Originally Posted by
jsloan
Well, it depends upon what you’re looking for. Flying UA, you will get free Economy Plus at booking for yourself and one companion. On the other hand, United’s on-board catering and service aren’t winning any awards. If you’re primarily focused on status, you can calculate what you’d get for NZ-operated flights in any fare class at pqp.economies.com and then make your own decision.
UA will also get you a full credit for change/cancel. I’m not sure NZ change fees, but suspect there is some cost for changes, just based on the fact that many international carriers that I’ve seen still charge that on discount economy fares. Plus, any UA credit will presumably be much easier to use if one primarily books/flies UA. So if there is a decent chance you might want to make a change, UA may be better for that.
I’ll be honest, I’d be tempted to try NZ if it were me, since I’ve never flown them and I like flying carriers I haven’t tried before, especially if they are well known as a pretty good carrier as NZ is.