HighFlyingKiwi

Realize this is a NZ Forum, but it does relate somewhat.

Have been a long time loyal NZ customer. Usually flying 2-6 domestic sectors a week, sometimes even more than that if heading off for leisure on the weekends.

Heading back into another busy year of dom travel, and will find myself doing more main Trunk flying. Most travel is usually booked Flexi, up too 3 months in advance (makes me sound organized, but that must be one of the only things I am organized in) I am finding Air NZ to be increasingly quite pricey even for flights well in advance. I mean yes Lounge Access is nice (when AKL dom doesnt resemble a zoo - (I hate school holidays)), The frequency of flights is good, and I have found Air NZ to be mostly good at handling any delays and cancellations.

My question to you other Air NZ FTers, is this. Have any of you started using JQ for Dom Main Travel. The price difference between NZ and JQ is quite considerable sometimes, and the Biz addon that JQ has looks attractive. How is JQs reliability these days? I know this is a area that has plagued them in the past. I mean Air NZ is no saint for this either. Has Customer Services improved?

I flew JQ years back and remember thinking the seat pitch compared to NZs Space+ was so tight. Is it really as bad as I recall.

I am doing a lot more flying with the likes of Air Chathams this year, so even flying Air NZ there is no interline connection to onwards flight.

Just wanted to get some opinions from Air NZ HVCs on JQ?

I find the earn rates on NZ terrible nowadays, even several last minute HKK-AKL round trips last month net absolute pathetic earn.

Thanks all, Happy New Year

Mwenenzi

JQ routes are limited and not many aircraft. I have had more delays with Air NZ than for JQ on NZ dom & TT flights. But JQ has no backup-alternative.

Comparing JQ (standard) seats to NZs Space+ seats is not comparing equals. You can buy extra leg room seats (e.g. exit row) on JQ

JQ NZ domestic flights earn QF ff points, but not status earning. Need a JQ bundle to get QF status earning. But like Air NZ earning is poor. Will take many say AKL-CHC flights to get an AKL-CHC or AKL-SYD award flights (plus cash surcharge) [so poor value]

Air NZ pricing seems to gone up in the last ~6 weeks on routes I have been looking at.

Kiwi Flyer

Apart from exit rows, bulkhead (and to a lesser extent row 2), the seat pitch on JQ is awful. I'm not that tall but always end up with sore knees after a JQ flight unless I've managed to snag one of the good seats.

Their rate of IRROPS is higher than NZ in my experience, and with limited backup aircraft/crew it usually results in significant disruption (e.g. not able to fly until next day). If you aren't able to resolve at the service desk they you have to deal with the online chat lottery (long queue times and quite variable outcomes - sometimes decent and others ridiculous).

Their schedule isn't the best for same-day work trips. Lately they've been changing the schedule about a month ahead, so if you are booking earlier than this you run the risk of a significant change in schedule.

Based in HKK you will also have to deal with their no connection policy - so separate ticket for CHC-HKK vv or drive.

As you note, the main benefit is price. Even with a bundle JQ is normally much cheaper than NZ these days.

cavemanzk

For leisure travel now I've started started booking who ever is the cheapest / best value for time.

I don't travel with checked bags, so the $30 FlexBuz bundle ends up being great value (14kg carry on, up front seats - 1DEF are great value, no change fee / free changes on day, $10 onboard credit).

I've just done my Christmas holiday on JQ couldn't fault them, flights where early and great value.

Unless you get an Koru Hour flight on NZ (and willing to pay $199-399 for it) there domestic soft product is really bad 3 corn chips and drink that is apparently coffee.

The Q300s didn't work for JQ, although I wouldn't say that was 100% there fault NZ went after them with the ATR's and started doing $39 regional fares. In the end it basic pushed them out, and NZ is able to be back to its old fares on the regions.

Would be great to see JQ increase its operation an bit more this year on the main trunk with a couple more a320s, which should maybe kick NZ into shape.

ps107

Something I find very handy with JQ sometimes is their late night departures. Often they have a flight departing at ~2100 where NZ doesn't seem to have much available later than ~1900.

I usually get it when I miss my NZ flight and don't want to wait till the next day

HighFlyingKiwi

Thanks for all the replies team.

All has given me good food for thought. I think I will stay Air NZ this year. It's just easier, and familiar. What I do like on Air NZ is on a flexi ticket, having the opportunity to change flights to a later or earlier one if needed. Handy when the days work is done in AKL or WLG and heading back to the office in CHC. Admittedly there are more and more days where this is impossible.

Now all I need is a interline between Air NZ and Air Chathams and I'll be very happy!

Thanks again guys for your replys. Much appreciated

OZZIEKIWI

Especially when I get a Grabaseat SPECIALS email from NZ each day quoting special fares (what a joke)!!
NSNAKL - $79
NSNCHC - $89
NSNCHC - $99 - Thats daylight robbery, a rip-off call it what you like but we have no option here - take it or leave it GRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

samyoull

I must be missing something, the airline is currently burning millions of dollars of cash, and those seem like fairly reasonable fares?

You'd spend more than that driving to CHC...

sbiddle

$99 is potentially getting close to break even point on that route... But ignores the fact the airline is still losing over $2m per day.

cavemanzk

My biggest issue with NZ pricing is that they are always more than willing to sell excess loss leader fares when they have an competition. Once that competition has gone, fares sharply rise again (same pattern over the last 20 years).

I can get to Queenstown on JQ for around $55 (one way) on sale for an 3 day weekend away. Yet to getting to Nelson for an 3 day weekend, can cost you more than what it used to cost to goto Australia pre-covid-19.

Nelsons issue really is over the next 10 years they are going to grow out to the ATR’s. Now that have that new terminal built with room for security. They need an runway upgrade to enable a320 services.

The Q300 didn’t really work for JQ’s model, although an daily JQ A320 on AKL-NSN in summer would likely do very well.

Sure they are losing $2million a day, although assume that is mainly from International? Sure my domestic is now breaking even at the moment.

nzkarit

I doubt NSN will ever get an A320 service. Better to build up the frequency of turboprops to offer more options. E.g. WLG-CHC is turboprops except a rush hour A320, so don't need at 15min frequency for a couple of hours to get through the glut of people.

Plus want the ground staff always working with a high frequency of planes not sitting around with longer breaks for bigger planes. Also more smaller fights means less people in the lounge, got get gluts of people.

How would a daily A320 AKL-NSN service work? As with a tourist pattern people will want to fly in mid morning and fly out mid afternoon. Don't want a plane sitting on the apron all day. The A320 to IVC works as is a business flight and sits at IVC over night when wouldn't be flying anyway.

That is what get with monopolies. NZ needs a second airline which can compete on frequency not just price. I think JQ failed as could get the cost sensitive flyers, but not enough flights/times/connections to get the next group of people who happy to pay more for a time period that suits them better. Then the final group who will fly at a particular time regardless of cost.

Doesn't really matter where the $2m is being lost the board and CxOs have a legal requirement to keep the business solvent. If a sale isn't going to get more pax to end up with more money for the flight than without the sale, it is going to make things worse.

Kiwi Flyer

AKL-NSN isnt just tourists. They have 8-11 flights a day. Not that much less than WLG-CHC's 12-15. But A320 for NSN isn't going to happen. It would be a major cost to upgrade the runway relative to the population, and the airport already faces major costs to deal with rising sea levels in the years ahead.

sbiddle

And with bigger planes comes frequency being splashed. Reminds me of the guy in Stuff a few years ago complaining about ATRs on WLG-CHC - I bet he'd also be the first to complain if flights went from hourly to maybe 4x - 5x per day.

sbiddle

It doesn't matter where the airline is losing their money - they're losing money and domestic services are now the bulk of their revenue so they have no choice but to try and recover these losses from domestic flights.

It's pretty clear that the response from Air NZ has been some significant reallocation of fare buckets to in effect push average pricing up, remembering that prices themselves have not actually changed. Some routes are definitely not seeing the same allocations of lower tier fare buckets that were available previously even for bookings well in advance.

There also seems to be a massive number of changes happening last minute on many routes. As we know Air NZ domestic prices can change to to around half a dozen times per day based on their revenue system making last minute changes to try and maximise revenue. It's not uncommon to see prices dropping significantly in the 24 - 48 hours before a flight, and with every flight at present being flexible this offers plenty of opportunity for savvy people to rebook at a much cheaper price.

Thai-Kiwi

Case in point - changes to son’s DUD-WLG flight date two weeks prior to new date a range of fares from $388 down to $152 for FlexiDate Cancelled the first and rebooked the cheaper fare.