Air New Zealand Air Points - Hard to get internal NZ award seats

I have been trying to get a *A award for my daughter to travel BNE-Gisborne or nearby airports for sometime in July. I've been trying since april and finding little or no availability ( occas there is one needing o/n at WLG)

I guess that it is ski season and I recognise that there are only small a/c on these runs but I am surprised that so few seats are available eg to GIS,WHT and Tauranga.

Are these seats released closer to the time or are just few released in the first place?

Don't know your dates, but there is *A availability on numerous dates, eg:
Jul 11 BNE-AKL NZ732 (Business)
Jul 11 AKL-GIS NZ2149 (Economy)
Jul 18 GIS-AKL NZ8654 (Economy)
Jul 18 AKL-BNE NZ739 (Business)

You might have to work harder to find an all-economy itinerary.

Thank you for that - my daughter now informs me she wants to leave BNE round 25 june and return some week or so later - I am happy to use my miles for business class - the problem seems to be getting over there in june - i can find seats ROT to BNE on the 2 and 3 july so that is great.

I think i'll just have to keep checking.

What program are you using, if you a UA FF that could be your problem.

AKL-GIS you might be worth paying $99NZD for a paid ticket vs trying to find a reward on this flight i see already most of the cheap fares on AKL to GIS in july are already gone.

As cavemanzk says - it could be difficult if you are using say UA or SQ points but if you are an NZ member then you will just be purchasing directly from the current availability.
The airline will usually release reward seats a month or so out from when the normal availability has been released into the inventory. They will allocate only a certain number per aircraft/flight and once gone they're pretty much gone.

You guessed it - I am trying to use UA miles.

Well good luck - and be persistent, you never know, because of the current times and lower loads, the awards seat allocation may increase... ^

You guessed it - I am trying to use UA miles.Just pay real $$ for GIS-AKL/WLG/CHC and use an award from what ever city has a bus reward is available