An Air New Zealand grabaseat “How Low Can You Go” auction today saw more than 10,000 fares – enough to fill 73 737s – sell out within the day as bargain-hunting Kiwis created an online buying frenzy.

The auction, which began at midnight, was intended to last for 48 hours, or until the fares sold out. The auction officially ended at 5.07pm when the last fare – from Christchurch to Wellington sold for $15.

Air New Zealand Marketing Manager Jules Lloyd said she was blown away by the success of the reverse auction, which saw domestic fares start at a set price and continuously drop until they were all sold.

“Kiwis love a deal and ‘How Low Can You Go?’ was designed to test the mettle of even the most hardened bargain hunter – people had to ask themselves how long they were prepared to wait to score a ludicrously low deal or run the risk of missing out. Clearly, they weren’t prepared to wait very long, with the first fare (Auckland to Queenstown) selling at eight minutes past midnight for $48 one-way.

“By midday we’d sold nearly two-thirds of the 10,000 fares that were on sale for five of our most popular domestic routes.* Queenstown was the first to sell out, with nearly 1100 fares into and out of Queenstown all sold by the time the fare dropped to $41.”

Ms Lloyd said there was a noticeable surge in bookings as people arrived at work and logged on for the day. “Interest peaked between 8am and 9am, with more than 2000 bookings created – up four times on bookings at the same time last week. At one point during that hour we confirmed 53 bookings in one minute!"

The auction was the latest initiative in a string of highly successful grabaseat promotions run by Air New Zealand’s grabaseat this year.

These included $1 fares to celebrate grabaseat’s first birthday and “grabaseat on tour,” which saw teams of Air New Zealanders visiting all 26 domestic ports over 26 days in partnership with the TV ONE Breakfast show. Each morning TV ONE Breakfast weather presenter Tamati Coffey and the grabaseat team surprised and delighted residents around the country, offering one local the chance to spin the grabaseat wheel to set the daily fare between $1 and $26 dollars.

Launched in July 2006, grabaseat.co.nz has been phenomenally successful, offering Kiwis ridiculously low fares within New Zealand, Australia, the Pacific Islands and exclusive international destinations such as Los Angeles, Shanghai and San Francisco.

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Air New Zealand is pleased to advise the release of the following Special Domestic fares effective for sales today, Monday 11 February

Auckland – Christchurch vv $59 one way (via Internet)

Auckland – Wellington vv $49 one way (via Internet)

Auckland – Queenstown vv $99 one way (via Internet)

Christchurch – Rotorua vv $89 one way (via Internet)

Christchurch – Queenstown vv $59 one way (via Internet)

Booking class: P Class [except CHCROT K class]

Fare Basis: PSMARD12 / KSMARD16

Travel Dates: Travel to be commenced and completed between 23 Feb - 18 Mar & 31 Mar - 31 May 2008

Sick of smug couples on Vlaentines?
Fill your glass, polish your pick-up lines, and grabadate athe the grabaseat Singles Awareness Day party.
grabaseat is flying people (18yrs & over) into Wellywood from around NZ on Saturday Feb 16 and putting cash on a bar tab to kick the night off.

Tim Shadbolt is back in the news again for taking his clothes off to win a one-day mayoralelection.

The self-described shameless mayor says at 61 he still has what it takes to win votes that could earn 1000 $1 airline seats to his beloved Invercargill.

The Air New Zealand tickets would take people to and from the city with the hottest mayor, with other cheap deals to the cities with mayoral runners up....

...Until 5pm today people can go online and vote for one of four mayors in order to determine howcheap the flights will be on Friday.

The final price will depend on the mayors' ranking in the voting polls the hotter the mayor the lower the price; first place will be $1, second $20, third $30, and fourth $40.

There will be 1000 seats available on each of four domestic routes (500 outgoing seats and 500 returning seats). The routes are; Hamilton to Wellington, Palmerston North to Auckland, Dunedin to Christchurch, and Invercargill to Christchurch.Mr Naylor goes up against the mayors of Hamilton, Dunedin, and Invercargill.