Air New Zealand Air Points - How Far Ahead do Air NZ release award inventory to *A Partners

Impressed by the new Premium Cabin, I am keen to take a trip LAX-LHR on an Air New Zealand plane in the Premium Business Cabin.

I am planning to travel in September 2006, so would imagine by then on that route there should be 95% chance of getting a refurbished aicraft.

I will be redeeming a miles+cash redemption with BD (bmi british midland). Does anyone know when I should call in to book - is it 350 days ahead of travel or 11 months (330 days ish) - as I am anxious to get the dates I require (will be flying either Sunday 10 or Monday 11 September)?

The bmi agent gave the impression it was 330 days, but they are so difficult to get through to on the phone I wondered if anyone here might have the answer?

Are there any embargoed dates and is there likley to be availability?

Thanks in advance...

By Sep '06 it should be 100% - they are all but complete on their 3rd out of 8 747 refits - even though the timeline has slipped a bit because of late 777 deliveries due to Boeing strike and initial teething problems there would have to be something drastically wrong for the refit to not be complete by then .

Sorry - can't help you with the inventory release date .

Air NZ don't tend to open up a lot of reward seats until around 3 months from the travel date. I don't think you'd be able to find any for next September at this point, probably best to start trying around May-ish next year.

You could join Aeroplan to use their online *A reward search, then call bmi to book it once you find something you like.

I picked some dates for Nov 2005 YVR-AKL-YVR, same dates I picked months ago. No award seats available months ago, several available now in BP for the same period.

I found there was availability 330 days out for AKL-LAX and LAX-AKL, so expect you should be booking at about that time. I say "about" because I found NZ's call centre staff to be confuse and the availability seemed patchy - some days you needed to be 330 days out, but then 2 days later they had availability for dates 335+ days out. Just call and keep trying until the dates show up.

Where is the *A reward search on Aeroplan? I signed up, but can't find it.

You could join Aeroplan to use their online *A reward search, then call bmi to book it once you find something you like.

When you are logged in, there is a link from the homepage just below the main picutre on the right hand side that says 'book airline awards'. This will search for both AC and *A carriers. Beware, however, that if you're searching between city pairs that AC flies to, even if indirectly, it will sometimes refuse to show you *A options and only show AC ones. Very annoying!

For LHR-LAX it seems to show both, so perhaps they have fixed this glitch...

Personally I would not trust the Aeroplan booking engine. There are too many times where it does NOT give you all the options.

Wasn't aware of the aeroplan Star Alliance search tool - seems like it could be very useful.

Does anyone know if the *A availability shown in the tool is available through any *A member, or just Air Canada?

All of my miles are with bmi, but they only offer online reward booking for their own flights, you need to call to check *A availability. Would be great if I could use Aeroplan to check avaiability then call bmi to book the flights.

Personally I would not trust the Aeroplan booking engine. There are too many times where it does NOT give you all the options.

And gives you options that are not available when you go to book online.

Wasn't aware of the aeroplan Star Alliance search tool - seems like it could be very useful.

Does anyone know if the *A availability shown in the tool is available through any *A member, or just Air Canada?

All of my miles are with bmi, but they only offer online reward booking for their own flights, you need to call to check *A availability. Would be great if I could use Aeroplan to check avaiability then call bmi to book the flights.


Im with BD too but you can use the Aeroplan tool to look up *A availability and then ring BD to book. Its a great system for looking for AirNZ flights cause im trying to book LHR-LAX in new C and ive found a couple of dates already in Nov:) Cant wait to try new C. Will report back my findings:)

Im with BD too but you can use the Aeroplan tool to look up *A availability and then ring BD to book. Its a great system for looking for AirNZ flights cause im trying to book LHR-LAX in new C and ive found a couple of dates already in Nov:) Cant wait to try new C. Will report back my findings:)

:) Great news - will cut down on the number of phone calls I have to make to book my next reward flights.

Interested to find out what you think of new C too.

yes im having troubles with nz as well I would like to redeem US airways dividend miles for jun/jul/august 2006 either one for a r/t in biz from lax to either ppt, nan or akl nothing available at all Crazy!