The second leg of our flight with Fiji Airways, this time as we head back to Singapore.

Flight: FJ361
18 June 2022
Departs: 11.45am
Arrives: 6.15pm
Duration: 10 hours 30 minutes
Aircraft: A332

Thanks to our new friends, they told us to use the self check-in machine and we could skip the long queues. With our boarding passes, we headed to the shorter queue for baggage drop off. However, the person at the counter tore our paper boarding passes and reprinted on better quality one, the one that feels like a card. We checked our three bags, then we received the necessary documents for boarding.

Sota Tale! It is time to say good bye to Fiji after spending 8 days here on this wonderful island and getting to experience true Fijian hospitality everywhere. My wife even says that she wants to come back here again.

We managed to do some last minute shopping in the duty-free area. We bought some moisturising cream, local spiced rum and Fijian beach shirts from Rip Curl. Last minute contribution to the local economy and definitely spending more than the budget.

Most of the flights on that day were to US, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. The only regional flight was to Tarawa, which I hope to visit one day. Tarawa is the capital of Kiribati, one of the least visited countries in the world. Now that Fiji has opened up for tourism, there are many tourists visiting.

When the boarding announcement was made, everyone rushed to the gate to queue up. There were five different zones and ours was Zone 1, which was the last one to board. There is no hurry since all passengers need to board the plane before it can take off.

The pathway to board the plane is not fully air-conditioned, so we get a good view of the plane parked on the tarmac. It’s a magnificent Airbus 330-200.

Flight time is estimated to be around 10 hours, from Nadi to Singapore, with some strong tail winds. Pushback commenced promptly after the passengers have boarded and the cargo loaded.

2 hours after take off, we were served the first meal. It was so delicious that I devoured everything on the plate. It was soy sauce diced chicken with linguine. There was also coconut cream cookies, a salad and a bun. The main course was still the best, as the chicken pieces were so tender. Looking back at the rising chicken costs in Singapore, I feel like I had eaten my share of chicken in Fiji.

Another 4 hours later, the second meal was served. This time it was penne pasta with creamy chicken and peas. I am not a fan of creamy sauce nor the green peas, so you would know that I did not enjoy this dish so much. The chocolate mousse was great, and the cheese paired with the biscuits.

I like how safety is one of the priorities on this airline. Before every meal, the stewardess would walk around the cabin to give out hand sanitisers. She would squirt a small amount onto our hands. It is important to sanitise regularly to kill germs and this is also more efficient than people queueing up to wash their hands in the lavatory. After the meal, we were given a Travel ready hygiene pack, which contains some wet wipes and masks for us to change. Wearing an old mask for long hours on the plane would reduce its effectiveness of keeping viruses at bay.

Feeling restless as I could not sleep on the plane, I ordered a few drinks to keep me company, such as gin and tonic, vodka orange and Fiji Gold beer. It was my last chance to drink this classic Fijian beer before flying home.

Around 5.30pm, we began our descent into Changi Airport. We were flying over some Indonesian islands and the view from above looked so mesmerising.

We were parked at Terminal 1. From my window seat, I could see a Jetstar plane parked on the tarmac. It is no wonder that Jetstar is not keen to move to Terminal 4. It is much easier to operate out of Terminal 1 as most of its partner airlines (Emirates, Japan Airlines and Qantas) also land at the same terminal.

Clearing immigration was fast as we used the automated gates. However, we waited almost 20 minutes for our luggage to be delivered. Despite the numerous belts, we did not understand why FJ was placed on the same belt as other planes which landed around the same time. So we had to wait for all the bags from Hat Yai to be collected first before our bags from Nadi arrived on the same luggage belt.

Overall, even though 10 hours may seem like a long journey, I find the plane comfortable and the service staff were quite responsive. I enjoyed many alcoholic drinks and watched movies on the IFE. 10 hours from Singapore can reach quite a few places, such as Istanbul, South Africa or Fiji. Next time, I will choose Fiji Airways to continue my exploration of the other islands in the South Pacific.