Big news from Fiji Airways for Canadian based American AAdvantage members and oneworld alliance flyers. As of today, Fiji Airways has adopted American AAdvantage as their primary frequent flyer program. There is no word yet on what is happening to their Tabua Club recognition program which is currently paused.
In addition to this change, Fiji Airways also moves from being a limited oneworld connect partner to a full fledged oneworld airline partner. This news is significant as Fiji Airways flies direct from Vancouver to Nadi Fiji and also the Western U.S. allowing for connections from Eastern Canada.
“The partnership between American and Fiji Airways is giving customers more ways to unlock new travel experiences. As part of the AAdvantage® program, members flying on either airline can immediately enjoy an elevated travel experience,” said Anmol Bhargava, American’s Senior Vice President of Alliances. “Travel is better as an AAdvantage® member, and American extends a very warm welcome to Fiji Airways customers joining the program.”
Fiji Airways joins oneworld & adopts American AAdvantage
By adopting American AAdvantage as the airline’s loyalty program, Fiji Airways’ frequent flyers will now be able to earn and redeem AAdvantage Miles. This is a shift in strategy from their previous Tabua Club which was a benefits only program (no earning/redeeming of points or miles rather only status credits).
All earning and redeeming will be the same as has been found in the American AAdvantage since its last revamp. The same goes for elite status in that one eligible AAdvantage Mile earned equals 1 Loyalty Point towards elite status qualification.
AAdvantage elite status members will receive the majority of their benefits when flying with Fiji Airways:
By becoming a full fledged oneworld airline, travellers will enjoy reciprocal benefits that afforded to all oneworld elite status members. Those benefits include:
Earning AAdvantage miles in Canada to use on Fiji Airways flights
Beyond crediting flights from any oneworld airlines to American AAdvantage and earning miles via hotel stays or car rentals it can be hard to come by AAdvantage Miles here in Canada. Luckily though for Canadians, we have several credit card options where points can converted to AAdvantage Miles which makes mileage earning a little easier.
While American AAdvantage Miles are harder to come by in Canada than other mileage currencies you can convert from several credit card programs and your best bet to earn AAdvantage Miles is with the American Express Cobalt Card. It’s 5x points earning on eats and drinks equates to 2 American AAdvantage miles as you can convert the 5 points to 6 Marriott Bonvoy and then convert the 6 Bonvoy Points to 2 AAdvantage Miles. Then the card’s 3x points is worth 1.2 AAdvantage Miles, 2x points works out to 0.8 miles and 1x points is 0.4 miles.
And until April 30 there is a 30% bonus on transfers from Amex Membership Rewards to Marriott Bonvoy so you actually could end up with 2.6 miles, 1.56 miles, 1.04 miles and 0.52 miles with the Cobalt card’s 5x, 3x, 2x, and 1x point earn respectively.
Another option are the RBC Avion cards like the RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card however it only earns the equivalent of 0.7 AAdvantage Miles per dollar spent (0.875 on travel purchases). So if you have any spend in the Amex Cobalt Card’s 2x, 3x and 5x points category you’ll be better off with it than the RBC card.
RBC Avion Rewards is often the first program mentioned when it comes to earning AAdvantage miles in Canada but I would say this example is another strike against Avion Rewards as for most people Amex > Marriott > American is the better way to come by AAdvantage Miles (especially with the Marriott transfer bonus!)
On a side note it’s really frustrating seeing other resources rank the RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card as the “Best Flexible Points” (We use “Hybrid” as Flexible Points has different meanings from different issuers) card in Canada when it is destroyed left, right and centre by the Cobalt Card and beaten up pretty badly by the American Express Gold Rewards Card! Heck, I would go so far as to say even that 8 times out of 10, the no fee American Express Green Card is better than the Avion Visa Infinite card!
Now of course you do have to option to increase your AAdvantage earn via Avion Rewards by running with the RBC ION+ Visa Card combined with the RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card.. The ION+’s 3 points per dollar when transferred to your Avion Elite account and then converted will work out 2.1 AAdvantage Miles. In this case this is your highest potential earning option but you need to run with two cards to get the most of one single program – not ideal.
Other oneworld options to use on Fiji Airways flights
You don’t have to go the route of American AAdvantage miles however to be able to use points and miles on Fiji Airways and in fact, if you are not a American Airlines frequent flyer or elite status member, these other options may be better!
As Fiji Airways is now a full oneworld airline you can use any oneworld carrier currencies to redeem for flights and the two most popular for Canadians are Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan and British Airways Club.
Here’s a look at a single flight on Fiji Airways from Vancouver to Nadi on November 11 using American AAdvantage Miles, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles and British Airways Club Avios:
In this example American AAdvantage requires the most miles but their cash co-pay for taxes and fees is lower than Alaska and since you would also have to convert Amex Membership Rewards points to Marriott to Alaska it could almost be consider a wash to use less Mileage Plan miles + more taxes vs. more AAdvantage Miles + less taxes but Alaska does benefit from Marriott’s 5,000 bonus miles for transferring 60,000 Bonvoy points at a time wheres American does not – so in the end Alaska is probably the better way to go between these two.
However even better than Alaska or American is the British Airways route. Only 31,000 Avios and $59.42 in taxes but what makes this the best option is British Airways Club being a 1:1 transfer option from both Amex Membership Rewards and RBC Avion Rewards. That means 31,000 Membership Rewards or Avion Rewards points for the above flight example vs. a whole heck of a lot more points (I’m too lazy to do the math now) if going the Amex to Marriott to American/Alaska or from RBC to American.
And again if you have the Cobalt Card, those 31,000 Avios can come from as little as $6,200 in spending. With RBC you’ll need to spend a minimum of $24,800 (or $10,333,33 with the Avion + ION+ combo) to get the 31,000 Avios (disregarding the 30% transfer bonus we usually see twice per year from RBC)
Wrapping it up
Fiji Airways has adopted American AAdvantage as their primary frequent flyer program and moved up to ranks to become a full oneworld alliance airline. This is significant news for Canadian oneworld members and cardholders of convertible currencies like Amex Membership Rewards and RBC Avion Rewards as it opens up more options to earning and redeeming on Fiji Airways’ Vancouver flights.
Title image via Fiji Airways