kindagot

I doubt whether this applies to Air NZ airpoints, its open to Statutory interpretation and I say it was for measuring actual tangible product such as food and material such as fabric or steel. Air NZ are just difficult, they want us to use our airpoints with them (obviously)

tuxedo66

Found by chance that Air New Zealand Airpoints members in New Zealand can now book Star Alliance award flights themselves. I hadn't seen any publicity on this. Several webpages on their site allude to this but I had to find the page myself. Here it is: https://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/part.../search-flight

Beano

Great find.
:-)

sbiddle

Umm that's the topic of this very thread.

A link to booking page with a big "book now" button is in the very first post in this thread.

Thai-Kiwi

Not all partner availability shows, when there is availability showing for other programs.

sbiddle

It seems to be a bit of a shambles still.

I had somebody the other day tell me about availability showing on the site meanwhile the NZ call centre says there is none. Flights were booked and ticketed online.

jawnbc

This still mostly sucks. Managed to get a decent I booking from Dublin home to AKL in November (with TK and SQ!). When I look for I rewards using the NZ search it only offers CA availability.

When I search on my Aeroplan account I see options involving TG. Just rang to see if I could book that "sorry we don't see that availability". Agent put me on hold for quite some time to speak to his supervisor. "Maybe try calling us in a few hours."

Logged off Aeroplan, logged back on, still showing the availability. This is total BS. A *A award is a *A award.

Ellice

I've found that too. Have to wonder if air nz partner awards are actually a thing. Clearly there are varying degrees of award availability available to the various *A airlines between themselves.

Probably a reciprocal thing, ie if you don't release many premium seats your members don't have access to many decent awards either. Also, seems to me that there are varying degrees of what is acceptable in what constitutes 'online booking' functionality. Air NZ going right up to the line with this one providing the bare minimum detail so you actually end up having to ring the call centre, to then get the party line... Can't think of any other airline that is as bad as this for online booking functionality. All a byproduct of big monopoly on both domestic routes and transpacific routes that NZ has.

jawnbc

I called a couple of more times and even tagged NZ in a Twitter post. They replied eventually...but by then I'd got fed up and booked reward travel with CA and OS. At least I get 11 hours of Viennese coffees en route to Vienna.

kyanar

And still a giant "stuff you" to Australian members who don't use .co.nz and have award value denominated in AUAPD.

edmm

The specialist coffees are good in J on OS and I also like their food. It's my preferred route to Europe. The throne seats aren't as comfortable as the NZ seats for sleeping but overall it's a good experience.

jawnbc

I would agree with that assessment. Flew them VIEBKK a few years ago. My only complaint was I didn't get to enjoy as much of the service (sleep was the priority). For J seats without a proper mattress cover, it's my favourite for sleeping.

henrus

Anyone have any clue when the Australian accounts will get online redemptions.

So much for star alliance requiring all airlines to make redemptions online. Makes most short redemptions pointless due to the extra fees needed when booking via the call centre.

NZbutterfly

Is it just me or have NZ adjusted their partner redemption chart?

https://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/airl...r-reward-chart

10,000+ business used to be 2000APD on the recent chart, maybe 2040 prior and is now 1600 eg Houston to Sydney nonstop is 1600 + 41.40nzd. Haven't looked at any booking fees etc or through the whole chart but thats a positive!! It kind of mirrors a rough figure I had in my head for Avianca lifemiles TPAC (no fees).

Searching for dates not too bad either. Prefer a calendar view like united but they probably already realise people go there to search.

Edit: Yeah it's down to more sensible levels. Overall MUCH better than the previous chart. Not seeing any references to booking fees either. Went through to payment page and there were no extra $ mentioned.

samyoull

Oh wow, great catch!