Air New Zealand Air Points - Buying ex LHR fare with non-UK cc?

A Swiss friend of mine wishes to take advantage of the low fares ex LHR to NZ(makeing her own arrangement to LON). As she is resident in CH (along with her credit cards!), she obviously can't book on NZ's .co.uk website with her foreign card. So, my question is can she call NZ rez number in CH and get the same ex LHR fare that is advertised on the UK website? Should she call the UK rez no. and will they accept a foreign card? Is there an off-line booking fee? I think I know the answer to my question, but just wanted it confirmed by the cognescenti on here. Thanks for any input

Hi.

I`m not quite sure myself but, this person helps me with with my reservations with NZ to Australia.
Send her an email. She is very helpful!.. Cornelia.Kollaros@airnz.co.nz
Just tell her that Tor from Norway advised you.
Good luck.

Well, if shes trying to book the 'start your booking here' or 'advanced flight search' fares it really makes no difference which credit card she uses - I've purchased ex-NZ and ex-USA as well as ex-UK fares with non-country-of-origin credit cards - never a problem.

With the "airfare specials click here" fares they claim that you must use a credit card of the departure country - what I think this means is they require you to enter a UK delivery/billing address. If she has a mate with an address like that, and the card issuer isn't /too/ obsessed by security (such as rejecting non-card-present transactions with the wrong billing address) it'll be fine.

But if thats too much hassle the lovely lovely people at the end of the reservation numbers (usually based in the downtown Auckland building whenever I call) have access even to the el-cheapo £500odd fares. Plus, if you get the right one they'll hunt round for availabilty til death do you part. (disclaimer: my experiences tend to be overnight GMT - ymmv with the people who work overnight in NZT)

I've never had to deal with them but my corp. travel agent tells me they avoid the Air NZ antwerp (!) call centre like a bad smell, apparently v v v bad.

afaik the overseas call centres have been closed down and all calls are handled in NZ now.

I'm trying to book an ex-USA fare for a one-way LAX-PPT-RAR trip using a UK credit card. Whether I use Visa or BA Amex, it gets rejected by the Air NZ site with invalid credit card address. Anyone know a way round this?

All the US-based booking sites I know are coming up with a higher fare than the one on Air NZ's USA site.

Appreciate any advice please. Thanks.

Martin.

I'm trying to book an ex-USA fare for a one-way LAX-PPT-RAR trip using a UK credit card. Whether I use Visa or BA Amex, it gets rejected by the Air NZ site with invalid credit card address. Anyone know a way round this?

Whenever I've had this problem - a US based website requiring a US address and my card billing address is elsewhere - I've just called Amex and asked them to add a 'ship to' address on my card profile. This has allowed my card to auto-validate online without impacting on where my statements go etc. If I was buying a 'thing' I needed a real ship to address (of course) but if I was buying a service or something that didn't need warm body intervention I just used an address that I knew existed even though I didn't know anyone there. YMMV, but it's worth a try.

Thanks for the tip on the ship-to address. Unfortunately it hasn't worked. I've had Amex add my company's US address, but Air NZ is still rejecting it. The message says that the US address I've entered doesn't match my credit card billing address, which is still true I guess.

Amex said it would only take 10 minutes for the changes to take effect, but maybe that's not the case and it will be worth giving this another go in 24 hours...

Update: The US Air NZ website still wouldn't accept my Amex card, even with a US ship-to address. However, I talked again to Amex, and they suggested that I changed my billing address for a couple of days. So I did that, and, hey presto, it works! Very happy now. :)

Amex ... suggested that I changed my billing address for a couple of days ... and, hey presto, it works ...
That sounds like a great solution, just make sure you don't do it around statement time ;)

And just curious, but what kind of saving where you talking about? Sounds to me like the Amex person you spoke to did you a big favour ^

And just curious, but what kind of saving where you talking about? Sounds to me like the Amex person you spoke to did you a big favour ^

On UK website: £804
From US website: £729, even after Amex have added their exchange-rate loading.