Thanks guys! You basically answered my question. I thought that a $300 flight to Australia that had $180 in fees meant I'd be charged 300 APD + $180 cash. If they simply make me pay the difference in APD then that is much better than what I thought
$1,000/$1,500 may not seem like much but to me that is a big chunk of money!
Originally Posted by
mad_atta
Because of the unusual way that airpoints works (for AirNZ flights anyway, excluding the special discounted awards for elites), ie one airpoint = one dollar of airfare, there really aren't any better or worse routes for redeeming on. The value is what it is - one point per dollar - and if you have to pay lots of fees or none at all it makes no difference in the end. It's not like there's really any opportunity to work the system or to be ripped off, unlike other distance-based award charts, which have sweet spots and poor value awards. (Arguably, they're all poor value with Airpoints...
)
More to the point, if you're only 30 status credits away from silver why not just pay for one of those flights using cash, to get you over the line? Some status is better than none at all...
I would seriously consider it if it was worth it! But being Silver feels useless. I get one recognition upgrade but I'm always traveling with at least one other person and they won't qualify for a free upgrade and so won't want to pay the money to upgrade. Other than that, I get 2 lounge passes... which I never get to use, because I don't actually fly with Air NZ much... I fly with Star Alliance partners who don't accept the evouchers to get into their lounges.
I wish I'd booked my upcoming trip to LAX differently. I booked it so that I have return airfares with Delta, though most of it is codeshared with Virgin Australia. But even so, I'm pretty certain that VA has no SP agreement with Air NZ unless its a codeshare with them. So I've got no SP to gain from the trip, plus I don't even know if I'll qualify for airpoints. I have no idea how to make use of this trip in any useful way. Oh well!
Originally Posted by
NZbutterfly
P.s. AKL-WLG return would get you 16 SP at least on NZ so 2 of those would have you silver without much extra effort. Price wise can be as low as $50 seat only with carry on. Admittedly I haven't checked the comparable prices on JQ but just something to consider.
Yes, a lot of my APD & status points have come from my card. Most of my APD are my card. I've reached my "maximum" for SP I can earn from my card. The rest of the flight-only SP have come majority from a return flight I took to Toronto using United + Air Canada. It got my 163 status points. I've also gotten a trickle of others from booking saver fares to/from Aussie
I didn't realize how easy it was to get SP from internal flights. If I get that many I might consider taking some trips to Wellington, haha
but I'm still not convinced I'll use the Silver status much unfortunately
