oranjemakker

As a long suffering NZ member in Christchurch, which the airline seems to treat as poor cousin to Auckland, both in terms of the lack of any long haul services and crappy TT offerings, I thought it might be helpful to share my recent flights booked to Sydney for travel in mid Feb.

Qantas had a business class sale (their sale fare unlike NZ are cancelable with a fee) and I got a return in business for $1600. Outbound is on EK (AMAZING!) and would have been about $200 cheaper if I selected one of the few QF flights but the small extra for EK and the bar is well worth it IMO!. Works Deluxe on AirNZ same dates $1,290. Business on air nz involving long connections $2,435.

Its almost at the point now where I dont even look at AirNZ when getting flights to Aus. I usually book Y but on evening return flights upgrade for about 11k points (this trip alone will earn me 5k) and almost always get my upgrade to clear.

Have AirNZ given up on the premium market out of CHC do you think? Both for TT and LH given all the other options we now have?

THR

Short answer is yes.

I’m based in Sydney but regularly visit Christchurch for family. Flying Qantas one way (J) Air NZ back next time (early morning flight and I have lounge access via SQ).

Recently flew EK as well.

Air NZ have limited frequency and the product offering isn’t competitive.

nzkarit

TT I want them get the frequencies out of Wellington back to what the were.

Adding business won't help if they don't have the flight options to pick from.

Thai-Kiwi

This. I have travel likely WLG-SYD on early May, and the only direct NZ flight is the 3:15pm.

So this means going over the day before and a hotel night, or going QF.

samjaynz

Agreed, I'd like to see some kind of business product brought back for Trans Tasman out of Chch, even if just on some flights.

I'm flying to Sydney in a few weeks with my wife for a concert. We booked flights on Air NZ around mid last year and due to the concert demand pricing was crazy high for just a bog standard 'Works' seat across the ditch. However, looking now I can actually cancel my Air NZ flight (for some reason I get a 75% refund, not a full one ... anyone know why that would be and if there is any leeway if you call Air NZ up and ask for a full credit not a cash refund as I need to book some more travel on Air NZ anyway) and book us on Emirates business class for a very reasonable price AND depart at the much better time of 6pm as opposed to 3.30pm so my wife doesn't need to take a day off work.

What I would like to see (in order of my priority) for Chch - TT at least to Sydney/Melbourne:

• Early am flight on a plane with a proper business class or at least Qantas style larger seats so you can have a good sleep on the flight on the way over, arrive at 8am or whatever it is and then be ready for any meetings in the day. I used to fly Chch - Sydney 2-3x per month at one point and it would have been a game changer to be able to sleep properly on the plane so you feel refreshed for meetings, as opposed to landing in Sydney looking and feeling like death then needing to make it through a day of work. I'm probably going to be picking up a bit more TT travel this year and will likely swap to Qantas (who do the morning departure) just for this reason alone ... if only Emirates departed in the AM!
• An actual evening flight e.g. departing 7.30 pm so you can comfortably travel after work hours. The schedule is a bit crap IMO, I'd rather have the pick of a couple of morning flights, one lunch time flight and an evening flight. Not a big deal for me usually as I'm self-employed so can set my schedule around travel, but when travelling with others who work regular jobs it usually means they have to take at least an afternoon off work. Heck, I'd be happy enough with a proper night departure e.g. 9pm leave 10.30pm arrival, at the hotel by midnight ready to go the next day.

I'm normally more than content to fly economy and save the cash (an economy flight to somewhere is better than no flight) but for those AM departures where you are getting up at 4am for a work trip, and by the time you arrive at the client's/customer's office in Sydney/Melbourne CBD you've been up for hours and not on your "A Game" I would gladly pay 2-3x the price for the ability to sleep for 2-3 hrs on the way over.

nzkarit

You aren't going to see much of change in times as the current timing allows for each plane to make two returns in the day.

Talking about A320s not out of AKL. Don't really see those times changing much. Unless AirNZ gets some A220s and does some whacky timings to really up frequency.
Start in Aussie at say
6am -> NZ 11am
1pm -> AU 3pm
4pm -> NZ 9pm
10pm -> AU midnight (which would miss Sydney curfew of 11pm)

Though with that also now staging full crews in Aussie.

Mwenenzi

While you may gladly pay pay 2-3x the economy price for business TT, I suspect most would not. [me included]. But have booked QF business class TT when the fare more reasonable (~sales) or even with QF ff points when economy/business cash fares are high/very high.

But QF do seem to sell a lot of 12 business class seat in the B737. [more like a PE seat in a long haul wide body aircraft] I suspect a good number are transferring to/from long haul flights and/or are not AU/NZ residents.

CHC - MEL/SYD probably does not the market for an Air NZ B787 wide body, even if aircraft were avalaible. And less chance for CHC to QLD as a holiday market for those looking for warmer weather.
Been on the EK A380 and few times and were a lot of unoccupied seats (all classes).

Cannot see Air Auckland (aka Air NZ) ever putting some business class seats in some of the narrow body fleet. Would limit fleet utilisation over the network
https://www.aerolopa.com/nz

As for timing can't please everyone. From CHC those 06:00 flights (all airlines) are well off my radar. Never ever consider them. For me 15:00-16:00 CHC departure is good but often end up 21:00 departures (schedule vs seat vs price vs ff miles/points in order of importance)

samjaynz

Yeah fair enough. I'd never pay the extra for 'leisure travel' TT (I mean the Air NZ A320/1 is really not bad to sit there for 3-4 hours when you've got nothing more strenuous than a nice brunch and shopping to look forward to) it's just that niche application of doing a day trip to Syd/Mel for work where it would be a 'game changer' to be able to make up for lost sleep from an early start up on the plane itself. Particularly if you've got a stacked couple of days of meetings. I only take the early morning departure so I can be in town by about 9am, everything going smoothly. I should really just go the night before, but don't like being away from the family for longer than I need to.

Dumb question but how are you getting a 2100 departure from Chch? Which airline offers this?

sbiddle

Just be thankful you're not like Wellington and have options when it comes to flights. Flying WLD-SYD is now a joke on NZ.

Mwenenzi

I suspect most TT travel is 'leisure travel'. Some people will chose another airline for $10 difference. Have a CHC cousin who does that.

Used to be JQ174 CHC MEL 21:05 22:40 paying for exit row seat. JQ & QF have now changed there (co-ordinated) schedules in the last year or so. In years gone by QF and CI (CHC-MEL-TPE) used to have 20:00~21:00 departures. [Was a time when some cabin crew would notice I was not sitting in my usual aisle exit row seat]

samjaynz

Totally fair enough if you're travelling for leisure or for whatever other reason want/need to spend as little as possible on flights. I'll go Jetstar if the deals are sufficiently good (my original comment is really from a business/work travel perspective). I might actually look into that night departure for another concert wife and I are attending in October ... would mean once again she doesn't need to take any time off work.

Mwenenzi

While some from NZ are going for day business trips will not be many. And far less price sensitive.

greg23

I’d like to see NZ add more Tasman frequency from WLG , CHC, ZQN, maybe add DUD, PMR options too. Achievable by adding a new aircraft type, eg A220.
More frequency vs adding business class is likely a better option for business travellers, and aids in removing some pressure off AKL where most Tasman flights are fully booked. Also makes morning meetings, and potentially same day return, achievable.

At this point it seems NZ are happy for QF to eat their lunch, as it’s obvious QF are quickly building their market share on the Tasman (QF 44% vs NZ 43%).

cavemanzk

While AKL has Business class on the Tasman (on limited) flights, the majority are still A320/321NEO's.
Unless you want to leave AKL around 9am, and leave Australia around midday, you have very limited choices of J to AKL, and that is only on SYD/MEL/BNE/PER.

All the early morning / early evening departures from AKL are all A320/321NEO's.

I'm not a fan of the new VA proposed code share on NZ, means VA will kept off most of the Tasman for the feasible future.

The price point of VA J ex AKL pre-covid, match the product are was really good value. The amount of times I would take VA in J on AKL-BNE as it wasn't much more than The Works on NZ.

Rebound

The removal of Works Deluxe shows Air NZs intention when it comes to premium on narrow bodies.