its most profitable market. Fiji Airways doesn’t have as strong of a local market as airlines like Qantas, Air New Zealand or American Airlines.

Fiji Airways will adopt the American Airlines loyalty program

To be part of the Oneworld alliance, an airline needs to have a frequent flyer program with a points currency. It also needs at least three status tiers that align with the Oneworld Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald levels.

Fiji Airways could massively expand its existing Tabua Club program, or start a brand new loyalty program. But for the reasons mentioned above, this may not necessarily make sense for the Fiji-based airline. Instead, the airline has announced it will join forces with another airline’s frequent flyer program.

When speaking recently to Forbes, Viljoen said about this:

While we cannot reveal details, there are plans for a big announcement soon in the loyalty program space. There is potential to tie up with another loyalty program that we adopt as our own, and this could boost Fiji’s value proposition since people can earn and redeem miles in a more familiar program they can use elsewhere. Stay tuned.

American Airlines AAdvantage chosen

While Fiji Airways’ CEO hinted earlier this month at adopting another airline’s program, he didn’t previously reveal which one. We now know that this will be American Airlines AAdvantage.

So, why is this the best choice for Fiji Airways?

With four Oneworld airlines already using Avios as their points currency, including most recently Finnair, that would have been an obvious contender. But this doesn’t really make sense for Fiji Airways.

British Airways, Iberia, Qatar Airways and Finnair all have their own frequent flyer programs with different status tiers, and all are closely linked in other ways. British Airways and Iberia are both owned by International Airlines Group (IAG), which Qatar Airways itself owns around a 25% stake in. And Finnair is part of the same trans-Atlantic joint venture as British Airways and Iberia.

Fiji Airways does not have particularly close partnerships with any of those four airlines. In any case, most of the airline’s customers live in Australia, New Zealand or the United States. With this in mind, it was always more likely that Fiji Airways would adopt Qantas Frequent Flyer, American Airlines AAdvantage or Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan as its own program.

I previously thought that Qantas Frequent Flyer would be the most obvious choice. Firstly, Qantas’ loyalty program has the largest presence in Fiji Airways’ two largest markets (Australia and New Zealand). Secondly, Qantas owns 46% of Fiji Airways.

But the USA remains Fiji Airways’ most profitable market, and it’s a tourism market that Fiji wants to really expand. In terms of raw numbers, AAdvantage is also a larger program. And AAdvantage is better set up to support something like this, as it’s already the loyalty program of South American airline JetSMART.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 80 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.