Originally Posted by Sydfly
You are right, they would have a problem on the return, but I think they are relocating to NZ if I understood correctly, so there is no return.
Actually for this family's case there are several returns, but while they are relocating to NZ for an indeterminate length of time, they'll also be travelling between NZ and California several times a year. They won't have much baggage NZ->US but they will have heaps each time they fly US->NZ (by way of AU it looks like now).
Originally Posted by Sydfly
UA approach to allow *Gold the old limits is the way to go ^
Yep. So much for Air NZ being part of a "seamless" Star Alliance experience.