There aren't really any cheap business class fares on the LAX-AKL route at this point. DL competitors start at around $8.6K roundtrip non-stop and DL's fares are slightly higher starting at $8.8K roundtrip. These fares have a 50 day advance purchase requirement, so you won't see them if you are booking close in. As noted above, DL's mileage redemption value generally fall in a range of 1.2 - 1.3 cents per mile in most cases. If you are looking for better mileage values on business class fares, you should consider switching to one of the other mileage programs as DL does not attempt to compete on mileage values with other airlines. There are 630K roundtrip awards that largely correlate to availability of the $8.8K fares. If you have a Delta Amex card, these are discounted to 535.4K miles roundtrip.