The short answers are:

1. An award flight is usually one where mile/points are used to acquire the tickets rather than cash. NZ’s program Airpoints is unique in that rather than miles/points, it uses ‘Airpoint Dollars’ ($AP) where you can use these $AP just as cash. Awards can sometimes also be used to describe upgrades to cash paid fares in some frequent flyer programs.

2. The usual ways to gain $AP to use on flights is either by flying, or through credit card use. However, the KiwiBank Airpoints card allows you to ‘buy’ exactly how many $AP you need for an award. You cannot transfer the money back, so it does need to be spent either on flight awards or there is an Airpoints shop.

3. The portal refers to the AirNZ site for using $AP for award flights on other airlines. You need to be logged into your AirNZ account to view. https://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/partner-reward-flights . For example, I have booked flights from Taipei to HoChiMinh in Dec on EVA Air. The cost to buy tickets directly was $NZ 370, however an award ticket was $AP 250. Naturally, there are no miles/points/$AP earned on such fares, but they are otherwise indistinguishable from a cash fare.

Poster [MENTION=656651]sbiddle[/MENTION] contributed the following beginner’s guide here: https://traveltalk.nz/reviews-tips/a...r-new-zealand/