taupo

Welcome to FT.

I would say it is worth a conversation with the right person in NZ.
Have your statements ready to show the $100,000 you have control over, include departure and destinations along with the alternatives available (QF, EK, FJ, UA, AA?), the number of employees that travel and why the spend will continue somewhere.
Do the same for your family travel.
Point out the issues, opaqueness of upgrade system, overcrowded lounges, fleet limitations and that you have options.
Whilst you may not qualify for EP1, I am quite sure they can give the rest of the family Elite status which should help a little.

I reached out to [email protected] with my laundry list of concerns and received a response from someone (not him) acknowledging and accepting my concerns and gripes.

My family NZ spend was only about $35,000pa, but it has predominantly moved to AC.
For travel to NZ April-October, will need to decide between AC via OZ, the foot fetish special, UA or ?

NZ is the pro at platitudes, promises, splashy PR, cause célèbre but has zero substance when it comes to action.
So, I voted with my wallet and will reconsider my position WHEN they have non foot fetish BC, transparent upgrades, reliably answer the phone within ten minutes, have fleet reliability.

Bottom line JW, whilst all customers are important, you likely rank in top 1pc (guess on my part), reach out by email, ask for a phone call from someone who is empowered to make decisions.

Let us know how it goes

LyingFlat

To be brutally honest, unfortunately your spend levels are not even a drop in the bucket for Air NZ and would be immaterial to them. Apart from some kind (albeit scripted) words, I don't think you'll get much out of them. If I were in your position I would do as you're suggesting and do the bare minimum to qualify and move the rest to another carrier.

As for EP1, I know the programme better than most. There are two main customer groups. First, corporate spend EP1s are the CEOs/MDs of companies that have significant corporate airfare agreements with Air NZ. Second, individual spend EP1s, who are essentially high-spending road warriors based on their nett. personal airfare spend (so excludes tickets they may buy for others such as family). It's important to note that it doesn't matter who is paying for the tickets with individual members (could be a company or themselves personally), Air NZ just run a report against all Airpoints members to see how much their tickets were collectively worth. It also isn't unusual for there to be 2+ EP1s from the same company (the CEO as a corporate spend member and 1 or 2 staff as individual spend members). In the early years of the EP1 programme, an individual spend of $150K would probably just get you over the line or very near to it. However, I suspect with post-Covid airfare inflation you'd have to be $200K+ to be considered.

bce1

I can testify that $100-120K personal airfare spend doesn't cut the mustard for anything beyond Elite.
And they have no interest in doing anything bespoke. I had a brief email conversation with the loyalty team and asked, given my spend could I have first-class lounge access in LHR and LAX on my 6-8 weekly trips if I kept my spend with NZ, and they said no.
All good. Loyalty gone. I have done what Lying Flat suggests - maintain NZ elite plus a banked year and now Emirates Plat and Qantas Plat with OWE!!
It's sad NZ doesn't care about their mid-level loyalty tier.

taupo

bce1, curious how long ago that conversation was.
If prior to six months ago, their premium cabins were chokka and I can see but not condone their hubris.
Anecdotally, premium cabins are now less busy, the post Covid spending binge has blown its wad, cold hard fiscal reality is biting many, other carriers have stepped up for the long haul business, many of which are less expensive and superior.
They should regret being so dismissive of you

bce1

Yep - this time last year. I had just discovered Emirates First and wanted to ask if NZ could improve the ground experience a bit - zero interest.

jumpywizard

Ok, thank you all very much for the pointers. I'll try reaching out to AirNZ and seeing what happens, but I'm not going to hold my breath. I'm not too offended by not making the cut for EP1, just feel like there should be a mid step in-between.

In the meantime, I'll start planning my next years worth of travel around chasing QF and/or EK status

taupo

This thread reminds me that NZ desperately needs to either rejig their existing tier qualifications and benefits, or add another above Elite.
When compared to published top tier qualification on say AC, the only one other one I’m familiar with, the bar to retain Elite is very low. Two round trip business class YVR-AKL-YVR.
The benefits are also low.

AC’s top tier requires $20,000 + 100,000 status qualifying miles. The miles can be earned through flying and boosted with certain co-branded CC’s, which also require significant spend.

Thai-Kiwi

They have a long way to go then, and seem reluctant to even provide more than the ‘barely satisfactory’ requirements of Star Gold, let alone anything meaningful for Elite+. No point in having higher tiers if there is no supporting infrastructure.

taupo

Not only no supporting infrastructure, but zero willingness.

greg23

There was supposed to be a rejig of the Air NZ frequent flyer program in mid-2023. Foran was all over the media promoting it, and telling media agencies that a refresh was coming mid-2023.

We are still waiting...

I dont have any issue with existing qualification criteria, personally my issue is Koru.
Anytime there is a paid membership like Koru, thats the reason for overcrowded lounges, and the existing abuse of the buffet.
Not to mention that one Koru member can bring in their partner, and 3 children up to 17 years.

I'd like to see the introduction of koru guest passes, they had these previously, they were paper cards.
They now have the ability to load guest passes electronically.
Koru members should have a limited number of guest passes per membership year, which covers partners, children etc.
The only exempt should be infants less than 2 years old.
All children older than 2 are taking up a seat in the lounge, and should be counted as a guest. Remove the existing free for all, perhaps 10 guest passes per year?

Current qualification criteria for Silver / Gold / Elite is fair, you earn your status by flying. The fact you can purchase a membership like Koru which delivers almost the same benefits seems a bit absurd.

samjnz

The numbers in the lounge really started to swell when they added all the shortcuts for NZ members such as the credit card status points, etc rather than Koru -- I feel the inflection point was sometime around 2012 or so.

​​​​After my last trip (where I couldn't find a seat in the AKL int lounge), I just booked another trip yesterday but decided to book AC instead for a change since ultimately I'm not sure there is any benefit to maintain Elite (especially now the phone lines are constantly clogged making checking for a confirmed upgrade a long process).

Ellice

Agreed too many children now in the lounges. Makes for an unpleasant experience at times. We go to the KrisFlyer lounge now at Sydney and use the priority pass lounge at akl airport. Agree with the sentiments re koru club benefits being out of whack for the cost. I guess as long as nz have a monopoly on the domestic routes they aren’t going to do much re the elite benefits.

What I’d like to know is the extent of government departments buying koru memberships for staff. That would be interesting to know. Even if they just improved the elite call centre wait times I’d be happy so there was a guaranteed less than 5 minutes wait time for elite, for eg. Sometimes there’s no wait, at other times there is. It shouldn’t be a lottery.

greg23

If you are departing AKL on AC, you will still be using the Air NZ AKL intl lounge.

A lot of credit card companies have already removed things like Koru passes, and a high spend required per status point. I believe it's around $250 spend per status point for most credit cards.
I dont imagine the general public are achieving status by credit card spend, for Gold its the equivalent of spending $112,500 on your card (with the rest from flying), for elite its $150,000 (with the rest from flying).

nzkarit

Though remember people are double bubbling with an ANZ card & another card.

And with an ANZ card is you earn 2/3 flying for $150 it will top you to 100%. And the other card reduces the 2/3 to a the minimum metal requirement.

poopbunny

For me, that's too much flying on an inferior and outdated product, eating bad to average tasting food. Access to a few "Special" Lounges that would be mostly inferior to a wider range of separate First / Emerald / Platinum lounges world wide.