AndrewAndDebbie

Debbie is going to make NZ silver this year. She will have flown five transatlantic segments in Premium Economy, two more in economy and a couple of short trips on UA before getting silver. A fares only get 93 status points.


I'm going to be a handful of points short. I'd have it if one-ups earned PE status points.


5 transatlantic segments on Delta in economy are enough for silver. Before the VS deal, I'd have to endure Delta in economy which is pure hell. Maybe I should rethink flying on NZ now that there are code shares on VS.

I think we will stick with NZ since Debbie will get silver. Not that it is worth much. Silver on DL is of real use on the domestic flights.


rant over. I feel better now.

sbiddle

Discount fare classes (whether they be economy, PE or BP) have terrible earn rates since the SP changes occurred.

Mwenenzi

Air NZ is one of the worst FFP's.
If you no not live in NZ and fly AirNZ a lot not worth being an Airpoints memeber.

AndrewAndDebbie

We have many choices when flying between the UK and LAX.

BA, DL, DY (Norwegian Air Shuttle), NZ, UA, and VS all have direct flights. There could be more I don't know about.


DL is terrible. I've heard horror stories about DY. That leaves BA, NZ, VS and maybe United.


Overall the sale fares on NZ are good value for money. I'll just have to live with the crap FF program.

serfty

Have you considered flying UA while in/around LAX for those additional few SP's?

ANZ787900

Neither DL nor DY operate nonstop flights to UK from LAX. "Direct", maybe.. But so do plenty more. And they don't really fit in the same category with all the airlines that do fly non-stop.

AA has a daily LAX-LHR.

AndrewAndDebbie

Didn't know about AA. Thanks.


I just checked DL and DY. I know DL traded some flights with VS, but they still have a non-stop between LHR and LAX.

DL

Delta Air Lines 34 Los Angeles (LAX) 9:18pm London-Heathrow (LHR) 3:25pm Boeing 767-300 (winglets) 11.07

http://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL34
http://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL35



DY fly out of LGW.

London-Gatwick - Los Angeles
Flight DY7095 Wednesday 25. Feb 2015 13:00 - Terminal: S
Flight DY7095 - LowFare
Duration: 11h 20m

Flight DY7096
Los Angeles - London-Gatwick
Wednesday 25. Feb 2015 18:20 - Terminal: B
Duration: 10h 30m


I agree, it says direct, not non-stop. Flightaware shows them as non-stop.

http://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/NAX7095

http://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/NAX7096

ANZ787900

Apologies, I stand corrected.

AndrewAndDebbie

Debbie is flying UA LAX to SFO in a few weeks. I haven't checked if that will get her to silver any earlier. She will get it even without the flight on UA.


My only planned domestic US flight is LAX -- FCA (KGPI) in July.


DL and G4 have direct flights in the summer. United offered me a one-stop changing in Denver and some crazier alternatives with a few more miles. hmmmm. I already used leftover miles on DL for the direct flight. Should have checked first . . ..



One thing I haven't looked into is taking miles on UA instead of airpoint dollars for the transatlantic flights on NZ.

bibbju

Have to agree with this. Much as I love AirNZ for their food, wine and service (in BP...never flown Economy with them), once they stopped their HKG-LHR flights, I found it harder to maintain status as a non-NZ/Aus resident. Flying other Star Alliance airlines doesn't help much as the earn rate is very poor and often nothing at all if you're discounted economy.

Last year I moved back to the UK (from HK) and my status has dropped from Gold Elite to Gold and by this summer I'll be down to Silver. My Airpoints have very little value on non-Air NZ flights. I'm flying LHR-YYT-YYZ-LHR in June (squeezed in before I lose my Gold status) on Air Canada and my Airpoints aren't valued enough on *A flights to upgrade me from Economy to Business on even one of the legs (yet I have enough Airpoints to cover the entire flight in Economy if I so chose). I don't know if this is a *A issue rather than an AirNZ issue but I have had enough of what has become an increasingly meaningless FFP (for non-NZ/Aus residents).

I don't really understand why the OP and his wife are UK based but trying to gain status with AirNZ (although I respect their right to choose). Silver is pretty meaningless anyway. No real benefits and the Airpoints have so little value.

I took a decision on returning to the UK that I am finally forced to go back to BA (who I have deliberately avoided for more than a decade) as their earn rate is vastly superior for UK based flyers (even with recent changes which will lower those rates). I will have earned enough status with them (just before my *A Gold drops to Silver) to get lounge access / priority boarding (the usual etc) by mid-summer and already have enough Avios for a couple of short haul European flights. Don't get me wrong....I would much rather be flying Air NZ. A recent BA Club World flight back from JFK to LHR reminded me how much I miss Air NZ's BP but the programme is just not worth it for someone who is UK based (unless 95% of your travel is LHR-LAX-LHR and that travel is very frequent....which for me it isn't)

AndrewAndDebbie

We fly from the UK to LAX once or twice a year.

The last time we flew to LAX with BA was right after they reduced the size of the cabin crew on the 747. Service was rushed and the food was dismal. For other reasons we ended up flying NZ on the return leg. NZ was better and we haven't flown BA since.

Delta is pure hell in Economy and we don't want to spend over £4000 each for DL business.

We mostly fly NZ to Los Angeles on PE sale fares because it is good value for money. I signed up for airpoints not expecting to ever get status. It was more of a why not? Maybe just maybe we would somehow get enough points to use.

Debbie is making NZ silver this year. Only took three round trips to Los Angeles in PE to get it.



If we'd been flying on VS Premium Economy with our Skymiles cards we would both make silver this year. Debbie wouldn't be far off gold.

DL do have new rules for 2015 that nerf the miles earned on sale fares and require a minimum spend to get status.

sbiddle

Air NZ's FF program now (kind of) ties spend to points. If you buy cheap sale fares you'll earn less points. Yes there are many flaws with the new program, but if you opt to buy special fares you have to accept you'll earn few SP and APD because of this.

Would you also criticise the system and say it's unfair if you were somebody who booked last minute fares and earned twice as many SP and APD as somebody who booked a fare in advance and paid half as much?

Overall I both lose and gain under the new system, and my biggest gripe is just the total inconsistency in the system. There are so many loopholes and inconsistencies in SP earn for similar priced fares that there is no way you can say that overall the system is fair.

dadig

AirNZ Silver status is pretty much pointless other than the 1 sector upgrade per 12 months.

If people have any experience in wait listing and standby bookings on Silver I'd be keen to hear from.

Getting silver used to be easy averaging 6 trans tasman and few domestic fares to top it up. Now. it is just easier to mileage run domestic routes every other week with sale fares. While it takes less trips to get status with BP/PE, the status point value per dollar spent will not match domestic sale fares.

sbiddle

Yip..

Just looking I could book return domestic flights tomorrow from Wellington and get 103 SP for $698

I looked PE to London last week as part of a return flight and get 254 SP for roughly a $3300 spend on a non promo (O class) fare.

That's my gripe with the system - there is no logic to it.

pbl22

So, logically, NZ should offer a status system based purely on $ spend on travel.

For example, spend NZD5000 (or equivalent in other currencies) in calendar year, you get Silver.
Spend NZD10,000 in calendar year, you get Gold.
Spend NZD15,000 in calendar year, you get Elite.

For *A airline travel, some mileage-based conversion, for example, 40c per mile flown in economy (with scalars of 0.5 for discount economy, 1.25 for business and 1.5 for first) to a max of NZD10,000.

I'm sure there would be lots of flaws with this system.