greer

Yesterday Air NZ released an increased international flight schedule, for October thru December.
It includes 3 flights a week to HNL, LA, SFO, YVR.
One flight a week to HKG, NRT, and 7 flights a week to PVG and one flight a month for TPE.
It also includes a new flight CHC - SIN.

Have Air NZ done a quiet deal with the government regarding MIQ regulations, maybe shortened times, or home isolations, and/ or
Vaccination passports ?
I’m interested to see what others think, or have heard.

samyoull

I'm going to say it's the same as they've been doing for the last year which is throw in a placeholder schedule and see what sticks, I wouldn't take at as any indication of future government moves.

Related, they seemed to have blocked out all economy buckets below M ex-US too – this wasn't the case when I checked last week.

CHCflyer

CHC-SIN isn't new - it was a seasonal service started in partnership with SQ.

kiwifrequentflyer

This news must have made some waves, my mother heard about it through the general news cycle.

I think Air New Zealand came out and said that they don't get information any sooner than the general public, except for maybe a few hours extra warning when something drastic happens.

My guess is that they are just being hopeful and keeping their options open. There is discussion of reduced quarantine time for vaccinated countries with low numbers of covid, which they are probably hoping will increase demand.

In terms of quarantine free travel outside of zero covid bubble countries, the government has basically said that will not happen until everyone has had a chance to become vaccinated, which won't be until around December.

nzkarit

Also guess they have to put the schedule out to the airports to get parking slots for the season at the non strictly slot controlled airports which are used it or lose it.

cavemanzk

Buy an NZ long-haul flight, then get an free Jassen Jab included?

henrus

I've heard that many of these are simply freight flights (subsidised by the NZ gov) that will also happen to have self loading freight (passengers) allowed on these services.

jawnbc

We can but hope. Am double jabbed and have an 86 year old father overseas that I would prefer to see while he's alive, rather than being granted a MIQ freebie if he's deathly ill or dies. That cretins like Paul Henry got a freebie for a holiday to the States really galls me.

Thai-Kiwi

Paul Henry's trip was 12 months ago - not particularly relevant now? I do agree that such examples are galling....

sbiddle

In fairness to Paul Henry he was also vocally supporting charging for MIQ, something the government wasn't keen on doing at the time.

ClanJ

In context to overseas travel even to Aussie am left wondering what is the incentive to get a jab. If there is not going to be for want a a better analogy a "reward" such as some form of quarantine free travel whats the point?? Surely something such as quarantine free travel is a simple thing to offer to incentivise vaccine uptake.

Thai-Kiwi

My incentive to get vaccinated is from a health basis, not specifically for travel.

I would have hoped that health might be the principal incentive for everybody to get vaccinated … but any additional incentives would be a good thing I suppose

sbiddle

I had my jabs in May and start of June as it was required for work.

One of the very surprising things had been multiple discussions with multiple people at the time who all said "oh we don't need to be vaccinated because we don't travel overseas all the time like you do". That mindset obviously seems to exist in quite a few people because we simply haven't been exposed to Covid, and if people don't understand the fact that Covid will come here and become an endemic virus that will harm people who aren't vaccinated then we're going to face a big problem.

jawnbc

He didn't do anything wrong: he was doing what was permissible at the time. But for a country that relies on migrants like me to keep the country running, the black-and-white criteria for who has to pay for MIQ--in the context of what was permissible earlier--is both illogical and mean-spirited. And some are voting with their feet.

sbiddle

The whole system is broken - and the government clearly has no plans to do anything about it.

I'm personally of the belief everybody should pay but that there should be criteria that offers exceptions or reduced fees such as hardship. There should also be specific criteria for those who need MIQ for work and business travel.

I have zero expectation of MIQ not running it's full course until June next year, and with the world opening up for many companies business travel is essential. Likewise I know people who could basically be deemed FIFO workers (except travel was back to NZ once every couple of months) who have already been through MIQ multiple times. There needs to be provisions for these people to be able to get on with their lives especially when they're NZ taxpayers.