Originally Posted by Kiwi Flyer
Rubbish. The lowest fares earn no miles. But you can pay a little more and get miles. On the Air NZ website you can easily select mileage earning fares by choosing flexi saver of fully flexi fare categories, instead of smart saver. Alternatively, if booking on another site you need to avoid fare codes LGSK.
Trouble is I usually pay the lowest fares as my travel is leisure, planned in advance. I did a quick check SYD-WLG and see the cheapest fare is $189 and the flexi saver is $259 - that's a 37% premium each way to earn miles.
Absolutely not worth it - with currency conversions that works out to 5 cents extra per mile. Makes NZ a prime candidate for mileage burn, and a weak candidate for mileage runs!
I'd much prefer they accrue 50% miles or something like that on the cheap fares - otherwise I have no incentive to fly NZ except the lounges.