Originally Posted by Xiaotung

Without prior notice, finally NZ has destroyed the last valuable redemption option and changed zone based *A redemption chart to distance based, which has seem all long haul premium cabin rates significantly increased. For instance, Asia to Europe one way in Business used to cost APD 1215 and now it's likely APD 1750 depending on distance. Most other long haul flights that used to cost around APD 1500 will cost APD 2000 now. First Class long haul flights used to be only a few hundred APD more than Business and now we are seeing this doubled.

Due to Star Alliance requirement that asks all member airlines to bring partner redemption function online by the end of the year, NZ has been forced to revamp the reward chart. One of the reasons why NZ were reluctant to bring it online is that they didn't want members to redeem APD on partners because the rates were just too good compared to NZ's any seat for sale, especially in premium cabins. They wanted you to believe the advantage in redeeming on NZ services because you can always get the flight you want and *A redemption tickets are extremely limited. But now it's online and everything is visible so they increased the rates. They are really living up to the reputation of having the worst FFP in the world.