Fiji Airways Integrates with American AAdvantage for Loyalty Rewards

Fiji Airways (Source)

This is fascinating. We know that Fiji Airways will be joining the oneworld alliance soon as a full member. But that’s not all — it has now been announced that Fiji Airways will adopt American AAdvantage as its loyalty program, as noted by Ramsey Qubein.

Fiji Airways will use American’s loyalty program

Fiji Airways has announced that it will begin using the American AAdvantage loyalty program starting in 2025. This change means that American AAdvantage members will have a more seamless experience on Fiji Airways, with elite members able to take advantage of oneworld Sapphire and oneworld Emerald perks, including reciprocal oneworld lounge access.

The extent of the integration between the two airlines in terms of perks remains to be seen. For instance, could American systemwide upgrades eventually be valid on Fiji Airways? That hasn’t been confirmed yet.

Here’s how Fiji Airways CEO Andrew Viljoen describes this development:

“This loyalty partnership marks a significant milestone, bringing together two renowned carriers to offer new benefits to millions of travelers. We are excited about the positive impact this collaboration will have on both our airlines and our guests who will benefit from the exclusive perks.

With this partnership, Fiji Airways is set to gain access to a vast network of American travelers, potentially increasing visitor arrivals to the enchanting destination of Fiji. The allure of Fiji’s pristine beaches, vibrant culture, and warm hospitality is expected to attract a growing number of American tourists, contributing to the nation’s thriving tourism industry.”

Meanwhile, here’s how American’s VP of Partnerships, Anmol Bhargava, describes this development:

“We are taking our partnership with Fiji Airways one step further by offering our mutual customers the opportunity to unlock more destinations and travel experiences through the AAdvantage program. We look forward to welcoming Fiji Airways customers into the AAdvantage program so they can experience all the ways we deliver on our commitment that travel is better as an AAdvantage member.”

Why doesn’t Fiji Airways have its own loyalty program?

Loyalty programs can be big business for airlines, so some people might wonder why Fiji Airways doesn’t have its own program.

Fiji Airways does have the Tabua Club, which is a guest recognition program offering some perks. However, you have to pay to join, so it’s more of a paid membership club than anything else. It doesn’t offer the ability to earn miles.

In the past, Fiji Airways executives have explained that they don’t have a loyalty program because most people flying with the airline are on vacation and might only fly with the airline once a year or so. A loyalty program can be lucrative for an airline if they can get consumers to engage with the company in various non-flying ways, and that’s tricky for an airline based on a remote holiday island.

So Fiji Airways has encouraged passengers to credit flights to partner airlines, so that they can be rewarded in a relevant way. Honestly, that seems like a realistic stance to take.

Fiji Airways business class (Source)

Presumably, Fiji Airways sees some benefit to partnering more closely with American AAdvantage. While the financial arrangement here is unclear, it would make sense that Fiji Airways has opportunities to generate revenue by referring people to AAdvantage.

The United States, Australia, and New Zealand are Fiji Airways’ biggest foreign markets. Therefore, the logic of using AAdvantage makes sense, especially since American doesn’t compete directly with Fiji Airways in any markets. It is somewhat surprising that Fiji Airways wouldn’t use Qantas’ loyalty program, given that Qantas owns a stake in Fiji Airways.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen an airline adopt another carrier’s frequent flyer program. However, in the past, it has typically been in situations where airlines either have a joint venture or there’s some equity investment involved. Given that American and Fiji Airways have nothing more than a basic codeshare agreement, this is one of the more unusual ways we’ve seen one airline adopt another’s program.

We are curious if there will be some rebranding, like “Fiji Airways AAdvantage,” or if Fiji Airways will simply direct people to American’s website for anything related to loyalty.

Bottom line

As of some point in 2025, Fiji Airways will start using American AAdvantage as its own loyalty program, coinciding with the airline joining oneworld. This means the airline will encourage passengers to sign up for the program. It remains to be seen how extensive the benefits will be for AAdvantage members when flying with Fiji Airways, beyond just typical oneworld reciprocity.

This information was first shared on onemileatatime.com.