Air New Zealand Air Points - My ANZ One Up experience

I've seen quite a lot of comments and questions on the One Up program that ANZ recently introduced on selected routes, so thought I'd share my experiences with the program.

I've put in an offer on flights my partner and I are taking using the One Up system twice and have been successful both times. Details as follows:

February 2012
- LHR - LAX
- Originally booked PE (in mid-September 2011)
- Bid £280 per ticket to upgrade to BP
When you book it gives you an indication from 1-4 of likelihood of success. I put a bid in that got it to point 2 on this scale (it said something like: "Unlikely to succeed, but has been successful before). They emailed me 4 days before traveling saying it had been accepted. I couldn't reselect my seats online, so called customer services and they selected me 6a and 7a (which is a great seat - v.private BTW).

May 2012
- LAX - LHR
- Originally booked PE (as return leg of above booking made in mid-September 2011)
- Bid £370 per ticket to upgrade to BP
After a long stay in the US we're flying back later on this week and I got an email this afternoon (guess it's because it's Monday morning in AUK now) saying that once again our bid had been successful. Again, when I entered this into the One Up bid screen along with my outbound bid, it got a point 2 on the scale.

So, I've added up how much it's cost me and for a return Business Premier journey LHR - LAX, including the total original fare plus the succesfull One Up bids and it comes in at just over £1,500 return each. This seems good value when bench marked against a non-flexible business/upper class fare on both Virgin Atlantic and Air New Zealand which comes up at £3,451 and £3,040 respectively when I input similar timescales (i.e. three month stay and five months from date of travel).

Of course, if you do a search for a Business Premier seat on the flight I'm taking from LAX - LHR later on this week, the cost is high: £4,823 for a one way flight!

We both thought Business Premier was a great product and are looking forward to experiencing it again later on this week.

Hopefully that will answer some questions people have. Let me know if you want to know any more information.

Congrats on your upgrades!

I didn't think Oneup bids were being introduced until June 1st? but do have 2 q's to help decipher the AirNZ method so to speak.
1. Do you have any status with AirNZ?
2. Was PE or BP full?

Thanks!

Hi GDSTP,

To answer your questions:
I didn't think Oneup bids were being introduced until June 1st?
I think I may have been part of the pilot program where they were trialling the system on select routes. After booking, I just got an email saying put in a bid to go up a class.

1. Do you have any status with AirNZ?
No status at all. Our flight in February was the first flight we ever did with AirNZ. The main reason we tried them was because of their new cabin in PE.

2. Was PE or BP full?
On my flight from LHR to LAX in February, I didn't get to see PE as I was in the first section of BP. BP had about 50% capacity, but the FA that was looking after us, said that this was rare plus we were traveling out on a Tuesday in the middle of London Fashion Week (if that affects these things on a route like this).

Using Flying Expert, our flight back this Thursday looks much busier. All seats look occupied in BP with only 4 or 5 free in PE (they probably leave them free to get people to pay a one-off fee to upgrade from Y to PE at check-in as they do on VS).

Hope that helps.