Originally Posted by
soulighter
Looking at the redeeming chart on Air NZ website, it looks like it takes 1740 dollars for business and 2380 for first class. It seems like a fairly good deal, I wonder if there's a catch?
There are indeed some catches. Firstly, the
*A redemption chart specifies cost per segment, so you'll be looking at twice that. Secondly, it has to be a Direct flight so the same flight number on each of those sectors. AFAIK there are no such flights that meet this requirement for either Europe - Australia, or Europe - New Zealand.
The table holds for mixed itineraries (i.e. both NZ and other *A flights) which will be why it is included. So something like FRA-LHR-(LAX)-AKL on LH/NZ would result in the intra Europe plus Europe - New Zealand sector costs.
Presumably things have been done this way so as to offer reasonable fixed charges for the NZ sectors, whilst avoiding devaluing the NZ sectors due to OneSmart. This however opens up some good deals to be had, subject to award inventory.
AKL-LAX-SFO or AKL-SFO-LAX return in NZ J / UA Y for APD(2040+200)*2 + ~NZD140 for taxes = ~NZD4615 is a pretty good deal. Even better if you actually need to get to somewhere other than SFO/LAX so can get some value from that segment. Similarly, in NZ PE / UA Y for ~NZD2770 return.
Europe doesn't look so attractive using the same approach, but I'm sure there's other good deals to be had with that table.
Like confirmed upgrades, this is just another symptom of the piecemeal band-aid approach taken to the AirPoints programme since pegging to the NZD and allowing OneSmart top ups. Complex systems invite arbitrage!