Help Getting to New Zealand
Jan 6, 2012, 12:04 am
#16
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,821
It is a brutal long flight to fly in coach.
Jan 6, 2012, 12:06 am
#17
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,821
Just booked 2 separate round trips for 4 different pax to Aus/NZ.
Trip #1 was Dec - Jan for my son and his dad.
Impossible to get ANYTHING out on One World carriers. Had to book one-way on United miles routing SFO through YVR with a 9 hour layover (in economy for both of them - ouch !)
They are returning on Qantas with United miles.
Trip #2 Feb - March for us
No premium cabin awards to be found. Had to take ANZ economy (eeeek) from LAX (United miles). Returning on Qantas biz with AA miles.
So... It doesn't hurt to have miles in both *A and OW
Trip #1 was Dec - Jan for my son and his dad.
Impossible to get ANYTHING out on One World carriers. Had to book one-way on United miles routing SFO through YVR with a 9 hour layover (in economy for both of them - ouch !)
They are returning on Qantas with United miles.
Trip #2 Feb - March for us
No premium cabin awards to be found. Had to take ANZ economy (eeeek) from LAX (United miles). Returning on Qantas biz with AA miles.
So... It doesn't hurt to have miles in both *A and OW
Jan 6, 2012, 10:16 am
#18
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 158
I have aspirations to get to Australia / New Zealand in the next couple years as well. After reading all the horror stories of award availability for this trip, I decided to pick Ultimate Rewards point accumulation - so if there is no award availability I can always buy with points!
If you get the Sapphire (w/ 50K bonus) Freedom (has been as high as 30K) and Ink Bold (50K bonus) that is 130K points - before you factor in any spending. That would be good for about $1500 in airfare alone! Plus those three cards offer good complimentary bonus categories.
If you get the Sapphire (w/ 50K bonus) Freedom (has been as high as 30K) and Ink Bold (50K bonus) that is 130K points - before you factor in any spending. That would be good for about $1500 in airfare alone! Plus those three cards offer good complimentary bonus categories.
Jan 6, 2012, 11:47 am
#19
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,821
I have aspirations to get to Australia / New Zealand in the next couple years as well. After reading all the horror stories of award availability for this trip, I decided to pick Ultimate Rewards point accumulation - so if there is no award availability I can always buy with points!
If you get the Sapphire (w/ 50K bonus) Freedom (has been as high as 30K) and Ink Bold (50K bonus) that is 130K points - before you factor in any spending. That would be good for about $1500 in airfare alone! Plus those three cards offer good complimentary bonus categories.
If you get the Sapphire (w/ 50K bonus) Freedom (has been as high as 30K) and Ink Bold (50K bonus) that is 130K points - before you factor in any spending. That would be good for about $1500 in airfare alone! Plus those three cards offer good complimentary bonus categories.
If you are willing to fly coach, there is NO SHORTAGE of award seats. But it is a brutal long flight to be in coach.
The shortage and scarcity are in the Premium Cabins only and understandably so as those seats would run you $8000 to $10000 a ticket. Good luck with earning that kind of points via sign up bonus alone so you can "buy" your ticket with points.
On the other hand, a 110 to 140K real Airline Miles depends on airlines, could get you a business class r/t that, again, would sell for a retail price of $8000 to $10000.
Jan 6, 2012, 3:41 pm
#21
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: New Jersey
Programs: Credit Cards
Posts: 3,009
Jan 6, 2012, 3:51 pm
#22
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 158
If you are willing to fly coach, there is NO SHORTAGE of award seats. But it is a brutal long flight to be in coach.
In any case, I still like the idea of choosing a program like UR that allows you to "hold" the points with the option to pay with points in the event award availability is limited.
Jan 6, 2012, 3:51 pm
#23
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: Fort Myers, FL
Programs: Hilton Gold, SPG & IHG Plat, & every airline program that I can join
Posts: 2,279
JudyJFLA
Jan 6, 2012, 3:53 pm
#24
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: Fort Myers, FL
Programs: Hilton Gold, SPG & IHG Plat, & every airline program that I can join
Posts: 2,279
JudyJFLA
Jan 6, 2012, 4:09 pm
#25
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,821
Yes. Choose Multi-city and build your stopover at wherever.
CO allows a stopover on a r/t booking and it seems the system does not restrict where the stopover is.
Of course it is much easier to do it in coach as there is no shortage of coach seats. It would be much much harder to do it in business due to shortage of award seats.
CO allows a stopover on a r/t booking and it seems the system does not restrict where the stopover is.
Of course it is much easier to do it in coach as there is no shortage of coach seats. It would be much much harder to do it in business due to shortage of award seats.
Jan 6, 2012, 4:17 pm
#26
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Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,821
Ah, OK. For some reason from the reading I had done I was under the impression that award travel to NZ was limited regardless.
In any case, I still like the idea of choosing a program like UR that allows you to "hold" the points with the option to pay with points in the event award availability is limited.
In any case, I still like the idea of choosing a program like UR that allows you to "hold" the points with the option to pay with points in the event award availability is limited.
However the essence is, using the UR point in its cash value is about the lowest value you would achieve as it is a strict one penny per point. Inevitably if the UR pts are transferred to an airline program, the value even using a coach award would be doubled or tripled of that 1 penny per point cash value.
Take your own example of buying ticket with $1500 - that costs 130K UR pts with the 25% discount if booked thru UR site as redemption - but, 130K CO miles can get you 2 coach tickets to achieve the same thing, plus a stopover somewhere to boot. While with your cash value you can only buy 1 coach ticket with a little bit $ left over and most likely no stopover anywhere.
I have never seen any day that Qantas does not have coach award seats between US and NZ/Australia for all the periods I search for business class awards.
ditto for CO awards. ditto for AS awards using DL flights.
Coach awards are ABUNDANT because those who hoard miles to go, would much rather fly business class to have a flat bed or at least a lie flat seat for that 14 to 15 hours flight. A long flight under 10 hours is well within many people's tolerance but as the flight goes longer, each additional hour would add discomfort EXPONENTIALLY. The last few hours on such a long flight is very very hard. We have been in NZ 5 times, basically every 2 years. The first 2 times we flew coach. The last 3 times we flew business. Best business seats on the South Pacific to North America / Europe would be the Star A members - NZ, AC & VS. They are all full flat bed seats.
Jan 6, 2012, 7:22 pm
#27
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,259
It's hard to plan a trip for 2013 "hoping" for a BA card bonus or Capital 1 bonus or Aeroplan sale. I find when booking award travel for a family it's important to set a goal and then strategize to meet the goal. Getting distracted can be costly.
OP's best strategy is to go with UA/CO given OP has 53K UR points and 25K CO miles. If OP and wife each applied for the UA Explorer card (50k each), that brings the total to 178K miles. If OP puts their 3K monthly spend on UR, that would bring OP to 214K by January 2013 (a year from now). That's just 56K short of the 270K needed. That's easily met with some judicious spending and planning through the UR mall bonuses, something that is pretty certain to happen.
The problem is that looking for award seat availability on Star Alliance in January 2013 for a March 2013 trip can be problematic. As Gary has pointed out, it's really tough to find award seats from US to Australia/NZ in premium classes. VA has good availability for DL flyers at 150K a piece, but OP doesn't have any Skyteam miles.
Another option is to get an award ticket to Europe and then fly to NZ from there on a paid ticket. ATH-AKL is about $3400 on EK J, and DUB-AKL is about 3400 Euro on EK F, both very nice products on A380. It might be more expensive than OP is willing to spend, and would definitely take longer, but it would be a more certain way to get there in a premium cabin without paying the minimum $10K per passenger ex-USA.
OP's best strategy is to go with UA/CO given OP has 53K UR points and 25K CO miles. If OP and wife each applied for the UA Explorer card (50k each), that brings the total to 178K miles. If OP puts their 3K monthly spend on UR, that would bring OP to 214K by January 2013 (a year from now). That's just 56K short of the 270K needed. That's easily met with some judicious spending and planning through the UR mall bonuses, something that is pretty certain to happen.
The problem is that looking for award seat availability on Star Alliance in January 2013 for a March 2013 trip can be problematic. As Gary has pointed out, it's really tough to find award seats from US to Australia/NZ in premium classes. VA has good availability for DL flyers at 150K a piece, but OP doesn't have any Skyteam miles.
Another option is to get an award ticket to Europe and then fly to NZ from there on a paid ticket. ATH-AKL is about $3400 on EK J, and DUB-AKL is about 3400 Euro on EK F, both very nice products on A380. It might be more expensive than OP is willing to spend, and would definitely take longer, but it would be a more certain way to get there in a premium cabin without paying the minimum $10K per passenger ex-USA.
Jan 6, 2012, 10:16 pm
#28
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,821
The problem is that looking for award seat availability on Star Alliance in January 2013 for a March 2013 trip can be problematic. As Gary has pointed out, it's really tough to find award seats from US to Australia/NZ in premium classes. VA has good availability for DL flyers at 150K a piece, but OP doesn't have any Skyteam miles.
Another option is to get an award ticket to Europe and then fly to NZ from there on a paid ticket. ATH-AKL is about $3400 on EK J, and DUB-AKL is about 3400 Euro on EK F, both very nice products on A380. It might be more expensive than OP is willing to spend, and would definitely take longer, but it would be a more certain way to get there in a premium cabin without paying the minimum $10K per passenger ex-USA.
EK F is an excellent product and if it is true at that price tag, it is well worth it for an A380 ride.
Where do you find these pricing?
Jan 7, 2012, 6:33 am
#29
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,259
Is that right? So my 240K Skypesos could be a base to build upon... Initially I accumulated this stock pile for an European trip on AF. Now 150K is quite steep but VS has a very good product.
EK F at 3400 euro DUB-AKL?! or you mean DXB-AKL?
EK F is an excellent product and if it is true at that price tag, it is well worth it for an A380 ride.
Where do you find these pricing?
EK F at 3400 euro DUB-AKL?! or you mean DXB-AKL?
EK F is an excellent product and if it is true at that price tag, it is well worth it for an A380 ride.
Where do you find these pricing?
EK F: yes, it's a launch special for the DUB route. TA bookings only, i.e. here. SYD is 3665 and AKL is 50 Euro cheaper -- may as well go to AKL since the plane stops in SYD anyway! Agree, DXB-SYD would be a nice ride, including using those showers! A nice once in a lifetime vacation.