Flying from Christchurch to Auckland
 

My friend is flying in to Christchurch from Australia and will then have to fly up to Auckland to meet up with me. My flight goes right to Auckland. Are there any no frills airlines within NZ? Is she better to look the flight ahead of time, or wait til she gets there?..price-wise, I mean. She will need the flight the days she arrives, or the next day.
Thanks for any advice.

Try booking online.

Qantas has a special on at the moment going the other way Auckland - Christchurch NZD80 plus taxes and fuel surcharge. No reason to believe it would cost much more if any going the other way.

If you book online for Air NZ I think you may need a New Zealand address. Use the hotel as the address is my suggestion. It is not as if they send anything out to you.

Qantas does not need a NZ address I don't think.

Hope this helps.

Steve

Thank you Steve, I'll check it out. It's bedtime here, so will check it tomorrow.
Thanks for the help.

FYI: I'm a US traveler and I was able to book a flight from Auckland to Queenstown via Air New Zealand on their website. The tickets came as paper tickets via Fed Ex from their affiliated agent in St. Louis.

Hi TN Traveller.

Did you book on Airnz.com or Airnz.co.nz

Air New Zealand has sites all over the world and on each there are varying ticket deals. For instance on the .com site which is aimed at North Americans you folk can access better airfares between North America and NZ than we can (Though they are geared on a USA return basis).

On the .co.nz site which naturally enough is aimed at New Zealanders, we can get discounted domestic travel. This is due to a reasonable amount of competition between Air NZ and Qantas domestically and to a lesser extent Origin Pacific, the third domestic airline here.

If you book domestic here, you don't get tickets. All is eticketed. If you do want a paper ticket generally you pay more (service fee tacked on)

Cheers

Steve

PS. To be honest I find Qantas's site easier to navigate and a little more user friendly.

Kiwi Acct:

The AKL-Queenstown flight was probably booked through the .com site. If we paid a ticketing fee, it was very small. Although I prefer e-tickets, I just was happy to get a $130US fare, a bargain compared to some I have to pay in the U.S. I agree that the Qantas site is easier to use.... decided to use AirNZ because of the frequent flyer miles. We were not disappointed as they provide outstanding service.

By the way, my wife and I returned from your country on Sunday . . .but ready to turn around and fly back 16 hours to experience it again. We were overwhelmed by the beauty of the country, arguably more scenic than Switzerland.

But what made this trip our favorite of all time was the hospitality of the people we met along the way. Kiwis certainly set the standard for the rest of the world in living life to the fullest and sharing their country in a very friendly and genuine way. We learned a lot from you folks in eight days.

TN, do you plan to post a trip report? I'd love to read it!

Lee Ann

Hi TN Traveller

I am glad you enjoyed your time here and I hope you can make it back someday.

The fare you got from Queenstown was not too bad you can end up paying a lot more for that route. All the better for getting the airpoints as well.

Look forward to having you back oneday.

Cheers

Steve

ElindilPickle:

I'll be glad to post a trip report. I will do it in a separate thread. Thanks for asking.