Shelleybgood

Is it better to be Gold or is Koru and silver almost as good? I’m not sure whether to throw some airpoints $ at a Koru membership, or spend cash to get gold through an extra premium economy flight somewhere this year. I have an abundance of lounge passes from my credit card, but priority baggage, extra baggage, and nice seat selections for free would be great...I keep looking at both and can’t make up my mind 😬 So I’m hoping some wise gurus here will take pity on me. Thank you!

jawnbc

Gold is better than Koru because of the Star Alliance Gold benefits. Koru becomes worthless very quickly in comparison.

NZbutterfly

If you fly predominantly on the Air NZ network then I think koru is fine for priority checkin baggage and seat select. You have lounge access in a bunch of international destinations as well. You know you can get the discounted koru membership via the credit card right? The nice thing is you don't have to count or worry about SP earn.

If you want benefits flying Star Alliance partners of NZ also then you need Gold.

If you are unsure then you need to weigh up the cost of Koru vs the cost of attaining gold (even if that means a status run ie fly for the SP earn). Then you can see if it's worth it to you. You can play around with the Air NZ calculator as well or dummy bookings to see how much you'll earn and where you can go. Also take into account whether you can maintain gold the following year. The retention levels are lower.

Make sure you're making the most of your NZ credit cards for SP earn.

You haven't said how far away from gold you are. How many SP?

Shelleybgood

I’d probably need another 80-100 more status points than I’d get through normal bookings I’m making anyway...

NZbutterfly

That's a tough one, you're very close. Koru I think is cheaper than the cost of gaining gold status BUT, it looks like if you went for gold then you'd retain gold ok the following year with your flying numbers.

I would probably base your decision on whether or not you need the star alliance gold benefits with partners and of course you also receive the 2 RUs with gold.

Going for NZ Gold is seeming like the better option. Play around with the Air NZ routes and see if you can find a status run at a cost you're happy with.

Beano

If you need another 100 SP at a cost of say $12 per SP ... $1200
you are probably better to save $1200 and use up your free lounge passes

Shelleybgood

dadig

Simple. In your situation, get *G as you have access to a whole lot more lounges, a RU and additional cabin baggage allowance 14kg combined (1x max @ 10kg). Plus a Gold tag is the more distinct over a Koru