a380supremacy

Hi,
Looking to fly from JFK to Auckland in September on the first run of nonstops from JFK. Trying to book my flight and it says, under the business/premium economy options, "Not Available on this Flight". I can't seem to find out what that means. Anyone know? This'll be my first time flying on an airline's brand new route, so not sure if this is routine. Thanks.

kiwifrequentflyer

The flights are packed. That's all. Premium seats for September JFK flights sold out a month ago, if not earlier.

Thai-Kiwi

And a warm welcome to your first FlyerTalk post too

CHCflyer

I'm going to LAX and domestic US destinations. I am using Fiji Airways as they are slightly over half the price in business of NZ and QF. Connections and product are decent. My travel agent is quoting $16,000 return for some of my departure dates on NZ/UA.

HighFlyingKiwi

Same here. No way was I going to spend that exorbitant amount of money just to stay on NZ or QF. My next trip to the States is going via PPT with Air Tahiti Nui. But also using FJ quite a bit. Agree that the connections and product are actually really good.

LyingFlat

I'm booked to to go JFK early next year on the non-stop flights. Cost about $17K return!

CHCflyer

And I get my QF points too - always a bonus!

mad_atta

Welcome a380supremacy - I love your handle!

Interesting that the JFK flights are so full, even at the exorbitant fare levels being charged. Maybe NZ is onto something.

kiwifrequentflyer

I was shocked too. I booked family on one of the returning flights. The economy has a lower PAX number coming home I believe due to the longer flight time, but I think that impacts economy, not premium seats, so it shouldn't change their demand levels.

With it being such a long flight, it makes sense people want to avoid economy.

It also makes sense in that NYC is one of the biggest business travel spots for kiwis businesses. Lots of people want to fly there, and since domestic flights in the USA are just awful, if you can avoid having to make a domestic connection to get there... That's going to save enormous amounts of stress!

LyingFlat

Yes, I think AKL-JFK they can largely sell most of the seats on the plane. On the return, I believe they have to fly with about 40-60 empty seats in Economy (depending on the time of year).

NZJuniorDoc

At the moment part of the issue it that the markets are hot. I’ve actually noticed that AA/QF/NZ have zero’ed out cheaper business class fares for travel in Oct/Nov. Historically I wouldn’t have issue getting a D/I (OW) or J/Z (*A) ticket to the states in July for 4 months later….every flight back from New York from now till Christmas is only showing C class business only. I’m suspecting that lower classes are being blocked for the time being to see how forward sales go given all this revenge travel

codyc1515

I'm seeing similar trends quite often on the trans-tasman routes too. Taking CHC-BNE in October, as an example, there are a number of dates available where, travelling via AKL, the Premium Economy price is cheaper than Seat Only. I've seen this before in the past the odd time but not often.

LyingFlat

Pre-Covid, if booking for flights to RAR ex-AKL during the school holidays, you could often get BP for less than Y. I recall booking a trip their about 6 months out. Y Seat Only was about $2K return (full Y class) and BP was about $1100 return (Z class special).

No brainer which one to choose really...

ClanJ

Ok no surprise here having left NZ end of May to Europe and just returned the difference from May to now is staggering. We we arrived things were relatively quite but over the last six weeks all the flights inter-europe and back to NZ all full. Airports just wall to wall people working their way around wall to wall lost bags. We arrived in Athens in May and left from there in the weekend. Would say there was 3x more people around compared to when we arrived. There are shortages in all aspects of travel in support staff and we became used of delayed and disrupted flights in Europe as cannot recall one that was not. Having some sort of status in regards to fast track became a necessity as queues at security are staggering. We very quickly moved to arriving for flights 4 hours before just for piece of mind.

Thai-Kiwi

ClanJ .
Which piece of mind was sacrificed to provide peace of mind?!

(Sorry, can’t help myself.)