flyerCO

NZ has had a domestic bag drop for decades in international terminal.

However, your friends may have liked transiting SYD for another reason. Connecting to other NZ cities meant they were connecting internationally not domestically. Thus their bags would indeed transfer.

SYD sucks much worse than AKL when connecting domestically from internationally. You have a long bus ride between domestic and international airport sides. AKL you can at least walk.

SkyTeam777

This appears to be back at the super low SkyMIles redemption level, but the D1 global upgrade certificate inventory seems to be phantom online. Does anyone know how to see what's really available since Delta.com is not being accurate?

HDQDD

I have a colleague that booked RSW-AKL R/T in Feb for 42,400mi + $86.45. That's insane IMO. Makes me wonder if this flight stays year round.

ClipperDelta

I believe they already made it seasonal; flight disappears after end of March. Also, they’re using the LATAM A350 on this route, so lots of Coach seats to sell!

xliioper

Not quite as low as current sale awards (also valid to PPT and SYD) are 68K miles (in Main) roundtrip from many origins. LAX is somewhat less.

samjnz

I don't really understand the pricing they have for Delta One on this route -- at times it's 2x the (already exorbitant) NZ fare.

Are they trying not to sell seats in case of some sort of equipment swap?

xliioper

Sounds like you are checking in NZ-US direction where DL isn't likely to get many sales anyways due to lack of familiarity. Fare filings and bucket availability vary depending on which direction you are booking. When booking from NZ, most flights only have J or C bucket open at this point. They may likely release seats in D/I/Z buckets as flights get closer and if there are flights with a decent number of seats still open.

If you are looking closer to Christmas period in US-NZ direction, it's again likely a point-of-sale thing with many US based pax wanting to go to NZ during their break period and DL being the better known entity to US based pax and they will pay a fare premium to fly DL (there are a good number of people who don't even bother to comparison shop). Up until mid-December DL fares are fairly close to NZ (DL fares below are "I" class).

findark

Business fares to Australia and New Zealand have almost never been reasonable, and certainly not since the pandemic reopening. It feels like the last market to see serious competition, and I suppose the stage length doesn't help but an $8k+ bottom of fare table out of a market like LAX is insanity. With reasonable deals, a fare break (split ticket) through Europe is cheaper. Ex-NZ fare table is half the price, too.

kiwicanuck

that’s what happens when the flights to Oz support business class on Govt flights

flyerCO

Yep. Almost all my OZ/NZ trips are US-EU and EU-OZ/NZ for half the price.