hello my name is Paul Stewart and I'm in Nadi, which is the main International
Airport in Fiji, and later this morning I'm flying back to Sydney with Fiji
Airlines in business class in their brand-new Airbus A350 which is pretty
exciting. in fact everyone's quite excited about
it! So far I've had about three taxi drivers asked me if I'm on the new
aircraft so let's go inside and see what it's like. Here we are inside the
departure terminal which is all pretty new and quite spacious.
It seems that any airline uses any check-in counter so my plan of looking
for the Fiji Airlines sign failed but I eventually found the premium check-in
area if you keep walking right towards the departure gates. Then once we got
through customs, we head up some stairs before catching a lift or escalators
back down to the lounge. The Fiji Airways premier lounge is pretty new and quite
impressive. Unfortunately there are no views of the airport apron but
otherwise it has a fantastic ambience. This living wall, and yes all of the
plants are real, looks great and there's plenty of seating. It was around 7:30am
and there were two alacarte options: an omelet or an eggs benedict
with salmon, and I went with the latter.
There's also a buffet of both hot and cold options as well as a few different
cereals and bakery items. There's also a bar with a barista who delivers your
drinks to your table.
I sat down for breakfast with my regular long black coffee and after that I went
and found one of the comfy chairs. I should point out as well that there are
plenty of power plugs around the lounge as well as free Wi-Fi. As I mentioned in
the intro, everyone is very excited about the new A350 and there was
this video playing in the lounge providing some great views which
partially made up for no view of the real planes. And finally just before I
head to the departure gate, here's the shower which is inside the male bathroom
and there's only one. I didn't check, but I assume there's also one in the female
toilet as well. This would be pretty invaluable during a layover before a
long flight to North America although there doesn't appear to be any queuing
system so I guess you just have to loiter around the bathroom. On the left
we had the old flagship, the A330 and this beauty on the right is the new
A350 only delivered to Fiji Airways late last month. This is the first A350
operating in the Oceania region and they plan to fly them on the Sydney and
Los Angeles routes from Nadi. The gate opened and we got on board.
the business class cabin is on the left and the seats are all in a 1-2-1
layout so every seat has direct aisle access. Here is my seat which I'll show you
shortly but quickly let's go and check out the rest of the aircraft. Here's the
economy section in a 3-3-3 layout although the first few rows are what
they call 'Bula Space' which is essentially the standard seat but with
more legroom. This is a great option if you need the extra room but can't stomach
the jump to the business class prices. All of the economy seats come with this
adjustable touchscreen which has a USB port underneath it as well as a power
plug down near your knees.
For comparison's sake here's a legroom in this standard economy seat and most
excitingly, unlike in a lot of newer airliners, Fiji have ordered theirs
with individual overhead air vents. Here's a different perspective of
the fantastic-looking winglets and as I continue my walk I was fortunate enough
to be allowed into the crew rest area which I knew existed but I didn't
realize it was so large. It actually has eight separate flatbeds which was
impressive and my tour ends with a different view of the fantastic
Rolls Royce Trent XWB engine and it also managed to get into the flight deck when
we landed in Sydney but I'll put that at the end of the video. Now that we're back
in the business cabin, let me show you through my seat 19 K in more detail. In
front of you is the touch TV screen which I'll mention later,
and below that is a fold-out table. Considering the fact that it only has
one attachment to the seat itself, it actually felt pretty sturdy.
On the right side is a large ledge which opens up to reveal a storage spot which
also includes the power plug and two USB ports. There's also the in-flight
entertainment remote controller in here if you don't want to use a touchscreen.
Next to that is another enclosed cubby hole, there's another great view
outside and here's the magazine holder and a reading light.
And then if we swap over to the other side there's another storage spot with
noise cancelling headphones and a bottle of water inside. This whole thing raises
up forming part of the armrest
and then back in front, there's plenty of legroom as well as another storage
spot and individual overhead air-vents which is awesome as so many airlines are
getting rid of them in newer aircraft. One thing I did forget to record was the
seat adjustment which appears on this screen and if you are traveling as a
couple the middle seats are an option and they have this adjustable privacy
barrier. There's also Wi-Fi although unfortunately this costs extra irrespective
of travel class. Water, mocktails and champagne were offered as was a wet
towel and just before we depart I'll have a quick look at the in-flight
entertainment. As I mentioned before, it's a touchscreen and responded perfectly
quickly. The amount of content is probably lacking and as you can see here
they only include two episodes from a specific TV series. Many others would
have a full season available.
They do have these two cool camera views, though, which is great if you're stuck
without a window seat and there's also the in-flight movie map which I really
enjoy using to get my bearings and identify locations I can see out the window.
And finally a quick preview of Star Wars to show you the screen quality which was
fine.That's this aircraft covered in pretty
good detail so let's back out and head for the runway. It's really cool seeing
how proud of this aircraft everyone has been and you can see staff all lining up
to watch as we backed out. I love this view of the winglet with the maintenance
center and the mountains in the background as well. The view taking off
was pretty epic as was the roar from the engines but in his video I'll edit
through the takeoff and upload the full takeoff and landing in a separate video
and I'll link to that in the video description below.
After we levelled out a little, a round of drinks was offered and I attempted to be
artistic with his local rum. Unfortunately there weren't any nuts as
I got in my a A330 flight in the opposite direction two days prior.
A brunch was served and I went for this fantastic tasting crepe which was filled
with caramelized apple pieces and served with crème anglaise and chocolate
crumble topping. There was also a bread roll, some fruit salad and a coffee. By the
way, I'll include photos of the four menus at the end of the video.
Following that, I thought it was time to relax so I put the seat into fully flat mode.
Unfortunately the lack of an amenity kit with high shades would have made sleeping a
little difficult if anyone left the window shade up so instead I watched
the movie. Next up, for those who wondered what an A350
toilet looks like, well wonder no more this is one of two of them that they
have up front in the galley the views outside were fantastic and if you look
closely you can see the Isle of Pines at the southern end of New Caledonia.
Since I'm in the middle of the flight, I thought it might as well plug my youtube
channel. I have many similar videos and if you're a fan of Fiji Airways
I've got a few upcoming videos inside the A330 and a stunning fly day inside
of ATR-72 and a twin otter. The views from those last two fights in
particular were pretty fantastic I'm also on Instagram and Facebook as
well. It looks like we're making up too much time as an air traffic control got
us to fly a few loops which again provided some great views out of the
window. So in conclusion what is Fuji Airways is brand-new A350 like? I'll
start with the positives the aircraft itself is really good as it's quiet and
the humidity levels are much nicer than the older generation of aircraft which
is something that you'll really appreciate on longer flights like the
one to Los Angeles. The seat is also great and I particularly like the multiple
enclosed storage spots as I tend to carry a lot of bits and bobs.
So what wasn't good? Well I must preface this with a bit of an explanation. I
could have flown on the inaugural flight the day beforehand but I intentionally
didn't because of two reasons. Firstly I wanted to visit Fiji for more than one
night and secondly I want to show you what it's really like flying with a
certain airline. Inaugural flights are stage-managed
and don't reflect what an actual standard flight is going to be like.
I pay for all my flights and I'm not chasing favors from airlines and
because of this I can be honest. The service on the ground of was great with
fantastic lounge stuff but on board it was a totally different story and it
really let the whole experience down. I always make an effort to remember my
primary flight attendants name but they never introduced themselves, in fact no
one ever really engaged in any conversation at all. This was in stark
contrast with the incredible friendliness I'd experienced over the
last 48 hours on three other Fiji Airlines flights as well as in my hotel
and restaurants. I only use the call bell once and after 10 minutes of multiple
crew walking past seemingly ignoring me I cancelled it and pressed it again. When
someone eventually came that acted as if I'd accidentally pressed it rather than
asking what my request was. I had to chase them down and actually ask a
question which was about the Wi-Fi. t no stage did anyone use passengers names
during the flight and they really didn't have the same level of excitement about
the new aircraft as everyone else at the airport, or even me. Obviously a bigger
seat is a big part of business class but for me it's the interactions with the
crew that I really enjoy and the vast majority of my flights have been great
but sadly in this instance a good aircraft was let down. I spent quite a
while thinking about how honest I would be in my comments about the crew as I
really don't want to get anyone in trouble and it's never nice to be mean,
But it's the reality. I really wanted to enjoy this flight as I loved my first
time in Fiji and a few little slip-ups are fine and a friendly crew member can
easily make up for some service failings but when it's consistently bad, well I
kind of have to be honest. So I guess that's a bit of a disappointing
end to the video on board this great new aircraft. With improved service, this
flight would have been really good and it's a great trans-pacific option. As I
said before, they'll be adding the A350 from flights between Sydney and Los
Angeles via Nadi from later this month Snd I know this airline can do it as a
crew flying in the opposite direction were great. Another good thing about them
is that they are sort of partners of the oneworld alliance so passengers with
Qantas status also get perks and you earn points and Status credits. I hope
you enjoyed this video and if so please give the thumbs up. Like I said I've got
more Fiji Airlines videos coming up and all of them are far more positive so
make sure you keep an eye out for those. Thanks for watching and coming up as a
brief look in the flight deck followed by the menus.
I was really surprised by how spaceous the flight deck was and apologies I didn't spend more time in here as the crew were
obviously busy and I didn't want to disrupt them any further. Thanks to the
captain and the copilot for letting me visit