If you're just traveling to/from NZ, Koru is fine, and I wouldn't worry about stretching to Elite to get one more year of Gold. But if you're traveling extensively outside NZ, then *Gold is pretty great to have and probably worth the stretch. I believe your assessment of Soft Landing is correct, but others here may chime in with additional info. Seems the only real benefits of Elite now are Elite Partner (if that matters to you), and of course the confirmed Elite Airpoints Dollars Upgrades, but those are being devalued significantly this year (especially on routes to North America ).