RTW TP Run in Jan 2026: Day 6 – San Francisco (SFO) to Nadi, Fiji (NAN)

By Nige on January 23, 2026 at 11:00 pm
Type: Post
Story: Round the World Tier Point Run in Jan 2026 Category: Travel
Tags: Fiji | Fiji Airways | FJ | Nadi | NAN | San Francisco | SFO

My final flight of the day was a long one and significant in so many ways. First time flying with Fiji Airways; first time crossing over the international date line and first time I would be the other side of the world (time zone wise).

It should be a comfortable trip with the aircraft being one of the newer A350-900 with nice, fully flat, business class seats.

The flight left from Gate A9, so it was a good 15 min walk from the AA Flagship Lounge, so I headed down there nice and early.

Good job I did, since I was reminded by Fiji signs that there would be a document check required, specifically if my boarding pass had been issued by a different airline (which it had).

The document check didnt take long and I joined the back of a longish queue ready to board.

There were no signs indicating which door boarding would take place from, nor any suggestion there might be a priority queue and a non-priority queue.

Perhaps that says a lot about the Fijians approach to life? Chilled.

I was soon on into seat 15A and I immediately got some good vibes from the cabin crew. They were friendly, wanted to know a bit about you and were happy to laugh at life.

I was offered a pre-flight drink. A bucks fizz was in order, which seemed to reflect the happy mood on board.

It was a late flight, but I felt pretty good; not particularly jaded at all.

I decided I would have a light dinner on board. I hadn’t eaten much today and I could then sleep for the majority of the rest of the flight, so I placed my order for dinner.

We pushed back on time. Taxiing and take off were easy. Everything felt very smooth.

Drinks service started and I enjoyed another bucks fizz. The cabin crew refer to this as a mimosa, although I believe there are some subtle differences.

The dinner service was the fastest I’ve ever experienced in my years of flying. I initially received a gorgeous bowl of tropical salsa with crisps. Two mins later I received my main course of BBQ wagyu sliders, which were also excellent.

I did get a break before dessert was provided, but i think that was because they weren’t sire whether I had already been served it.

It was worth waiting for! Wow! It was called simply raspberry sorbet, but there was so much more to it than that. Pineapple curd, vanilla sorbet, broken meringue and cream. One of the best desserts I have ever had on a flight.

I watched Ford vs Ferrari whilst I was eating. I’ve seen it before, but its an easy watch and has one of the greatest actors in it: Christian Bale.

After eating, it was time to ask the cabin crew to make up my bed. I’ve only ever had that in First Class before now.

The mattress helped a little and the duvet was warm. It helped me get about 4 hours kip.

I then wasted some time playing games, although the WIFI service wasnt the greatest. It was just a tad slow.

During that time, one of the cabin crew members asked me about what I was doing going to Fiji. He had obviously looked at my itinerary and wanted to find out more.

It turned into an appraisal of his performance as cabin crew. I didn’t mention the throat clearing, which was particularly annoying! Normal the continual reference to King Charles!

I had just laid down to have a second phase of sleep that I was awoken for breakfast nearly 4 hours out of Fiji. It seemed very early to me. Perhaps they were using it as an excuse for acknowledging crossing over the international date line or something?

I was served with a hot towel (more like a thick flannel) and an orange juice. It was at that time, we hit some expected turbulence, which lasted a good while.

It was a while before I was served with my breakfast, which comprised a cacao chia pudding followed by a baked bread pudding. All the puddings for me this morning!

As it happened it wasn’t all of puddings for me. I was advised that they hadn’t loaded sufficient bread puddings but I was offered waffles as an alternative. I was also provided another cacao chia pudding as compensation.

Unfortunately, my very friendly cabin crew member wasn’t as diligent as he was pally. It wasnt the first occasion when he was surprised when I reminded him of what I had ordered. Never mind.

There was a fair amount of turbulence in the final 4 hours of the flight. None of it was that bad, but it was persistent.

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Round the World Tier Point Run in Jan 2026