using frequent flier miles
 

Some of you have traveled from Chicago (where I live) to NZ and in fact traveled all around NZ, using frequent flier miles. Any tips on doing this? Can it be done online, or must it be done by phone, and how far ahead must you make reservations? I had thought that United had the NZ market, but somebody referenced using American miles. Any comments, anyone? Thanks

You can use either UA or AA miles to get to NZ. UA is a partner with Air New Zealand, so UA miles can be used both for long-haul and domestic travel; AA partners with Qantas, who also have a domestic network inside NZ (as well as Oz.) Qantas serves Auckland from LAX.

In addition to the aforementioned airlines, Air Tahiti Nui is a partner with American and my significant other and I are booked on Air Tahiti Nui to Auckland.

We fly to LA on 1-15-06 and spend the night there. When we travel in the winter,we are always afraid of getting snowed in, but so far, we have been very lucky with weather.

On 1-16 we fly out of LA to Auckland with a fuel stop in Tahiti. We board a cruise ship (Statendam) in Auckland, tour both NZ Islands and Tasmania and end in Sydney. We've been to Australia before, so we're only spending 2 extra days there.

AA was very helpful in finding partner airlines for us.
I just wish I could close my eyes and be there without having to make the flight, but one can't have everything.

We used USAir FF miles for a free trip from Philly to NZ on ANZ. USAir also partners with Qantas.

We flew twice intraNZ, once with Qantas and once with ANZ. Never thought of using FF miles. Maybe we should have, although the flights were cheap. It may have been that we were happy just to get a free flight to NZ.

We made Business reservations 331 days beforehand, calling just afer midnight. Couldn't do it online. ((F))

Thanks for the good info on using FF miles.

Guess I missed this post over the weekend. We are one of the ones in Chicago who are using frequent flier miles to Australia and New Zealand (and all of the the intermediate flights). We booked through Amiercan who partner with Qantas, but our friends who suggested asking about the intermediate flights use United connecting with Air New Zealand. At least for American I was not able to book on-line, so I had to pay the $15 per ticket to talk with an agent on American's 800 number. Well worth the cost since it saved us thousands! We made the reservations in November for flights in June and July. When I gave her the dates she was relieved I wasn't trying to go in February. I think it depends on the time of year - whether it is high or low season. The two legs we had trouble getting the exact flights we wanted we both impacted by high season: the flight out of Cairns (we go lucky with the inbound flight) and the return flight from LA (we have to connect through Dallas rather than coming straight back). Otherwise it was very easy. I got a little concerned because it took them about a week to ticket it - but when I called them, they said it was just that our flights were so far in the future that they had been put further back in the line.