Hi there! I've recently moved to New Zealand and, luckily, Air NZ is a Star Alliance Partner, since I was building up my status with United this year. I'm currently just about 4500 PQMs short of hitting the next tier but, I'm trying to see if anyone has any ideas or experience w/ gaining PQMs for United while so far away. I thought I'd hid the jackpot b/c Air NZ has a "grab a seat" program where you can fly to various places for cheaply on set dates. I grabbed a ticket from CHC to Hokitika (about a 45 min flight) for about $50 and thought I'd do that a few times since the minimum miles guarantee would mean that I'd get 500 mils for each leg or 1000 miles for the whole trip. Well, unfortunately, after looking at the booking code, I see that it gets zero award or elite miles on United so, that idea is bust.
I realize that I could hop a couple of flights to Australia or fly back to the US once and solve this issue but, both of those seem to have a cost of over $1000 and I don't have the vacation to fly back to the US so, I thought I'd see if anyone here has any ideas for a mileage run from NZ. Unfortunately, I'm new at my job so, I don't have much vacation saved up which means, any trips would likely have to be weekends. Maybe I just need a 9 leg multi stop around the country?
Thanks in advance for any help!