aeroman380

I am looking to book chc-mel and or akl- syd with spouse's aeroplam account. Is it possible? Has anyone had luck and what was tge cost? Cheers

expert7700

I have seen availability between AU and NZ on ANZ using Aeroplan at 20k points one way in economy, 40k one way in business.

The Aeroplan site won't always show this so it may require a phone in and booking fee.

In other threads, I learned today that if you are considering cash payment, the pricing on three separate sites, ALL RUN BY ANZ, have significantly different prices.

airnewzealand.com
airnewzealand.co.nz
grabaseat.co.nz

Mwenenzi

Air NZ are well know for not releasing awards to ff partners.
Anyway you need to check cash cost vs award cost with taxes. Government taxes are ~AU$115 and ~NZ$54 (from recent MEL CHC MEL flights)

There is a lot of competition Australia - New Zealand on the trans Tasman route. Flights (east coast Australia BNE SYD MEL) are scheduled to take about 3:15hr to 3:45hr. East bound is faster due to prevailing winds. The flight schedules are padded so they often arrive early.

Trans Tasman pricing is very competitive. Fares are often ~AU/NZ$225-$275 one way in economy/coach, but can be more or less. Both economy & business fares can be low to very low. Or at peak times can be very high (double or triple the lowest). Air NZ often has sales. China Airlines were usually cheapest in the (southern hemisphere) summers of 2015-16, 2016-17 & 2017-18. Often best to buy on the com.au or co.nz web sites and/or select NZ or Australia in the upper part of web site as point of sale (POS).

There is no advantage in buying a Aust-NZ return ticket. All air fares in Australia and New Zealand are sold as one ways. Effectively no such thing as a “return” with or without conditions. A “return” is just 2 one ways in a single PNR/ticket. It is often better to buy 1 one ways, including on different carriers. Purchasing in NZ is often cheaper than purchasing the same NZ to Australia flight as the second leg of a “return” purchased in Australia.

Some of the Australian & New Zealand based airlines have economy only B737/A320 aircraft on some routes/schedules. Air NZ has a few wide body aircraft on some routes or some times.

For trans Tasman flights carefully check what is included in the price. Depending on the airline and/or fare booking class frequent flyer miles, water, food, checked baggage, seat selection and/or in flight entertainment can all be extra to the base fare.

Airlines that fly Australia (CNS* MCY* BNE OOL SYD CBR MEL ADL PER) to/from New Zealand (AKL WLG CHC DUD ZQN) (not from all airports to all airports).

• Air Asia D7 (OOL - AKL)
• Air New Zealand NZ Codeshares with VA. [Star Alliance] {* winter seasonal}
• China Airlines CI (BNE SYD MEL** – AKL CHC**) [Skyteam Alliance] {** November to end March}
• Emirates EK (SYD – CHC, BNE MEL – AKL) Codeshares with QF. EK will only fly SYD-CHC from 25 March 2018.
• Jetstar JQ (owned by QF)
• LAN LA (SYD AKL) [OneWorld Alliance]
• Philippines PR (CNS - AKL) Withdrew from route 06 Dec 2017
• Qantas QF Codeshares with EK. [OneWorld Alliance]
• Singapore SQ (CBR/MEL- WLG) [Star Alliance]WLG CBR to be replaced by MEL CBR from 04 May 2018
• Virgin Australia VA Codeshares with Air NZ & AC*. (Delta & AC** partner) [*= some routes in 2017, ** ffp late 2017]