Rden

This blatantly is about getting more money and so Air NZ will be inventory managing comp upgrades like they do today. I've heard that there will be minimum bid amounts which are about twice as expensive as today's standby Airpoints upgrades and so don't expect to get $1 upgrades. This is a sign of a desperate airline

I've also heard Qantas off the back of this are about to offer a status match for gold and elite which Air NZ have handed them on a plate. This is the worst PR disaster for Air NZ

Thai-Kiwi

It does, I got mine 3 weeks ago, and the 10,000 points joining promo has been extended as well.....

Xiaotung

I never thought this day would come. Probably would give oneworld a try after all. It would be a blow to Virgin as well to some extent as all ex NZ elite will be taking QF flights within Australia.

Fastest growing thread I have ever seen. On page 6 in less than 8 hours which is telling.

skyglow1

I don't get how they'd practically do this. Would they really set aside some seats for recognition upgrades from NZ*G and NZ*S whilst processing the OneUp bids?

NZ_Flyer

They'd just process recognition and standby's first then accept the highest one-up bids after that. So you'd have to have your request in before the 7 days prior to flight. On the website it says to make sure you have the best chance to get your recognition upgrades and standby's processed after 30 May to have them put in as early as possible.

mattyroo

AirNZ should just quit the Star Alliance right now. What they should do is exit stage left and allow Virgin Australia to take their place. This would be a massive boost for Virgin, as for all of us who hate Qantas, we would then have a good star alliance option for getting from Oz to Europe and around the sun-burnt country.

AirNZ is effectively dead to me.

skyglow1

So if you do put your recognition upgrade in before 7 days prior to the flight, they'll work out who gets what in terms of the recognition upgrade prior to looking at the oneup bids, but they still won't let you know if your recognition upgrade has gone through outside of the 48 or 72 hour time frame despite the fact that they've already worked out which recognition upgrades will go through?

mattyroo

My airpoints are now worthless really.

We don't fly economy other than across the Tasman, for our long-haul travel it is always business.

As the only real use of my points is for upgrading my partner, I have to buy her a premium economy seat now, as the upgrades only go up one level. But with the cost of AirNZ, a premium economy fare to London is equivalent to a business fare on Malaysian airlines, which isn't too bad an airline.

So I have no incentive to fly AirNZ, as I generally pay more for an AirNZ ticket than what I would pay on Cathay and I can upgrade my partner using my points on Cathay, for what is a lesser cost in monetary terms.

paintini

I'll be keeping a close eye out for this status match.

I've had time to digest the email I got this morning, about 5 minutes after I booked DPS and requested using up the four recognition upgrades [RU] we had in the whanau; in fact I thought the email came as a result of my requests!

It states that GE will still get the two RU and that they can confirm up to 355 days out. Then the good news ends. They may only decide to confirm RU at the airport whereas oneup can happen up to 7 days out. So, do you in such an instance ring the premium desk a week out and get them to unwind the RU entry and get into a bidding war if you really want the upgrade? Heck, you could even leave the RU in place and bid against yourself.

And can you still combine two RU to bypass PE on a three class plane? I know you can not oneup such an outocme.

I'm confident my RU will go through as they were put in place before 31-5-12, even if flights are in July. It is just the next few years of my banked GE that are looking a bit bleaker if my RU are likely so devalued.

mooja074

What's Rob Fyfe's e-mail?

I think a show of hands is in order

FlyingFilmGuy

This blows! But I'm really keen to find out what NZ mean by "Your [Silver/Gold/Gold Elite] status will be taken into account when your OneUp Upgrade offer is reviewed". Does this mean:

1 - Bids from status members take precedence when two PAX bid the same $ amount
2 - Bids from status members take precedence no matter how much lower they bid than non-status members (e.g. a $100 bid from GE will take precedence over a $1000 bid from Jade)
3 - A calculation is made, where status bids can be a maximum set % lower than non-status bids in order to take precedence (e.g. GE bids 20% lower will take precedence, G bids 10% lower, S bids 5% lower, or something like that)

Also will be interesting to know how bid precedence works based on booking class. Will a bid to upgrade an M class booing take precedence over a higher bid to upgrade a G class upgrade?

mattyroo

Where did you hear this? As I've just (qualifying year ended yesterday) missed out on retaining Qantas Platinum, although I have a bunch of flying this weekend that I can hopefully use to sweet-talk Qantas into re-instating me as Platinum.

mattyroo

[email protected]

He's usually pretty good at answering, although if we were all to bombard (hint) him with our disgust, he may not reply to everyone.....

Another one to include on your email is David Mackrell ( [email protected] ), the new head of loyalty.

NZ_Flyer

Those time frames aren't set in stone. I've had Silver upgrades get confirmed 1 week out when the loading was very low. Say for example 3 days before the flight they do a review of upgrades, this is how it would probably look:

1. Gold Elite Recog's not previously confirmed
2. Gold Recogs
3. Silver Recogs
4. GE standby
5. G standby
6. S standby
7. One-ups

serfty

However, you won't be able to apply for 4, 5 or 6 After May 30th.

I don't like a pig in a poke ... so it'll be a 25 months long bye bye GE for me.

Using Any Seat Rewards and booking well in advance of travel (same as I have been doing with AirNZ) out I can travel in Business, say, AKL-MEL-LAX on QF for a nett 60,000 QFF points and NZD330.

Lets say an is worth 100 QFF points (~60) so that's cheaper the the current Standby Upgrade rate.

I'll also earn over 20% of WP status requalification.

I can gain AirNZ *G for under US$1000 worth of travel without setting foot on an AirNZ aircraft - none of those pesky 810 SP's on "NZ Flights".