At the moment, yes... I think it's still worth it, but only if most of your flights are on Air New Zealand. On paper there are a few advantages on gold elite over gold (upgrades are confirmed in advance, 5 guests into the lounges etc.), but in practice there really is a big difference. It's not a case of the perks being some big secret, just sort of hard to quantify - for example my favorite ISD (based in London) would come to LHR early to meet me for coffee in Starbucks before the flights, in Fiji I've had quite a few invitations to the crew's hotel for drinks, and in Jan I was on a NAN-LAX flight and one wonderful stewerdess was still bringing me glasses of Sauv Blanc well over Catalina Island (and even after the curtains had been pulled back into place and crew asked to be seated - I tried to refuse but she had me sussed ). On almost every flight the ISD will stop by to make sure everything's ok, magazines and glasses of proper wine seem to appear out of nowhere in Y, and often there are invitations to the "office" (the area under the stairs on the 744s) for coffee with the crew and a chat. Upgrades are of course now confirmed in advance (I was once even upgraded on SYD-AKL when biz was full and Ralph Norris passed by my seat on the way to the back, for which I feel utterly ashamed ), you're always looked after in disruption situations (my Dad was once booked in economy on SYD-LAX-LHR but the first sector was cancelled, AirNZ put him on the same day Qantas flight SYD-SIN-LHR in J because that was all that was available), and of course the Airpoints service centre are always extremely helpful whatever the request may be. I could probably go on for quite a while.. I think that where other airlines try and give their elite FFs the impression of personalised service (that United Airlines UGS thing springs to mind), AirNZ actually do it, and to an extent that would astound even the most cynical FFer. It's really only worth it if you fly AirNZ alot, but if you do I think it's really worth it.

Cheers, Zac