Air New Zealand Air Points - NZ is a great Airline!

I have taken 4 flights on Air NZ and I have to tell you it is one of the best I have ever flown on.

As an AC SE, I was kindly upgraded on all segments, no questions asked.

And the on board service was terrific.

I hope that Qantas as a new part owner, does not screw up this service with its own now (and recent) low standards.

Qantas is NOT a part owner of Air NZ (yet, but in my opinion it will happen)

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">NZ is a great Airline!</font>

I second that.

:-( I'm feeling "un-satifisied", after another poster mentioned he got upgrade on all segments. Oh well, I got "Pacific Class" on all segments even as a UA1K. They weren't full flights either. But we did LOVE the seats 10A,B on the 763 from AKL-PPT and back. Awesome little cubby whole. All said and done, it is a great airline.

100,000miler, I'm glad you had good experiences on NZ, as have I, but I'm amazed at all those upgrades - NZ are not known for automatically upgrading people as far as I know. Was there something noted in your PNR? Were all the flights full? Where/when were you flying? Are you quite exceptionally charming and persuasive? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

I second that ! Just did AKL-SIN myself in C class a couple of days ago. Food, wines and service were fantastic - far surpassing that of their other competitor on the same route. For the 10.5 hr AKL-SIN flight, Air NZ serves a full lunch, afternoon tea and a full dinner. Soup and salad served seat-side from a low table-cart. The competitor served only 1 very light meal and 1 full dinner in C class (!) for such a long flight - sarong kebaya clad FAs on the competitor were robotic.

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UA 1P, QF Silver
I like NZ,NG,NH,UA,SK,LH & QF
Star Alliance defecting to Oneworld

I like air nz, but the cost of rewards seem to be higher than most other f/flyer programs, do any other people note this as well?

Yeah, but kawoh, you earn points per kilometre, not per mile. So, in the end I've always thought it works out being about the same as others.

Hey hey,

that's my 100th post!!

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Congratulations rdd ! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

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UA 1P, QF Silver
I like NZ,NG,NH,UA,SK,LH & QF
Star Alliance defecting to Oneworld

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by kawoh:
I like air nz, but the cost of rewards seem to be higher than most other f/flyer programs, do any other people note this as well?</font>

I find the rewards very reasonable, especially the upgrades http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif - under 30,000 points for the 24 hour London - LA - AKL flight is great, especially given that airlines like Lufthansa charge 35,000 miles for a one-way Munich - New York, and there business class isn't nearly as nice as NZ's.

Cheers, Zac

Interesting 4/4 for upgrades, very nice.

Just plain luck to pick booked out flights, and receive operational upgrades. Which NZ are very good these days about using status to upgrade pax rather than just randomly picking people as their 4% owner often tends to do http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

Could have been 4/4 for upgrades or 4/4 for packed out cabins! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Mark

Do they just call you up at the gate and give you a new boarding pass or were you already upgraded at check-in?

My flights are about two weeks away; and they seem close to full.

ZQN-AKL C3 D3 Y0 B0 M0 H0 Q0 V0 W0 T0
SYD-AKL C4 D4 Y1 B1 M1 H1 Q1 V0 W0 T0

Do NZ usually offer cash for bumps or travel vouchers? Thanks.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by kawoh:
I like air nz, but the cost of rewards seem to be higher than most other f/flyer programs, do any other people note this as well?</font>

Not really, here is a sample itineary that I booked for my companion:

AKL-PPT (STOP)-NAN (STOP)-AKL(24 HOUR STOP)- SYD for only 35,000 miles in Business Class!. The flown distance is about 7,500 miles and the total travel time around 18 hours. You visit Tahiti, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia all one one ticket + you get one dinner, one snack service, one breakfast and two lunch servcies for those flights combined - not bad at all for 35,000 miles.

That being said, I am looking forward to the trip on NZ. I am looking to be impressed and will have the first hand opportunity to compare Qantas and Air New Zealand back to back on Trans-Tasman/South Pacific services in Business class and see how NZ Business do against QF First as well.

I think they charge a lot for star awards but not awards on their planes.

Syd - LAX in First on AirNZ is 187500 if you want to use United (not that you would) it is 280000 ouch! or LAX - LAS First Class 100,000 air points!

OzFlyer, I quite agree - mostly good value awards on NZ - especially the upgrades - but some very expensive awards on other * airlines. The new *A award table is very disappointing in this respect.

Guava, are you using the new AC Aeroplan *A chart, by any chance? Much, much cheaper than you could do that itinerary using AirPoint, even allowing for the miles/km differential.

AirPoints is a good value programme for people who fly in premium classes internationally, since you gain status very quickly; for those in discount economy it is not so good but stil reasonably competitive. One-way awards are a great feature, as are cheap upgrades from any fare. I just wish they were confirmable in advance!

I wonder what changes we will see announced to AirPoints in tandem with the new 'Express' domestic service - they have indicated they are planning to use AirPoints as a key incentive for flying NZ, so will we see a 1000point minimum a la QF? And will they finally do away with the bizarre rule that it is a daily minimum (ie if you do a same-day round trip you earn half as many points as if you stay overnight - madness)?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by mad_atta:

Guava, are you using the new AC Aeroplan *A chart, by any chance? Much, much cheaper than you could do that itinerary using AirPoint, even allowing for the miles/km differential.

AirPoints is a good value programme for people who fly in premium classes internationally, since you gain status very quickly; for those in discount economy it is not so good but stil reasonably competitive. One-way awards are a great feature, as are cheap upgrades from any fare. I just wish they were confirmable in advance!
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Sorry for the late response, I am away on vacations in Europe. The answer is yes, under Air Canada's Aeroplan, only 35,000 miles for within Australia/New Zealand and South Pacific islands for Business Class on Star-Alliance carriers.

For what it is worth, Aeroplan also offers one-way awards now though slightly more expensive than the 50% of a regular round-trip award. Most Air Canada flyers agree they are willing to pay the small premium for the added flexibility.

With regard to upgrades on NZ, I was looking into the possibilities earlier and agree these upgrade awards look cheap. However, they are cheap because they do somewhat minimize the risk of giving away a J/P seat for points as opposed of selling it for cash. In comparison, Air Canada does not offer any types of upgrades for points at all. Many members complained about this lack. I personally am not bothered by that given that I think upgrades using points are somewhat wasteful. Under NZ's scheme, it's cheaper than other programs who offer upgrades for points but at the expense of playing a lottery which may/may not be a good idea.