Mwenenzi

Assume this is about awards
When do you want to travel?
Is AKL the real final NZ destination? Or another NZ region?
From SYD, AKL is not the only NZ airport that Air NZ and other airlines fly to.
Air Canada also flys to BNE & MEL. Air NZ & others fly from those to many NZ airports, including AKL

Airlines that fly USA/Canada to/from New Zealand are (not from all airports to all airports)

• American Airlines AA (LAX - AKL) [Oneworld Alliance] (AS partner).
• Air New Zealand NZ (LAX SFO ORD IAH YVR - AKL)[Star Alliance]
• Air Tahiti Nui TN (LAX - AKL via Tahiti) (AA & DL partner)
• Fiji Airways FJ (LAX SFO HNL - AKL WLG CHC via Fiji) (QF AA & AS partner)
• Hawaiian HA (HNL-AKL)(AA & VA partner)
• Qantas QF (via SYD BNE & MEL) [Oneworld Alliance] (AS partner)
• United UA (SFO - AKL) [Star Alliance]
• Virgin Australia VA (via BNE, MEL & SYD) (DL partner)

And others via Australia, Asia & Middle East

rankourabu

This will be unnecessarily costly both from the viewpoint of extortionate charges for flying AC and then the change fee. This will be in excess of $800.
There are options via Asia, AKL has a high maximum allowable mileage. Then that can be changed to NZ if it opens up at 90 days via LAX and SFO if so desired

circky

Sorry I should have provided some more information. I am Super Elite for AC so I won't have fuel surcharge and my priority is to minimize travel time since I will only have two weeks for this trip. So even though I have IKK, other forum members suggest booking as far out as possible, so it seems like if AC is my preferred route, the couple of change fees seem unavoidable if I want to be as "sure" as possible. I can't seem to find how far in advance NZ releases their award seats, but on Aeroplan it seems wide open if it's economy seats after a certain point in time. Based on your comment for NZ, do they only open up business class seats 90 days in advance (I think Australia to New Zealand routes isn't supposed to be hard to book like the TPAC flights on business).

Thanks to the previous poster indicating UA flying to AKL from SFO, as I did not know that. I checked on Aeroplan for availability and it looks pretty good, but doesn't look like UA opens flights as far out as Air Canada. Searching on Google seems like United opens up their award flights 338 days in advance for United Mileageplus...should that be the same for Aeroplan as well?

24left

@circky

On the first page on this forum, there is this thread

SIN-AKL-IAH NZ J award - worth it?

Along with the thread itself, see posts 22 and 24

rankourabu

Does UA even open up the AKL flight to Aeroplan members?
The only space I've seen is (IN - United elite) not (I) - Star members

pschafer

I'm not an AP or AC expert by any means but as a SYD resident (who often travels on award tickets to Canada and many other places) I can offer this input:-

NZ opens it's booking window at 354 days in advance - same as AC.
NZ is extremely stingy with business class award seats on it long-haul routes - particularly North America (note they also fly to AKL-YVR); however, it is possible to snag trans-Tasman seats (e.g.SYD-AKL, MEL-AKL etc). if booked far in advance.
Paid economy seats SYD-AKL (and other combinations of AU/NZ cities) are very competitively priced so consider just buying one or both of these segments. Also, business class SYD-AKL return is often on sale (recently $650 return) as many airlines fly this route.
So perhaps just get to SYD/MEL/BNE have a stop-over then buy your flights to/from NZ
For the poster who also wanted to visit Tahiti - this route AKL-PPT is all but impossible to snag business class awards on NZ (they only fly 2/3 times per week) and it is expensive to buy even in economy. However if you have any AA points you can book on Air Tahiti Nui (TN) - where award seats are much easier to come by.

Hope this helps.

canadiancow

I was looking at it a couple weeks ago for a few dates and found I2 without much issue. It was for tomorrow or Saturday (so the beginning of Thanksgiving week).

circky

Rykoshet

What about Japan-NZ, is that considered TPAC? I thought I booked my previous AKL-HND flight about 150 days out, but now that I'm searching HND-AKL/NRT-AKL/KIX-AKL for next winter, I'm not finding anything. Is this the old Aeroplan website glitch, is Air NZ being stingy, or am I looking too far out?

rankourabu

I dont think so, I booked PVG-AKL recently for a long time out, so hopefully that hasnt changed!

Adam Smith

I believe that @24left has taken that flight, on Aeroplan points, a couple of times in recent months.

It depends on how many seats AC sells and thinks they can sell.