Delta Air Lines to New Zealand

Old Jan 16, 2011, 5:09 pm
  #46  
 
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V Australia will get you to SYD, but not to AKL.
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Old Jan 16, 2011, 5:29 pm
  #47  
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Air Tahiti Nui is a Delta SkyMiles partner but not a SkyTeam carrier. If you asked for SkyTeam carriers to Auckland she may have answered you correctly.

Malaysia Airlnes is another SkyMiles/not SkyTeam carrier with service to AKL for possible DL miles redemption.
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Old Jan 16, 2011, 5:54 pm
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Originally Posted by 3Cforme
Air Tahiti Nui is a Delta SkyMiles partner but not a SkyTeam carrier. If you asked for SkyTeam carriers to Auckland she may have answered you correctly.

Malaysia Airlnes is another SkyMiles/not SkyTeam carrier with service to AKL for possible DL miles redemption.
Just a little FYI here.
1. ATN (Air Tahiti Nui) is very difficult to find award availability on in economy with DL miles. Nearly impossible in business. Do not go off of what EF says for DL availability; this is all oneworld partner availability.
2. While you can redeem on Malaysian, 95% of all agents will tell you that you are full of crap and it is impossible. I had to go through 6 agents to find one willing to even entertain the possibility that I knew what I was talking about
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Old Jan 16, 2011, 11:44 pm
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Have you considered redeeming to HNL/OGG/KOA on DL and then continuing from HNL direct on NZ or via Nadi on FJ?
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Old Jan 17, 2011, 1:57 am
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Originally Posted by DLATL777
Just a little FYI here.
1. ATN (Air Tahiti Nui) is very difficult to find award availability on in economy with DL miles. Nearly impossible in business. Do not go off of what EF says for DL availability; this is all oneworld partner availability.



2. While you can redeem on Malaysian, 95% of all agents will tell you that you are full of crap and it is impossible. I had to go through 6 agents to find one willing to even entertain the possibility that I knew what I was talking about
Well, I guess you are misinformed by many agents again, TN is one of the easiest partner to find award seats in both Economy and business using Delta miles.

I saw you are Diamond, too bad, that's one of perks for Diamond member:Salt Lake City call center. Last week, I was helping someone with Air Tahiti award, our wonderful diamond desk agent answered my request with :"I don't think Air tahiti is our partner."

I don't call Diamond center anymore, whenever I help any diamond member now, I use my Platinum number to call in, make life a lot easier.

BTW, EF does showcorrect inventory for Air Tahiti using Delta miles

Last edited by yyliu88; Jan 17, 2011 at 9:24 am
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Old Jan 17, 2011, 2:05 am
  #51  
 
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Originally Posted by roti
Flying to New Zealand this fall. Would like to use my SkyMiles account (currently 210,000+) to obtain two Premium tickets.

When I spoke to an amazingly ill-informed Delta international rep, I was first told the only partner serving Auckland was Korean, via Seoul. With a little more digging I got her to acknowledge that Air Tahiti Nui and V Australia also fly the route (a bit more directly perhaps?).

Questions: Are there any other SkyTeam partners flying to Auckland I should be aware of?

I'm hoping to fly in to Auckland and home from Christchurch or Queenstown. Do any of these carriers allow for such a routing?

Air Tahiti Nui is the most convenient to Auckland, with nonstops from LAX. But beyond that, do any of these carriers rank higher than the others in terms of the quality of their "premium" cabin or in the availability of seats in the "low" category (traveling in Oct).

Would happily use my AA miles to fly the route on Qantas, but it's time to empty out my SkyMiles account. Thanks for any guidence provided.

V OZ doesn't fly that route anymore, so your options are Air Tahiti(via PPT), Korean air(via ICN) and Malaysia airline(via KUL)

you don't have enough for 2 people in premium cabin because they are 150K each.

you can not return from CHC or ZQN as none of Delta partner serve them
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Old Jan 17, 2011, 9:29 am
  #52  
 
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Also, keep in mind you can catch AF to PPT and link up with TN there.

IME, TN loads 1 F (which you can't get with DL miles), 2 C, and a bunch of Y awards on pretty much every flight, so if you book far enough ahead, not too hard to get.
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Old Jan 17, 2011, 9:43 am
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Originally Posted by yyliu88
Well, I guess you are misinformed by many agents again, TN is one of the easiest partner to find award seats in both Economy and business using Delta miles.

I saw you are Diamond, too bad, that's one of perks for Diamond member:Salt Lake City call center. Last week, I was helping someone with Air Tahiti award, our wonderful diamond desk agent answered my request with :"I don't think Air tahiti is our partner."

I don't call Diamond center anymore, whenever I help any diamond member now, I use my Platinum number to call in, make life a lot easier.

BTW, EF does showcorrect inventory for Air Tahiti using Delta miles
Then this is a new development since the merger with NW. I tried for months back in 08 to get a seat on ATN using EF as a guide and not one day matched up with availability. AA and BA could see it, but not DL.

And yes, I have run into many many misinformed Diamond agents. I should try the old PM line as well if it is truly better.
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Old Jan 17, 2011, 10:20 am
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Originally Posted by Erasmus
Also, keep in mind you can catch AF to PPT and link up with TN there.
In that case you can also catch HA to PPT (HA to PPT is redeemable using DL SM). And PPT may not be a bad stopover to make on the way.
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Old Jan 17, 2011, 11:19 am
  #55  
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Ah, yes. I forgot that Delta's awards are now one-way as well -- my bad. So, it'll cost a minimum of 150,000 miles for one roundtrip ticket in premium (if I can get it at the "low" level) vs. 115,000 for business on a more direct route using AA miles on Qantas? Now I understand the term SkyPesos.

A correction (I think): V Australia partner Virgin Blue flies from Sydney to major cities in New Zealand, so I think that's still an option, no?

The Delta agent told me that Air Tahiti flies via Port-au-Prince. Buy that girl a map, please.
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Old Jan 17, 2011, 11:55 am
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Originally Posted by roti
A correction (I think): V Australia partner Virgin Blue flies from Sydney to major cities in New Zealand, so I think that's still an option, no?
http://www.delta.com/skymiles/use_mi...eage/index.jsp

Effective April 6, 2010 SkyMiles members can now redeem miles for Award Travel on all V Australia (VA) flights in Economy and Business Classes. V Australia (excluding Virgin Blue) currently offers flights for a number of international routes out of Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, Australia. Please check with V Australia for complete route and award information.
V Australia / Virgin Blue are different companies. The Skymiles relationship is with V Australia so no Virgin Blue redemptions are allowed.

AKL is the only destination in NZ that you can access via a DL Skymiles award ticket. Your options as others have indicated:

1. KE via ICN (KE/DL/etc to ICN)
2. TN via PPT (AF/HA to PPT)
3. MH via KUL (KE/CZ/etc to KUL)
4. CZ via CAN (KE/DL/etc to CAN)

The last option is a new one that becomes available in the next few months.
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Old Jan 17, 2011, 11:57 am
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Originally Posted by roti
Ah, yes. I forgot that Delta's awards are now one-way as well -- my bad. So, it'll cost a minimum of 150,000 miles for one roundtrip ticket in premium (if I can get it at the "low" level) vs. 115,000 for business on a more direct route using AA miles on Qantas? Now I understand the term SkyPesos.
Not that it makes SkyMiles any more valuable, but I think you'll find AA will charge you 125K miles for the roundtrip, not 115K.
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Old Jan 17, 2011, 12:13 pm
  #58  
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You are correct, Erasmus -- 125,000 AA miles for roundtrip business on Qantas. My memory was foggy.

Which is still a lot better than 150,000 Delta miles for a connection through Tahiti or Korea. And Qantas flies to other New Zealand destinations.

Too bad about Virgin Blue. I guess I'll be leaving those Delta miles in my account to be devalued some more.
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Old Jan 17, 2011, 12:53 pm
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Originally Posted by roti
Ah, yes. I forgot that Delta's awards are now one-way as well -- my bad. So, it'll cost a minimum of 150,000 miles for one roundtrip ticket in premium (if I can get it at the "low" level) vs. 115,000 for business on a more direct route using AA miles on Qantas? Now I understand the term SkyPesos.
Delta does not offer one-way awards yet. Atleast to my knowledge unless things have changes in last few days.

Also a small correction, it is 125K in C using AA miles to Australia/New Zealand. However, this is 125K award does not allow connecting at HKG or other asian points while DL allows connection at ICN and others. So, 150K DL I think is a reasonable award (though nothing spectacular like AC or US).
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Old Jan 17, 2011, 12:55 pm
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Originally Posted by roti
You are correct, Erasmus -- 125,000 AA miles for roundtrip business on Qantas. My memory was foggy.

Which is still a lot better than 150,000 Delta miles for a connection through Tahiti or Korea. And Qantas flies to other New Zealand destinations.

Too bad about Virgin Blue. I guess I'll be leaving those Delta miles in my account to be devalued some more.
You can also fly on HA via HNL, HNL-SYD is bookable using DL SkyPesos (unlike HNL-HND and HNL-ICN which are not, though HNL-SYD, HNL-MNL, HNL-PPT, and HNL-PPG are - odd). That's one of the more direct routes available - least flying time.

Just HA "business class" is a joke (as bad as DL domestic), so you might as well save the miles and book it as SAN-HNL-SYD in coach on HA. Benefit is, HA flies to SAN, so you don't need to any short-haul connector flight to LAX (or drive up), you can just fly SAN-HNL-SYD.
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