Air New Zealand Air Points - So is Business Premier worth the wait...?

Hi NZ FT'ers! I'm a UA guy who's planing - in the relatively distant future - a trip to NZ with significant other for a "big deal" vacation. Originally, my plan was to bank 240k miles for F in SQ, but the more I read about the new BP product, the more interested I am... One the one hand, of course, there's no comparison: SQ F is in a class of its own. But apart from the extra 60k miles it will take for F, it's a lot more time in the air, and my lady isn't that keen on spending half a vacation in the air (what does she know!?! :rolleyes: ), so LAX-or SFO-AKL looks a lot better.

My questions are:

1) How "special" is the new BP? Is it a good way to spend 90k miles?
2) Is there even a chance that I could even get 2 seats as *Gold (I'll make it by then)?
3) Is there some other airline/routing I should be thinking about?

Thanks in advance for your help...

The new Business Premier is a bargin if you can get it for 90k miles, but you'd have better chance getting award SQ F tickets. Award Avaliability is very difficult for NZ Business and plain Star Alliance Gold does not help things.

Hi as219,

1) I havn't flown in the new business premiere yet, unfortunately, but I got a pretty good look at it from the second row of premium economy last month. It looks pretty "special" to me. Perhaps not quite as special as F on SQ as you point out, but at least as good in terms of comfort. The seats look excellent in flat-bed mode - I'm sure you wouldn't be dissapointed!

2) Your chances are about zero right now - biz premiere reward availability is very limited or possibly non-existant. But, hopefully this will change once BP is rolled out across more of the fleet. Generally, it does seem to be difficult to secure (the old) biz class *A rewards on NZ more than 3 months in advance.

3) Air NZ and Qantas are the only options if you want to fly North America -> AKL non-stop. If you're planning to visit the south island, consider the LAX-CHC service - it may be easier to get reward seats on these flights. LAX-CHC is not BP yet, but this should change some time next year as the route will likely switch to the new 777s.

Hi as219,

1) but I got a pretty good look at it from the second row of premium economy last month.


Reason077, could you do us (me) a favour, and make a trip report thread of the new Prem Econ cabin, seat, service etc.

I have 2 business award tickets for AZ Flight 5 from LAX to Auckland on Dec 7. How can I tell if this aircraft has the old or new configurations? Several years ago I flew the old configuration and found the AZ service to be great. I would love to try out those new sleeper seats. Thanks Mike

Mike

I did a dummy booking for LAX AKL then pressed 'select seat' on that date and it shows a reconfgured 744 though, of course, that is not a 100%guarantee.

Cheers

Hi NZ FT'ers! I'm a UA guy who's planing - in the relatively distant future - a trip to NZ with significant other for a "big deal" vacation. Originally, my plan was to bank 240k miles for F in SQ, but the more I read about the new BP product, the more interested I am... One the one hand, of course, there's no comparison: SQ F is in a class of its own. But apart from the extra 60k miles it will take for F, it's a lot more time in the air, and my lady isn't that keen on spending half a vacation in the air (what does she know!?! :rolleyes: ), so LAX-or SFO-AKL looks a lot better.

My questions are:

1) How "special" is the new BP? Is it a good way to spend 90k miles?
2) Is there even a chance that I could even get 2 seats as *Gold (I'll make it by then)?
3) Is there some other airline/routing I should be thinking about?

Thanks in advance for your help...

I'm in total agreement with the opinion above, that BP is well worth it - if you can get it.

On the other hand, if you decide to go down the SQ route, you may have trouble getting 2 award seats in First. The prevailing opinion on the FT KrisFlyer site is that SQ as a rule only release one F seat per flight, despite what they say about "up to four". There's a current thread containing other links about this: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=477827

Good luck.

I would highly recommend NZ BP. Easily the best J class product between US and Aust/NZ and at 90,000 points for a return trip it would be a bargain if you can find award seats.

Many thanks to all those Down Under (and elsewhere) for the advice and information! ^ ^ Since the trip is some time away, I suppose I'll just have to see how things go availability-wise. I'll start dialing 330 days out! Hopefully someone will post a detailed TR in that forum soon (I did read a couple of reports in this threat, but they seemed to focus on early glitches in the service that, hopefully, will get worked out by the time I fly.)

I'll start dialing 330 days out!

As I and others have posted ad nauseum in this forum, NZ has historically been very good about releasing premium award seats closer (1-4 weeks out) departure time. I say historically, as I am referring to the old F and C product ex SFO or LAX. I have had lots of success getting last minute (1-4 weeks out) premium award tickets.

A few weeks ago, I took a look at dates 2 weeks out and found seats in C, I don't know if one would have been in 747 or 74R.

I am planning a trip to NZ in either Nov this year or Feb next year, so I will be keeping an eye out for last min award seats.

Using the AC Aeroplan site has made finding NZ availability much easier. Was just able to grab a biz award seat LAX-AKL-SFO traveling 3 weeks from now -- busy day flights, too -- out on Sun and return on Fri night.

Good to hear. In case you haven't seen it someone has done a comparision of Business Premier and UA Intl F over at http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=480736