montrealer

Greetings from a visitor from the Air Canada board.

I'm heading for a 3 week vacation to NZ in January (using a wedding in Bay of Islands as an excuse). First time visiting NZ. Have snagged reward flights in J on Air Canada as far as (and returning from) Sydney.

I understand from other threads that *A award space on NZ is almost never released in J and very rarely in Y. So I'll need to book SYD-CHC and AKL-SYD for $.

Looking now on ExpertFlyer and matrix, NZ has only posted fares starting around $300 o.w. (fare class T and higher, base fare only), and only Q and sometimes V are actually available ($400+). The cheaper fare classes are just not even posted or zeroed out on flights. Some non-*A carriers have posted fares 1/2 of that, but also no availability.

Am I looking too early and should wait until the spring for lower fares/avail to be loaded? Or am I conversely too late (it is peak season, I know) and I should book now? The fares aren't too bad given the distance, just some others (on paper) are tantalizingly better, only unavailable.

I will need to travel specifically on Jan 3 and Jan 24, so I'm looking for broad availability patterns, not whether a needle-in-a-haystack seat might appear on some one random day.

Thanks!

pbl22

Why don't you look on airnz.co.nz? I didn't look on Jan 3 (which will be a massive travel day from Sydney to NZ, by the way) but on Jan 24 AKL-SYD one way is NZD254 seat only (seems plenty of availability at the moment). It's peak season, as you've identified, so you're not going to get the dirt cheap fare classes.

QF and VA probably also have similar (possibly even cheaper) fares. Or look at EK. Or try Expedia. Don't just rely on ExpertFlyer and matrix - I find they often don't have fares for this part of the world as cheap as offered by the airlines themselves.

Xiaotung

NZ do not sell tickets like US carriers do. Some fares are often not available in other parts of the world. Look both airnz.com.au and airnz.co.nz and take advantage of sales from both countries. Sometimes it even pays to book 2 one-way tickets.

jawnbc

Happy Canada Day from a NZ-based hoser!

There are LOTS of options across the Tasman and you can mix it up: different carriers on each of the segments, in other words. The points on the inexpensive NZ flights are zero or nearly zero, so if you're not interested in paying a premium to get Aeroplan points, look at:

Emirates
China Airlines
Virgin
Qantas

Good luck!

sbiddle

January is a massive travel month between AU and NZ. The chances of any specials occurring are virtually zero.

DomesticGoddess

Also:
Jetstar (a LCC)
LAN (stop in AKL between SCL & SYD)

pepsi1336

Mid to late January is very possible to get sale fares. A couple of months ago i got a $169 seat only fare AKL-SYD for 19 Jan 2016. Have in the past got several discount fares during this period with NZ.
For 3 Jan SYD-CHC though, you will likely be paying top dollar with very little to no chance of a sale.

mad_atta

China Airlines in particular often has fantastic one way deals on SYD-AKL and SYD-CHC (though I have a feeling that they are excluded during the January peak) and the product is a decent long-haul product. Even their business class fares are often under A$400 one way.

Mwenenzi

Buy 2 one ways including different airlines. Air fares ex NZ tend to be cheaper than the same flight as part of Aust-NZ-Aust return.

Airlines that fly Australia (CNS BNE OOL SYD MEL ADL) to/from New Zealand (AKL WLG CHC ZQN) are
- Air New Zealand (codeshares with VA) [Star Alliance]
- Virgin Australia (codeshares with Air NZ) (Delta partner)
- Jetstar (a low cost low quality carrier with low-medium-high priced fares owned by QF)
- Qantas (codeshares with EK) [OneWorld]
- Emirates (codeshares with QF)
- LAN (SYD AKL) [OneWorld]
- China Airlines (BNE/SYD - AKL & SYD - CHC) seasonable [Skyteam]

montrealer

Thanks to all for the comments and suggestions. We've gone ahead and booked on ANZ one way and Qantas/LAN the other.
By the way (since there is some discussion on this in another thread on this board), the ANZ booking engine had no trouble giving us "Frequent Flyer" seats for no charge, presumably based on our *A (but not ANZ) Gold status.

sbiddle

If you're buying TT seats on Air NZ always buy 2 x one way fares. Even if you book these both on the .co.nz site it's always cheaper than booking a return fare on a single PNR.

pbl22

No, it's not. I can easily find an example where the two exact same TT flights booked as two one-ways are dearer than if booked as a return. It sometimes is cheaper and was often cheaper when the NZD was much closer to the AUD.

sbiddle

Wow. I haven't been over to Aussie for a few months but it looks like Air NZ have finally fixed this.

For the last couple of years if you booked NZ -> AU -> NZ return on the same PNR on the .co.nz site you'd pay more for the return flight that you would booking the return flight as a one way fare on the .co.nz site

I know a lot of people who would simply book two one way fares because it was cheaper.

I've raised this numerous times with Air NZ and I know my blog post on the issue has had tens of thousands of views. Air NZ's response was one of simply not commenting on the issue so they clearly knew they were ripping off unsuspecting people.

mad_atta

Better advice is always to *check* whether it's cheaper as two one-ways. Sales are market-specific, so quite often when there are specials on (ex-Australia at least) they only apply if booked on the .au site, so booking the NZ-AU sector on the .nz site means missing out on the special.

cavemanzk

Only thing to note on that is most of the recent sales on the .nz site is that the specials require you to be booking an return fare.