Notagain

Have return Auckland to Sydney flights in July and see NZ have a sale on.
Looked to upgrade from economy to PE for each leg. Unfortunately going on 320 so not available to upgrade unless a flight change, which does not suit our plans.
Return from Sydney to go to PE, if I upgraded both flights would be $214.00 pp, however if I only upgrade return flight then cost is $264 pp!
Any idea why dearer for only doing one leg?

nzkarit

Married segments? Is the sale for one way or return? Is return offering different booking classes?

Markhm

i guess the delta is tied to the cost of the seat only ticket?

kiwifrequentflyer

As a kiwi, when I try to book a one way flight from overseas to NZ, the costs are insane. It costs almost just as much for a return flight. There is a reason for it, I can't remember what it is, but basically, it's always much more cost effective to do return flights from your home port. So I wouldn't be surprised if there is something similar to do with this too.

Nightowl888

I’ve noticed this as well. At one stage I was going to book LAX-AKL on NZ, and it was cheaper to book a return LAX-AKL-LAX trip than the one way trip! Not unique to NZ though, have had the same when I’ve looked up flights on other airlines.

This is quite the opposite to booking a one way flight out of NZ, which is often half the price of a return trip, so it doesn’t seem like you’re penalised for booking one way. I’ve done this many times both on NZ and other airlines.

sbiddle

I remember for a period maybe 2014ish where Air NZ were intentionally pricing return flights to Australia for more than 2x one way fares. I say intentionally because I don't believe for one minute this was accidental.

I booked quite a number of trips as 2 x one way rather than a single return on the same ticket and used to save from memory maybe $40 or so.

80Days

Just returned from a trip to the USA, we wanted to fly NZ -> Mainland USA and return Hawaii -> NZ, finding our own way around in between. Air NZ wouldn't allow that as a single booking and told me the only option was to book one way. When I did a dummy booking a return ticket NZ -> Hawaii -> NZ was about $700 NZD each way at the time I booked, however booking "one way" Hawaii -> NZ it kept sending me to the USA site and the quoted cost was just over $1k USD for the same seat on the same plane. It was and still is insane alright!

For anyone having the same issue in the future - the work around in the end was booking a multi stop as NZ -> Mainland USA then return as Mainland USA -> Hawaii -> NZ . We ended up on a United 77W (International version rather than a domestic 777 they also have) on the Mainland -> Hawaii segment and I was pleasantly surprised. I went in with low expectations but I was happy with the seats and the service. I'd happily fly them again. And when I needed help from United, they answered their chat within a few minutes Where as I'm still waiting for a reply to a chat message I sent to Air NZ in January...

nzkarit

Multistop isn't a work around, it is the normal method to do multistops and openjaws.

80Days

My bad I left a critical part out of the story.

What we wanted to book was Auckland -> Houston, Honolulu -> Auckland, and I couldn't multistop that at the time - I understand the issue was Hawaii = "Islands" (e.g. it had the seat, seat+bag, works system when I was booking) but mainland USA was "Longhaul" - and they couldn't put the two on the same ticket. I was going to book a separate flight from mainland to Hawaii, but with the booking issue doing a multistop Auckland -> Houston, San Francisco -> Hawaii -> Auckland was able to be booked at a more reasonable price than the alternative option of two one way tickets. It was still more expensive than my original plan but better than the other option I was given.

I'm guessing the change to have Hawaii as longhaul has now fixed the problem I had too as I can see it's now possible to book how I wanted. Yey!

henry999

My question is a bit different but this thread is timely so rather than start another ...

I'll soon be returning from Oz, with PER-AKL-ORD in PE. I would like to upgrade the transPac only to business. Rang up and the agent said that I couldn't do just the one, would have to upgrade both sectors. Is that right? If not I'll surely try again but after an hour and 14 minutes on hold then I'd rather not bother if the answer's going to be the same. TIA

Thai-Kiwi

Language is imporftant. It sounds like you want the ticket re-issued in business, but only for AKL-ORD. Indeed that might not be possible given point of origin pricing will all be around ex-PER fares to ORD.

If you want an upgrade, then this is done by single sector, but requires an RU or $AP upgrade. Unless you are Elite and flexible, is not guaranteed.

Depending on the fare rules, you could cancel the current flights, and book 2 separate flights; one PER-AKL Y/PE and then a separate ticket AKL-ORD in biz. But that brings other issues around mis-connection risk and handling, and may not be cost-effective.

LyingFlat

Yes, as TK says it sounds like you want to pay the fare difference and reissue the ticket.

What you were told by NZ is kind of correct. The reason why I say "kind of" is that paying to upgrade AKL-ORD only can be done, but it doesn't make much sense to do so. The fare rules for BP for fares USA-AUS will usually state that you will be BP on the transpac sector and then will give a range of booking classes to be used between AUS-NZ.

For example, a Z class fare might say to use Z, C, U, Y between AUS-NZ with no discount if you are booked in U/Y. Essentially, with what you are wanting to do you may as well have the PER-AKL in BP as well as this will be factored into the cost of paying for AKL-ORD to be in BP.

henry999

Thanks v.m. both Thai-Kiwi and LyingFlat. In case it wasn't clear when I said i was 'returning', these are the inbound sectors of a return ticket. Not sure what RU or $AP mean. The agent quoted US$2220 for PE to BP for PER-AKL and AKL-ORD. Looking at 'Manage your booking' on the Air NZ website, I can 'bid' on a OneUp for only the AKL-ORD sector. The maximum OneUp bid for that sector is $1795 so processing an uograde through the agent, i.e., including the PER-AKL flight as well -- which I don't want -- adds some US$425 to the deal. I'm inclined to make that maximum OneUp bid and hope that it goes through.

nzkarit

RU - Recognition Upgrade. An upgrade instrument given to status pax.

APD Upgrade - a fixed price upgrade option given to people with Elite status paid in Air Point Dollars.

The upgrade via the agent isn't an upgrade per se. It is paying the fare difference to book into a higher cabin. As mentioned with married segments the entire journey (inbound or outbound or in some cases both) has to be the same cabin or set of booking classes.

One Up are the lowest ranked upgrade instrument. Even with the highest bid I would not expect it to go through. RUs & APD Upgrades come first & are usually oversubscribed at the moment. Upgrade instruments are applied to a single sector hence being able to apply to a single sector. And most probably not available from Perth as Wamos is doing that at the moment and has no PE.

LyingFlat

As nzkarit has pointed out OneUps are right at the bottom of the upgrade list so unless Business has quite a few seats available your chances are slim. The only way to guarantee you'll be in Business for AKL-ORD is to bite the bullet and pay for it all the way from PER.