Lounge Check
Stephanie Holmes visits the Fiji Airways Premier Lounge, Nadi International Airport
The lowdown: Fiji Airways’ new lounge opened in December and was a welcome addition to Nadi International Airport. The design and development took 12 months, ensuring all the bases were covered to make it a world-class lounge experience. With international flights to destinations including Hong Kong, Singapore, LA and Australia, the lounge has been getting good use in its first year in operation. It is available for free to all Business Class passengers, and Fiji Airways Tabua Club members travelling on FJ flights. Other passengers are entitled to use the lounge for a $70 fee.
The greeting: Like still being on holiday — a warm bula and a huge smile from the man at the front desk, and the same from the female concierge. It made me even sadder to be heading home.
First impression: The lounge still feels brand new. It’s modern, light, and spacious, with beautiful touches, like perfect white orchids planted in rows, two living walls of different types of ferns and plants, flattering lighting and a wall of big screen TVs, one side showing live news and sports, the other showing beautiful footage of Fiji. It’s a space I was happy to spend a couple of hours in.
What’s there: Seating for 200 guests across two large lounge areas, a TV room, bar and dining area, kids room, work space and bathrooms. There’s also a pay-for-use spa offering express treatments (this is open to non-lounge guests via an external entrance).
Who’s there: My Sunday evening flight was an hour earlier than a flight to LA, so the lounge was mostly filled with American travellers, some of whom were playing to stereotypes and talking very loudly.
Anything for the kids? Lailai Land, a separate room filled
with beanbags, toys and a TV screen showing cartoons. Glass walls mean the parents can keep an eye on the kids while still enjoying the comforts of the lounge, although they don’t need to — the room comes with a fully qualified Fijian Nanny. Tech stuff: A multitude of charging ports, and free, fast Wi-Fi.
The view: There’s no view to the outside world, but the living wall gives a nice outlook.
Eating and drinking: The food on offer was excellent and varied. There’s a full-service kitchen with hot meals, and a buffet with snacks and antipasto delights. The Fiji Bean Cart offers traditional savoury and sweet snacks. For drinks, there’s a self-service bar available all day, but morning flights get the services of a barista, and in the evenings there’s a bartender mixing signature cocktails. Two American guests were testing out his skills, and seemed to be satisfied with their drinks.
The bathrooms: Really wonderful. I had stepped into the airport with hair still wet from my last swim at Beachcomber Island; my skin still covered in salt and sand. On arrival at the lounge, I headed straight to the bathrooms, where the friendly and professional attendant had just finished cleaning the shower room. There were fresh, fluffy white towels and an abundance of Pure Fiji toiletries: the attendant encouraged me to take a handful home with me. The shower was hot, powerful and refreshing, and I left the bathrooms looking a lot more respectable than when I went in.
The lounge atmosphere: The loud Americans were hard to ignore. Elsewhere in the lounge, things were peaceful, with most people looking tanned, relaxed, and pretty sad to be heading home.
The bottom line: A fantastic lounge experience, worthy of any international airport, and totally worth paying for if you’re not a Business Class passenger.