Air New Zealand Air Points - Companion tickets using AirPoints - do award seats need to be available?

Hi everyone

In NZ's monthly e-mail today there are details of two Australia to New Zealand offers:
1) $499 AUD incl tax SYD-WLG (plus slightly more on other routes); and
2) Companion tickets for half the usual number of points (i.e. 10,500 in this case), plus taxes of course
This means that I and the other half can fly to WLG for a long weekend for $300 each plus 10,500pts, which sounds good to me.

My question is: what are the rules around companion tickets? Do there have to be award seats available, or are they more flexible than that?

[edited cos I'm stupid]

[This message has been edited by mad_atta (edited 03-19-2003).]

Yes, the companion (points) passenger is subject to X class availability http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif



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All my posts are my own personal opinions and experiences and in no way represent the opinon of my employer.

Thanks, airnzboy! Now I just have to convince the other half why we should forsake some nice winter sunshine in Sydney for (probably) cold, wind and rain in Wellington... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Unless you are a Gold Elite! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Which, sadly, I am not - nor am I likely to be any time soon, not least because I am switching most of my mileage accrual to Air Canada Aeroplan. AirPoints is just not a good deal if you're primarily an international discount-economy traveller like me... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

I hear where you are coming from mad_atta http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

Why the decision to go with AC and not some other *A program?

[This message has been edited by kawoh (edited 03-21-2003).]

Lowest mileage amount for Gold (35,000) would probably be one reason?

Can hear you loud and clear about the NZ*E level. Despite two D class LHR/AKL/MEL it will still be a struggle for me to reach NZ*E, which probably makes it now one of the toughest programs to reach top tier in.

All the little discount economy trips make it a struggle at 2 points each! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

Mark

Why AC Aeroplan? I used to use UA Mileage Plus as my main programme, however UA's woes made me wary of having my hard-won miles stashed with them so we did a big award trip to clear out the points and decided to start afresh with another programme. I'd been an AirPoints member for a year or so as well, but the revamp of the programme (of which the only good thing that can be said is that the new cards are probably the most stylish around) it became clear that it was not a programme designed around someone with my flying habits, i.e. predominantly discount economy international flights. (This is annoying, because I'd ideally like to have status with the carrier I use most often, and my credit card allows me to transfer points to AirPoints, so despite all that being stacked in NZ's favour they managed to make the new programme so stingy that even that wasn't enough to keep me 'loyal'. However, NZ have a reputation for being one of the best *A airlines for recognising and rewarding other *A elites, so that didn't put me off too much.) So, who to turn to?

I decided on Air Canada partly, as has already been pointed out, because it is one of the easiest FFPs in which to achieve *G (35,000m) and *S (18,000m). I may only do enoough flying this year to hit *S, but even that can be useful for unlocking premium seating etc. Even more importantly, though, are the very reasonable reward levels, especially for Star Alliance rewards which are what I am most likely to use. As an example: Sydney to the South Pacific requires 25K/35K Aeroplan miles in economy/business rather than 60K/100K AirPoints (or, amazingly, 80K/150K to Tahiti!). You might think that because Airpoints is calibrated in kilometres rather than miles, that might partially make up for it, but because you only earn 0.7 AirPoints per km in discount economy, the advantage is very slight - about 12%. Also, Aeroplan seems to have a reputation for being easier to find award availability on partner airlines with, though that's difficult to quantify. AC also gives out quite generous mileage bonuses as you pass various thresholds, whether you are flying on AC or a partner airline, which is more use to me than, for example, UA's system which gives you extra points for elites but only when flying on UA. This is important for me, since I'm not actually likely to fly AC very much! AirPoints, by comparison, doesn't seem to reward its elites very much (though it sounds like there are some nice unpublished benefits for reaching NZ*E level, but in my case that's about as likely as winning the lottery). Aeroplan does have its disadvantages, such as only 50% miles on LH non-transatlantic; however by the sound of it LH Y-class is best avoided anyway.

Oh... and the Aeroplan card arrived the other day, and I have to admit it's fairly stylish too! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Perhaps I should add... if anyone else is choosing a new *A FFP they might want to take note of the fact that there is now talk of AC heading for bankruptcy! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

At least Aeroplan is actually a separately owned company independent from AC, and profitable too, so presumably if AC did go bankrupt the miles would be protected...?

Do AC still award miles based on class tarvelled rather than class booked.

NZ used to have this little perk 3 years ago, but quietly dropped it.

Mark

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Koru Flyer:
Do AC still award miles based on class tarvelled rather than class booked.

NZ used to have this little perk 3 years ago, but quietly dropped it.

Mark</font>

I just thought it was a glitch in the system... it did make for some very reasonable upgrades http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Cheers, Zac

Yeah the NZ one was unfortunately fixed when the computers were updated. Along with all UA flights being credited as full economy.

It did make upgrades quite cheap and made your statements look very impressive!

Mark

I decided to go for the $499 + half price companion ticket offer when I discovered that there were still seats available for Queens Birthday weekend (the Aussie definition, not the NZ one) so myself and the other half will have a long weekend in Wellington for $300 each plus 10,500 points. Bargain, if you ask me.

This brings me to another question: since I am now trying to credit my travels to my new AC Aeroplan account (which may or may not be a wise move - on the very day my first miles credited to Aeroplan, AC announced they had filed for bankruptcy protection! but I digress...) can I do that without screwing up my partner's companion booking? My PNR currently contains my AirPoints number, and the ticket conditions on my partner's e-ticket receipt state 'valid for travel with member NZ6xxxxxx'; so as long as I have my AirPoints card with me to show on request, is there any reason why I can't change the FFP number to my AC card at check-in? We're still travelling together according to the rules. Does anyone out there have experience with this?

mad atta, yep, i flew with my partner on a companion award late last year on NZ, my ticket was a revenue ticket. Whilst I had the NZ number there during booking, I don't think there is any requirement to have the number on your reservation for the companion, just as long as they make a cross ref on the companions ticket that you are flying with them. If anything, when u get to the airport, get them to omit your f/flyer number and post it to AC or give them your AC number to override your NZ one, it shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks, kawoh - nice to hear it's worked for someone else! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Thanks Mad Atta, thats a great read. I used to credit my *A points to UA but have recently been flying OW (boo hiss)

I just thought i would take the time to thank you for your informative post.
Cheers.