Alright, I love myself a challenge. Often hear comments like that, yet I wanted to see if it's actually accurate.

So for the purpose of this little exercise (or argument), let's say I want to travel, on short notice:
- Auckland (AKL) - London Heathrow (LHR) return
- Business class
- Departing 18th April 2014 (Friday)
- Returning 4th May 2014 (Sunday)
And the booking is done today, on 2nd April 2014 at the time of me writing this post.

And here are what I found on each airline's website:

Air New Zealand
- NZ2 (AKL-LAX-LHR)
- NZ1 (LHR-LAX-AKL)
- Business Premier (Fare class Z)
- NZ$11874.18 (including Credit Card surcharge) Link to webpage screenshot of fare

This wasn't their cheapest fare, I specifically picked the NZ1/2 pair to reflect service on full AirNZ metal.

You earn: AP$ 396 and 379 Status Points each way, making it AP$ 792 and 758 Status Points total.
AirNZ requires 900 Status Points for Gold, meaning this flight gets you 84% there.

Cathay Pacific
- CX198/251 (AKL-HKG-LHR)
- CX252/197 (LHR-HKG-AKL)
- Business Save
- NZ$10655.48 Link to webpage screenshot of fare

There is no onsite mileage calculator available unless you log into Marco Polo account first, so I assume ~12000 miles for each segment.
= ~24000 base miles, x25% Business class bonus = ~30000 club miles total.
CX requires 60000 club miles for Gold, meaning this flight gets you 50% there.

Emirates
- EK407/EK1 (AKL-MEL-DXB-LHR)
- EK2/EK406 (LHR-DXB-MEL-AKL)
- Business Class (assuming saver fare)
- NZ$10412.28 Link to webpage screenshot of fare

You earn: 16000 Tier Miles (Skywards Saver Fare) each way, 32000 Tier Miles total.
EK requires 50000 Tier Miles for Gold, meaning this flight gets you 64% there.

Singapore Airlines
- SQ282/SQ308 (AKL-SIN-LHR)
- SQ317/SQ281 (LHR-SIN-AKL)
- Business Class (mix of D/J class)
- NZ$10277.88 Link to webpage screenshot of fare

You earn: 11413 base miles x25% Business Class bonus = 14267 each way, 28534 miles total.
SQ requires 50000 Elite miles for Gold, meaning this flight gets you 57% there.

What can we see from the above?
- AirNZ isn't the cheapest, in fact compared with the cheapest fare (Singapore Airlines), it's about 15% more expensive.
- However, it seems that AirNZ gives you the best Status Point to reaching Gold status ratio, by quite a margin too.

I hardly call a 15% spread in price "uncompetitive", and certainly no where close to double the price.


As for using (burning) those APD/miles...
Seems like apart from AirNZ, you earn ~30000 reward miles on the CX/EK/SQ options.

So a quick look at reward redemption table suggests that:

CX OneWorld Award, Economy Saver Return is 30000 miles for 1201-2500 mile region: Trans Tasman flight! (Auckland to Melbourne is just about 1600 miles)
SQ Star Alliance Award, Economy Return is 25000 miles for within Southwest Pacific region: Trans Tasman flight!
As for EK, seems like a Trans Tasman flight needs 36000 Skyward Miles for an Economy saver fare, which you JUST miss out on.

What can you do with AP$ 792? Trans Tasman return economy flight is easily within reach.

People keep saying Airpoints has a horrible return, doesn't seem so looking at this example.


First class IS available for the above, for the exact same flights as above:
CX First: NZ$31690.48
EK First: NZ$14112.28
SQ First: NZ$14275.88

So CX really is overcharging for their First Class product, whereas for ~NZ$4000 (~40%) more you can move to a First Class Suite in EK and SQ.

That's still more expensive than AirNZ's Business Premier product though.

Just a thought.

[Disclaimer: I do not work for AirNZ, nor do I hold any shares in AirNZ]