Air New Zealand Air Points - Op-up Lax-akl-lax

Please excuse me if this question is answered elsewhere but this is my first posting.

Has anyone had experience of OP-UP an NZ flights between LAX & AKL (return)? I've been in Business a few times using UA miles & it always seems full.
Thanks
KiwiPanda

Welcome to FT KiwiPanda :)

Op-ups on NZ are quite rare, and probably even rarer on this route (plenty of other flights NZ can offload pax to if they have to).

Generally speaking, asian airlines dont upgrade anywhere near as much as US-based airlines. NZ & QF are like the asian airlines.

NZ flights NZ1/2/5/6 generally have enough members waitlisting for Airpoints upgrades that Opup's are unnecessary. Things were slightly different in the good old days as I’m sure Koru Flyer will elucidate. If they were to Opup any pax it would be pax with NZ status flying on high fares.

Oh, Welcome to FlyerTalk KiwiPanda.

Thanks for the responses & I'll continue to work around the VERY limited days/seats available for UA MP members on NZ flights when using miles in C class. There maybe more Y seats available (?) but the journey is a killer when you have two connecting flights in the US to get home!

KiwiPanda

Unfortunately, the days of when a NZ*E could waltz up to the checkin desk at LAX or AKL, smile and receive a J boarding pass complementary are long gone.

Along with other no extinct 'benefits'
- paper certificates that were never collected
- getting miles based on upgraded rather than ticketed class
- using certificates to upgrade award bookings
- being able to let your rep know that you were flying and having a space available upgrade being made available
- if all else failed being upgraded on boarding by the CSD
- negotiating Y --> F upgrades :D
- having cloudy bay sav blanc in the departure lounge :p

NB - there are probably some very good commercial reasons why these are no longer available ;)

Mark

Yes I can remember flying back one weekend during Sars from Hong Kong to Auckland with 38 pax in Y and 1 in C.

I was the only * Gold, well actually dual *Gold who was on the flight and they would not upgrade me to C. I was amazed as I had been flying up to Hong Kong for about 5 weekends non stop and even the crew knew me but it was not even considered to upgrade me! lol