enzian

I am trying to scheme a way to fly business class to New Zealand---that long flight over the Pacific is just too much without a little help. I have read that award tickets in business class on flights to Oz and NZ are impossible to get, so I am looking at other ways.

One thought I have is to break up the flight into two shorter segments, flying Seattle to Honolulu (5.5 hours) and then Honolulu to Auckland (9 hours) instead of Seattle to LAX (2 hours) and then LAX to Auckland (13 hours). Does that make sense? We wouldn't need BC on the Hawaii flight segment, just between there and NZ. We wouldn't even mind a short stopover in Hawaii.

In looking at the New Zealand FF program, it seems that they give you a companion ticket with your membership. I am thinking we could buy one ticket in business (around $4000) and then get the companion ticket (which requires some air miles but not many).

Does anyone know how available these companion tickets are in reality? The website says to call and check on availability before buying the paid ticket, and I am hoping if we are flexible on dates we can get something. (I am planning way ahead on this).

The wrinkle is that miles in the New Zealand program are hard to get without actually flying, and we are One World people, not Star Alliance. The website makes a reference to credit card, hotel and car rental as other ways to earn miles, but there are no links or details at all.

The other option would be to fly on Qantas using our Alaska miles, of which we have plenty, but again I have heard those tickets are impossible to get. But somebody must be able to get them. Maybe only elite status members of Qantas' own program?

Anyway, I would appreciate advice from anyone familiar with Air New Zealand. Thanks.

mztery

Did you read the ANZ pages on companion tickets? Yoy need 1300+ airpoints for business, and the typical LONG HAUL in coach gets you 50-100 airpoints. Seems like a bad deal if you don't already fly ANZ

enzian

Yes, I saw that. I would be converting Starpoints to Airpoints; works out we would need around 80,000 Starpoints to get enough Airpoints. It seems worth doing IF those Companion Tickets are actually available.

Gardyloo

The problem with Qantas is that they open redemption inventory at 365 days for their own flyers, but AA/AS redeemers can't see space until 330 days, so QF members get a 35-day "window," which is often enough to wipe out the inventory, particularly for peak-period trips.

While aa.com now shows award availability on Qantas, it doesn't show availability on other partners that you might be able to use, specifically Hawaiian Airlines (to SYD from HNL) or Air Pacific/Fiji Airways (name changing next year.)

However if you sign up for the Qantas FF program, you can use Qantas' search engine which <i>will</i> include FJ as well as Qantas' own planes. I haven't encountered a case where flights shown as available to QFF members <i>weren't</i> available to users of AA or Alaska miles, except for that 35-day "window" mentioned above.

Remember with Alaska miles you have to use the same partner on all non-Alaska flights; you can't "mix and match" different partners on the same itinerary (e.g. Qantas down and Fiji back.) Also, unlike AA, Alaska still doesn't allow one-way awards on partners, so you have to pick one and hope for the best. (But note, AS also allows you to use Delta, which flies to Sydney; you'd then have to either pay for the trans-Tasman legs or else use a separate award for Qantas hops.)

I suspect the Air NZ "companion" option isn't very cost-effective, but I am not familiar with the Air NZ program.

Oh, just as a note, before you buy $4K worth of tickets, you might do a little research on award space to Oz/NZ on other Star Alliance carriers. Right now US Airways is giving a 100% bonus on purchased frequent flyer miles, so you can buy 50,000 miles for around $1800 and get another 50K as a bonus. A business class round trip award on US Airways (but could fly Air NZ, United, even Asiana) to Oz/NZ is 130K miles, so while 100K miles wouldn't get you there, you could buy 100K now and another 30K in January (new year resets the clock) and have some shot at it. Use the Star Alliance award search facility on Expert Flyer and it can be very easy.)

enzian

Thanks, Gardyloo, Your information is always very helpful.

The 330/365 day difference on Qantas explains a lot. I can view available reqard seats on Qantas using my BA Executive membership, and have been trying that. Now that I know to look 330 days ahead, I did find seats in Premium Economy (but not Business Class) on Oct. 15, which I believe is 330 days from now? So I can keep monitoring to see if that is fairly consistent.

Maybe what I would end up doing is book one way on Air NZ using miles for a Companion Ticket as I described above, and paying for the other. That $4000 is in NZD, so more like $3200. Since that would in effect be for 2 tickets, it's not too bad.

The Starpoints I said I could convert to Airports on Air New Zealand are actually Starwood points, from the hotel program. They are freely convertible to various airline programs, at various rates. For ANZ, 65 Starwood points give one Airport. Since I would need 1280, that translates to 83,200, which is doable. But that only gets us one way.

If I use my BA miles for the other leg, we can book one-way on Qantas, Sydney to Honolulu. And Premimn Econ. would be OK if we can't get Business Class. This will be for my husband's 70th B-Day so I'd like to make it nice, though.

So the trip would end up SEA to HNL to Auckland outbound, then fly to OZ and return SYD---HNL on Quantas, then back to Seattle on Alaska. Somehow that sounds better to men than those 13+ hour flights from LA, but maybe I'm not thinking this through.

MissGreen

I use bestflights.com.au for my business class flights as they seem to be cheaper than going through regular bookings with airlines. Not sure if that is any help to you.

I am from Australia and agree it is a VERY long way from the US and Europe.

JaneB

I just booked 2 Business tickets on AA website using AA FF miles. Flight: DFW-BNE-SYD-CNS-POM--125,000 miles--all on Qantas--Sept 1, 2013. So flights are available.

enzian

Hi Jane---that is encouraging,although I know I can't persuade my husband to backtrack to DFW to catch a flight. Did you intend to go to Brisbane and Cairns, or is that just the routing that worked out? I guess I need to study a route map for Qantas and start getting creative. This trip isn't until 2014 so I have time to work on it a bit.

I guess I'll go on FlyerTalk an dask about those ANZ companion tickets.

JaneB

Our destination is Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea. The flight schedule is what was offered. I would have preferred a flight DFW to Brisbane direct to Cairns and on to Port Moresby (and skip flying to Sydney)--but that was not an option in business class. I checked the FF flight availability daily on AA until one came up that worked. Our dates were flexible.

enzian

Thanks! You have inspired me to check other options, and it looks like a Brisbane flight might work for us, as there are flights from there to Christchurch on the South Island. Flying on Qantas with our Alaska miles is definitely the most cost-effective; I just didn't think we had a chance of getting flights.

Actually I checked Delta flights on the Alaska website and those are widely available in Business Class. I'm not a Delta fan but maybe that is an option too.

Melnq8

I've had very good luck using United miles to book Business Class award tickets on Air NZ, even at short notice...but, I originate from Perth, Australia or Singapore, not the US.

Have you considered Air NZ's Premium Economy or Skycouches? A good compromise between Business and Coach at a more reasonable fare.

Take a look here:

http://www.airnewzealand.com/premium-economy

Good luck. Air NZ Business Class is pretty fabulous.