Nathan Catton

Came across Qantas' video which says 30 destinations however, they've most likely made an error.

drajknox

Lpmnz

This seems like an excellent arrangement

Thai-Kiwi

akl_cat

My guess is the reciprocal FFP earning and benefits will be limited to domestic flights booked as part of a TT itinerary. This is a limited collaboration to enable each other to both take shares from VA, rather than from each other. Thus I'd expect no status match.

NZbutterfly

The best I've seen is status challenges rather than status matches. Except for that match offer 2-3 years ago.

sbiddle

Wonder how many QF pax will choose to fly JQ domestically now they don't need to?

irishguy28

given what was written upthread, it would almost certainly require you to buy the domestic NZ flight as part of a single transaction, from QF, thereby obtaining the flight under the QF flightcode.

Standalone NZ flights won't earn.

irishguy28

If QF pax are price conscious, they will probably still choose JQ. If they had no reason to wish to buy NZ flights already, this news isn't going to change that.

Additionally, it is almost inconceivable that QF will be allowed to sell flights on the NZ codeshares without it being part of a ticket involving their own metal.

libertyuk

Plus ça change. This is all very promising, but the effect will be to increase airfares on routes with a domestic connection. It clearly means there is little chance of much expansion by JQ in NZ, which suits NZ of course, and for QF it takes a feeder for VA away.

The very poor earning on VA (and lack of status credits) put me off flying VA domestically in Oz, unless the price was compellingly cheaper. If NZ Gold gets QC access in Australia it would be great (ever better if Elite gets Business Lounge access), but earning reciprocal status will mean a lot too, although you'll no doubt be better off flying on an NZ ticket from Oz connecting to a domestic NZ flight for status credits (and likewise QF TT connecting on QF domestic in Oz for QFF status credits).

cavemanzk

NZbutterfly

Presumably close to zero.

NZ's larger domestic network.
Lounge access with NZ, not JQ (except that AKL one which I haven't looked into again)
NZ has very frequent timings to the major/regional centres.
NZ more likely to look after you in a disrupt than JQ although where JQ is part of another carriers itinerary (not sure about JQ-JQ) then you'll probably be taken care of.
Also, if it's work related and someone else is paying for it you're not going to care so better of choosing NZ.

Only reason I could think of to fly JQ domestic in NZ would be flight time to get to your destination. I'm thinking more of the regions but NZ has pretty good coverage of those shared destinations I think. Possibly cost but wouldn't they be choosing JQ / Air Asia TT then also? Or meeting in AKL, stopover then have to fly to WLG and want QF points. For those that have status with *A through other programmes they might choose NZ for lounge access or if the flight accrues to their FFP.


I am curious about the impact on lounges. Many in Oz are signed up with both QF & VA. From the Australian Aviation article https://australianaviation.com.au/ai...odeshare-deal/ I think Luxon said 140k pax connect through. Not sure if that's NZ pax only or NZ & QF combined which is a small share of the 4 million flying TT. I don't know what the numbers are with VA. Only 3.5% but when it comes to exact numbers in lounges with a finite space at peak time, who knows.

On days when Air NZ doesn't fly direct to Perth it will be good still having the Qantas connections as the A330s have less chance of being downgraded to a 737 (not zero), than VAs A330s which are going off to HKG and I'm sure they're adding another Oz-HKG route to take more A330s off the domestic market. I'm curious if NZ will be able to book the 789 PE from MEL-PER as part of the AKL-PER. QF sell MEL-PER-LHR but otherwise seats are free for QF Gold and above to select on domestic MEL-PER. Would make sense for QF to sell some of these to NZ's customers flying PE through. Although I think my preference would be to fly NZ PE nonstop where available.

The funny thing is VA actually have the better aircraft on some domestic routes so I'd rather fly them and be a bit more comfortable but will have to see whether there's an interline agreement coming. Otherwise separate tickets will make it a hassle.

Will be interesting to see how a number of things play out.

NZbutterfly

Why? QF will still compete against VA in the home market and TT they're all separate, domestic NZ Air NZ will compete with JQ.

NZ/VA competed with QF/QF or EK/QF for through flights to domestic Oz.
In NZ NZ/VA competed with QF/JQ for through flights.

Now we're moving towards NZ/QF domestically in both countries yet Oz still has VA (I really think they need to try and interline with NZ), and NZ still has JQ (obviously the NZ home market competition isn't as strong as the QF/VA Oz home market).

I read something about QF/CI are planning (not approved?) on code sharing TT https://www.routesonline.com/news/38...rom-june-2018/ which is also competition for NZ VA TT. I think I read QF codeshare with CI from Oz - TPE already so the extension TT makes sense to me so QF will be competing against NZ's AKL-TPE starting November. There's still competition.

macdo

Agree with comment about VA domestic aircraft. Being based in Aus for the next few years I was thinking Velocity best combination of earn/cost/comfort but now recalculating.

NZbutterfly

Took me a number of uncomfortable flights staring out my window at the VA 737 while being on QF B717 / other to work that one out. But earning status with VA based solely on my own flying is now going to become challenging for me without NZ in the picture.

On a points level I have redeemed with VA or convert them to SQ which is handy. And the fact is I could pay for economy X (well work could but I think I might as well depending on the trip especially if transcon) so have access to FF seating even without status. Lounge access it will be maybe 18mo before I drop out of that range but I figure there's a reasonable chance I may earn on one of their international routes or partner airline which might see me through another year of access. Lounge access further complicated by priority pass as the food is often better than in the domestic lounges (both QF/VA) so by the time you get that your flight might be called for boarding and there isn't any time for the lounge or minimal so you have to ask yourself if it's worth aiming for status for lounge access. The landscape at VA keeps changing though and I get annoyed with that. There's the renaming of fares which aren't intuitive and I only just bothered to work them out recently and discovered I was buying the wrong one, lounge partner merry go rounds from time to time (eg US), then this divorce. So yes, bit of recalculation going on.

Actually if you're now based in Oz you may want to check out some of the credit cards. I think one some have VA lounge access included. QF have double status credit offers or targeted 50% status credit offers so you could take advantage of those as well and just play in both FFPs. Multiple ground earning opportunities with both for points also. Lots of things to consider.