I just came back from 11 days in Fiji (3 days at Beqa Lagoon's shark diving and a week on board the MV Fiji Aggressor II). For those of you who are considering to travel to Fiji, you are advised to spend 2 - 3 days in Nadi or Suva at the beginning of your trip in case your bags don't arrive with you.
I travelled on Singapore Airlines from Hong Kong to Singapore to Sydney, then caught a connecting flight on Air Pacific from Sydney to Nadi. My 2 bags (clothes and dive gear) did not arrive with me. Air Pacific later informed me the bags arrived in Sydney but somehow did not get on the flight to Nadi even though I had a 3 hour layover.
Lucky I had my camera, housing, friends who had an extra swimsuit and a dive shop I could rent gear from. The bags arrived 2 days later. For some strange reason Air Pacific delivered a 3 package to me (together with my bags) that belonged to someone who had checked in the package on September 20!
When we arrived on the MV Fiji Aggressor II to meet the rest of our group there were 2 other people out of 18 divers who lost their luggage. One person travelled from Hong Kong to Sydney (on Cathay Pacific) and from Sydney to Nadi (on Air Pacific). The other travelled from Hong Kong to Auckland (on Cathay Pacific) and from Auckland to Nadi (on Air Pacific). Air Pacific found my buddies bags but the Aggressor had to leave port and Air Pacific did not have the means to deliver my buddies' bags to our dive site.
In the end Air Pacific delivered the bags to the Aggressor's Suva office (free of charge) but the owner of the Aggressor had to fly the bags on his personal airplane out to a remote island where we were diving (for a charge).
Lucky my buddies only missed 2 dives but it could have been worse. If Air Pacific is the only airline that will take you to your dive destination, there's a 16% chance you could lose your bags (just look at us, 3 out of 18 divers lost their bags).
