Air New Zealand Air Points - Wellington to Chicago in P.E.

Has anyone flown P.E. thru to a destination beyond S.F., L.A. ? They seem to put you in economy from the West Coast thru to Chicago and back.
First question. I assume that means that you don't get a priority card for going thru the T.S.A security queues to and from Chicago to the west coast of the States. Is that correct?
I have previously flown both Qantas (economy) and Virgin Australia (P.E.) to visit family in Chicago. One of the joys of Virgin P.E. is getting that priority card for the T.S.A queues - the downside for them and Qantas is flying via Australia.
Second Question - is there any benefit or downside to going or coming via LAX or SF. Is the P.E. product/experience different on the 747 and San Francisco or the 777 and LAX ?
Thanks

They put you in the cheapest nastiest economy imaginable, but charge you a big add-on for the privilege.

It's only slightly more expensive to buy a Discounted First Class ticket to ORD via Phoenix on US, and earns a mountain of Airpoints and Status Points. And T1 for US at LAX is right next to NZ at T2.

Thanks DCF. That sounds like great advice.

Indeed, Premium Economy books into Economy cabins on any aircraft other than NZ's 3 cabin equipment. You might end up in a booking class like "B" which is upgradeable, but in my opinion is not worth it.

I would concur with the other poster's advice to purchase a ticket on a different airline. The schedules when travelling eastbound usually mean you have a very long layover in LAX or SFO, so having two tickets should not be too much of a headache, and you have to pick up any checked luggage after clearing customs regardless.

I've done a number of such combination tickets, but booked from the US end rather than the NZ end, which may make a difference. Although it's certainly true that the US domestic add-on flights are generally in very cheap economy booking classes, I don't find that they are usually very expensive. Flights ex-JFK are usually around $400 more than flights ex-LAX, which I don't think is unreasonable for the peace of mind of a single ticket.

It is true, however, that you won't get any priority for the TSA queues.

One other thing to consider: if you book a flight that's purely NZ, won't it earn based on NZ's stupid journey concept? My tickets always have at least one partner flight in them, so they always credit for every sector, e.g. Australia to the US credits as 50APD for the Tasman and 135APD for Auckland to the US, plus the domestic US sector, rather than 150APD for Australia to the US. I'm never sure whether they would do that anyway, or if that's just the effect of having partner flights on the ticket too.

A gold-hued card also works on TSA priority lanes.

Can DCF or someone please tell me where to buy the "deeply discounted first class tickets"? I usually do LAX-DEN or LAX-SFO/SEA once a year and each time just buy a ghastly (for seat pitch) economy ticket on the UA website
Does this book into a special fare class?

Can DCF or someone please tell me where to buy the "deeply discounted first class tickets"? I usually do LAX-DEN or LAX-SFO/SEA once a year and each time just buy a ghastly (for seat pitch) economy ticket on the UA website
Does this book into a special fare class?

I just buy at the US Airways website. I should add that for short flights like yours I just buy the same cheap UA flights as you do, but anywhere Midwest or East Coast I always buy US First Class, and accept changing planes at Phoenix or Charlotte.