Originally Posted by
codyc1515
Airlines are hardly paying rack rate for hotels. Why can't the fares just be expensive because they want them to be?
Even through my own work, which is not exactly a large employer, you can easily get a Marriot 5-star hotel for less than half the going rate ($600+ down to $250 or less).
I won't post the hotel here that crew stay at but the typical price for what is an upmarket (but mainstream brand) hotel is about NZ$1500 per night even months out. To get a good hotel in NYC right now it's hard to get anything even semi decent for under about NZ$700 per night.
Even if Air NZ are getting a 75% discount off that it's NZ$375 per night - with crew staying there for (from memory) 6 nights that is NZ$2250 per crew member x 14 (from memory) crew on the JFK flight + the couple of extra crew there in case of issues. That's over NZ$36,000 per flight in accommodation costs for crew based off that price!