quis

Hi all,

I'm going to be travelling for the next 6+ months, and have about $500 of Air NZ airpoints under my name. Not enough to cover a long haul flight, but might be useful in some other capacity?

Unfortunately I've already booked the first leg of my trip (SYD> NRT) with Qantas to use up some qantas points, and now I'm wondering the best way to utilise the airpoints if I don't have any intention of flying in/out of NZ at any point on my trip.

Can I use airpoints with another star alliance partner, to either reduce the cost of the fare or get an upgrade, or will they end up worth less in this scenario? For example, if I booked a ticket from SGN>IST with Turkish Airlines, can I reduce the cost of the fare by $500 or so? I'm new to all the booking codes so not sure how that plays into it.

If it's of any help I'll be going roughly Sydney > Tokyo > Seoul > Hanoi ..... Ho Chi Minh > Istanbul > Greece > various european countries (TBC) so any suggestions of trip legs that could best utilise my airpoints would be very much appreciated! Very loose itinerary but the cheaper I can make it, the longer I can travel for! TIA

jedesto

I don't think there is any possibility to reduce the fare of a booked flight, nor is it possible to reduce the cost of a flight ticket through a combination of real currency and APD. However you can certainly outright book flights with Star Alliance using APD and/or use the points to apply for an upgrade with a SA airline.

https://www.airnewzealand.com/airlin...r-reward-chart
https://www.airnewzealand.com/star-a...-upgrade-chart

With 500 APD you could get two intra-zone flights (when in Europe for example), or one upgrade to business on an intra-zone flight.

Ellice

Could try using points on the air Nz star alliance partner chart. Actually finding an award available with NZ is another matter. You have to get on the phone with them whilst they laboriously go through their scarce availability. You could also see if there’s anything in the airpoints store that appeals...

samyoull

There's some sweet spots for point to point European flights at peak times that go for APD$200, you can usually get NZ to waive the booking fee (or pay in cash)

Ellice

How do you get them to waive the fee?

samyoull

Ask nicely, YMMV.

sbiddle

Can somebody actually clarify what Air NZ charge for *A award bookings and upgrades now? It is just the normal per person/booking CSR fee or is there still an additional surcharge?