kiwifrequentflyer

Hey everyone. Question: we all know that Air NZ to London is pretty expensive in Biz. I'm thinking of heading there next year & wondering, who should I be comparing on-sale biz prices with? I'm fairly certain that Air NZ goes down to about $7,000-7,500 return. Do any other airlines compete well on price? Thanks

Mwenenzi

Air NZ will/does price for Kiwi's who do not look past the home airline. (Same as QF ex Au, LH ex Germany. BA ex UK, etc, etc)
Look at the ME3 or the Asian/Chinese/Taiwanese airlines.
Or separate ticket to SIN, BKK or ?? and then a far more competitive price to UK. Look at LGW, MAN, EDI, CWL, and not just LHR. Or even Eu(AMS, Paris etc) and train trip to London.
Remember you get what you pay for
Time of year can make a difference

Edit
For some random dates March on webjet.co.nz
Air China NZ$4888 business return (not for me!!!)
MH NZ$5750 business return
CX NZ$5800 business return (would be good)
QR NZ$6200 business return (would be v good)
EK NZ$6500 business return
and more
On price alone Air NZ will not be competitive

gambda

LH and OS had PE fares around $3.5k and J ~ $5k mid April 2020 when I checked on google flights (sold by expedia) last week.
CA also had ridiculously low fares in PE to europe for next year but their PE product is just poor.

sbiddle

I've never seen NZ metal drop anywhere near that low. Lowest price I've seen in recent years is just over $4k to LHR (which I picked up a couple of years ago for around $4100ish) and that was around $4500 for the return trip. Remember the UK departure tax is £172

Air NZ currently have AKL-LHR via LAX for $4700 o/w + tax or $4100 o/w + tax via Asia

kiwifrequentflyer

Wow. Thanks guys. I've been looking at the BP prices for other airlines & yeah, it seems I can get something around $5,500ish if I book in-advance. Air NZ is so expensive in comparison!

Mwenenzi

Just playing the home team advantage to the max.
Many NZ business's /government will not look past Air NZ. But if they have a corporate travel deal will not pay anywhere near the public on line retail fares.

JANZFlyer

I fly Qatar to Europe now, their new J product is great - especially for my family of 4 and it means direct to multiple destinations.

With regards to Air China - I flew them to ULN recently (quickest and best connection) and was amazed at their service, really good hard product as well. Sand storms i ULN meant delays but tried three of their J product in different aircraft and was consistently impressed. The food was average but don't really care. Lounge in PEK had showers and Chinese selections were also very good.

I would definitely fly them again.

I don't mind the midhaul crew for NZ but consistently find the service with the 773 crew terrible - sorry I know I am generalising but that is based on nearly weekly flights in J to Sydney.

cavemanzk

Get creative an use an something like GoogleFlights - it often provides much better deals on other airlines than booking with NZ. You can often find NZ>UK for around $4000-5500 return.

gratn

I agree with the comments above. As a personal data point for J class flights to Europe, in the last 12 months I’ve paid $12k on NZ, $8.5k on SQ and $6.3k on QR. Of the three, the hard product and service was best on SQ, but I liked the “long +short” flight times through Doha (and I flew QR before they upgraded to the Q suites, so rating them second is out of date). Both were good transit destinations and beat LAX hands down.

The next time I pay for myself QR will be fine, unless I need status points. The price saving makes $AP irrelevant.

NZGez

In recent years, I have managed to snag some very sharp deals NZ-Europe by booking direct (6 months advance) variously with TK, LH and TG (and by so-doing netting a fair SP return via Star Alliance). SQ has been less generous on the SP-earn, but frequently more generous on the fare (and a fine product). It definitely pays to shop around. Air New Zealand is, pretty much, never price-competitive in J.

sonyxperiageek

Has anybody had any success with using APD to purchase NZ's Discounted Long-Haul Business Class tickets for any person on any status level? I think they're APD3190 from AKL to LHR which sounds great, but think it may be classed as "R" so very little available.. 2 seats?

mccma

SQ will quite often have around 6k return from Wellington, and 6700 from AKL/CHC.

Wellington plane is being upgraded soon, I imagine prices will see a corresponding increase.

freemark

After having s few PE long hauls on NZ, a couple of BP, and PE on SQ, my preference would be to book Y, and use RU’s or APD upgrades to PE. That’s just me, I can’t justify the bucks for BP and TBH I prefer to sit/recline than the rigmarole of going lay flat. So in theory WLG/LHR return in PE with all the premium benefits for under $3k (if all APD) or just over $2k if using 2 x RU’s. There’s the off chance of a leg or 2 in Y of course (bad) and the earn won’t be special - but my professional livelihood is all about getting bang for buck. Good on those that do it - as long as it’s not on my tax dollar.

Erasmus III

Standing up and pressing a button for 10 seconds is not a rigmarole.

kiwifrequentflyer

Thank you for the tip! I would never have thought to check from Wellington for SQ.

I think for many leisure travellers PE is a genuinely good option. For me though its way more expensive to deal with the recovery period of not sleeping at this point and I'll be taking my older parents.

The biggest problem with your Y to PE gamble though is I have a friend that makes that trek each year, does the same thing. His father is elite and puts in an elite APD upgrade for him. He is gold himself. And he still often gets denied it on the London leg. That leg is pretty unreliable for upgrades it seems. But everyone's risk tolerance varies 😉

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