Air New Zealand Air Points - What's the logic in this route?

I have booked a UA Mileage plus points TIX to PPT. It's booked some 10 months before departing, so I find it hard to believe that there are NO avail seats on any flights direct to AKL from MEL. According to UA they were the only seats available around the dates that I wanted to travel...

For some crazy reason they have booked the following route with NZ:-

MEL-WLG-AKL-PPT

PPT-AKL-CHC-MEL

The flight out doesn't connect with the flight to MEL so I have to overnight in WLG (for 4 or 5 hours!) On the return I need to stay in CHC for 4 or 5 hours overnight before catching the morning flight back to MEL.

Do NZ make more money out of UA this way, pay less fees? Seems rather illogical to me & hardly convenient. Maybe NZ know that they are never gonna fill the WLG or CHC flights from or to MEL and give UA those rather than put you on an AKL flight?

I'm looking forward to my trip to Tahiti & the NZ flights, the fees & taxes were a lot less than I normally pay on a QF FF redemption, but any of you NZ gurus understand the logic?

Blame UA starnet filtering, although NZ's schedule is hardly convenient for connecting flights Australia to Tahiti

The Terminal at WLG closes over night so you wont be able to stay there on the overnight.

There is a small cold and uncomfortable room in the car park. If I did not live in WLG I would choose a near by hotel, of course the city is 15 minutes away...

I actually like WLG, reminds me a bit of MEL somewhere. Shame the itinerary that UA booked me doesn't allow a longer stay. I'll reserve a hotel in the city.

Stange airport, when you approach the Terminal from the runway it feels as if you're nearly inside someone's living room & invading their privacy!

Yip - Wellington Airport is very strange, the control tower is in between houses!



from : http://www.wellington-airport.co.nz/html/airportinfo/
The terminal will close every night for 2 1/2 hours from 1.30am - 4am.

Perfect place for a control tower at WLG - you get a very good view from there of the airport, approach, departure and circuit .

Blame UA starnet filtering, although NZ's schedule is hardly convenient for connecting flights Australia to Tahiti

Agreed. Most likely UA *net filtering. I redeemed J SYD-AKL-PPT (return) and also J SYD-WLG (intentional)-AKL-PPT-AKL-SYD without any problems using SQ miles, and look at the seats available on ANA booking engine. My sister has headaches when she tried to book SYD-AKL-PPT (return) on UA miles where she could not get the dates she wanted (even though seats are available in ANA booking engine), even after arguing with the UA agent, she ended up having to stay in AKL for 2 nights.

Obviously AirNZ is NZ centric and their timing of flights are always more suitable for Kiwis. I always ended up staying in AKL overnight for transit, which I am fine with considering the amount of money saved using points for redemption, and NZ is so much cheaper than Tahiti :cool:

Obviously AirNZ is NZ centric and their timing of flights are always more suitable for Kiwis.

Probably true, but also for some reason no-one has been able to make a go of a redeye service across the Tasman, which could connect to a range of SWP flights I assume. Unlike the array of redeyes on similar length and time zone difference on the flights ex-PER.

Probably true, but also for some reason no-one has been able to make a go of a redeye service across the Tasman, which could connect to a range of SWP flights I assume. Unlike the array of redeyes on similar length and time zone difference on the flights ex-PER.

I wonder if there is the appetite for them - a 3 hour redeye is a really, really miserable flight. A midnight SYD departure would be a 5am AKL arrival - not much fun.

It would not be possible to run AKL-SYD & SYD-AKL red eyes as Sydney is closed between 10pm to 6am due to noise.

NZ106 is the last flight to leave SYD for AKL is @6.30pm & it gets to AKL around Midnight. If you lucky 10.30pm, with good winds & an early departure.

Just a sidenote, I dropped a friend of at WLG a few weeks ago who got bumped on the flight the following day. According to the very helpful AirNZ supervisor there are rooms available directly at the Airport as well as a Bar (?) that doesn't close at night. Didn't try any if it though but might be an alternative to a hotel in WLG, especially if its only 5h.

It would not be possible to run AKL-SYD & SYD-AKL red eyes as Sydney is closed between 10pm to 6am due to noise.

NZ106 is the last flight to leave SYD for AKL is @6.30pm & it gets to AKL around Midnight. If you lucky 10.30pm, with good winds & an early departure.

Yes due to Sydney curfew, it is closed between 10pm-6am. So if SYD-AKL leaves at say 21:55 then it would arrive in AKL at like 3am which is not good for everybody, not to mention less than 3 hours sleep on the plane.

I wonder if there is the appetite for them - a 3 hour redeye is a really, really miserable flight. A midnight SYD departure would be a 5am AKL arrival - not much fun.

That's exactly what PER-MEL is, but it seems to still pack the punters in (and DRW-XXX also are similar redeyes). I wasn't so much thinking a SYD redeye (curfew precludes that), but rather MEL-AKL (or BNE-AKL) where curfew considerations are not an issue. FWIW NZ did try this back in 2001 when there were (briefly) 4xdaily services MEL-AKL, but when AN collapsed the redeye disappeared without trace.

AKL-MEL 2030/2230 MEL-AKL 2330/0500. Maybe wouldn't suit NZ's market, but could improve fleet utilisation for JQ or DJ.

Yes due to Sydney curfew, it is closed between 10pm-6am. So if SYD-AKL leaves at say 21:55 then it would arrive in AKL at like 3am which is not good for everybody, not to mention less than 3 hours sleep on the plane.

According to wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Airport#Curfew), the curfew is from 11PM-6AM, with controlled takeoff/landing on the "shoulder" times. That is wikipedia, though. :)

If the flight were an hour later, arriving at 4 AM or so is not uncommon for a red-eye.

No airline (particularly one not based in Australia) will schedule a departure too close to curfew. Because if they do then any relatively minor delay means the a/c is stuck in SYD overnight, causing major disruption to the schedules - ie not only does it disrupt that flight but then the a/c is flying back to NZ in the morning instead of doing another flight elsewhere.