Buckguy

With the talk of New Zealand and Auckland travel ban being lifted I was curious what the best way to travel from New York to Auckland with points or miles would be for a late October 2022 trip.

My current points:
35k UR
125k Amex

My P2:
85k UR

guv1976

One way or roundtrip?

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

Buckguy

Roundtrip. If you have any recommended routes, I would look into planning my next points/miles around it.

guv1976

It doesn't make sense to talk about preferred routes unless and until you discover what -- if any -- choices you have when redeeming frequent-flyer miles. Are you looking to fly in Economy, or in a premium cabin? (If you're planning to fly in Economy, be sure to check cash fares, as it might make sense to use your points as cash on this particular trip.)

Be aware that different FFPs can charge different numbers of miles (and possibly cash surcharges) on the very same flights, so you might also want to do some research on what different programs charge for your journey. And also keep in mind that Amex and Chase have some common transfer partners, but also some unique ones.

Also, many FFPs allow one-way awards. It's conceivable that you might want to -- or have to -- redeem miles from one program for the outbound, and miles from a different program for the return, depending on award availability.

This thread might end up being moved by a Moderator to the Miles Buzz! or Information Desk forum, since you will not necessarily be flying on Air New Zealand.

Good luck!

guv1976

At this site, you can see which airlines fly to AKL -- and from which cities. Note that several of these airlines are members of Star Alliance, which means that, if "partner" award seats are available, you should be able to redeem miles from any Star Alliance airline program for those flights.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auckland_Airport

nzkarit

October is ages away.

Nothing currently in schedule would reflect what would be in place at the time.

Not even sure if AirNZ has reward space open at the moment.

Also AKL is only opening up domestically soon. Still a way away from guidance on international especially for non citizens. We are hoping for Aussie & Islands in Q1 2022. Given the mess the US is, the US will be further down the list for MIQ free travel for non citizens.

Mwenenzi

Buckguy Welcome to FT
While you posted in Air NZ forum. Air NZ are very stingy with awards to ff partners. As above you wait a few months until 2022 flights stabilise.

The airline you (hopefully) fly with and the air freq flyer program you use to get an award may not the same.
Or you may not get an award. A very real possibility~probability.
AKL Auckland is not the only international airport in NZ. Also look at WLG & CHC. Via Australia may be a possiblity
A very approx guide-->https://www.awardhacker.com/ Need to check the ffp award fine details

Credit card transfer links

• Credit, Debit and Prepaid Card Programs forum
  
• Amex MR Transfer Membership Rewards points to which airline or hotel program?
  
• Chase UR Ultimate Rewards - Airline and Hotel Transfer Partners, Rules, Timeline, etc (2017)
  
• Chase UR Ultimate Rewards - Which airline/hotel should I transfer points to?
  
• Citi TYP Citi ThankYou Points (TYPs): airline transfer partners
  

mosfet

Kiwi based in NY! Here’s what I found over the years and recent developments since 2020

Hope helps !

Qantas had/has good award space. By October I imagine they will have resumed their North American service. Note sometimes LAX - AKL/WLG/CHCh/ZQN is easier to find than from NY.

UR points, use via BA or Amex via QF ffp

Cathay - kind of anyones guess where they will be in October. Used to be a reliable and my preferred route down under. Only fly into AKL.

UR points via BA

United - was a reliable SFO/LAX - AKL, stopped via the pandemic, assume it will resume.

UR points via United good value in Y here if you can find it

Air NZ - the elusive national carrier who’s award space even pre pandemic was bare. They’ve been on life support since 2020 so who knows if they’ll open award space…

UR Points United useful but also Virgin Atlantic which used to have the golden goose LAX - AKL 60k in J!!

SQ - has been a rock since 2020 getting to NZ, few airlines pushed thru. Mentioning as their an Amex partner. It’s a bit of a long way around but can find some good deals and a lovely airline.

guv1976

It would also be helpful to know from which U.S. airport(s) the OP can depart, and which class of service he wants to fly.

Mwenenzi

From post 1 above starting NYC.. But OP may have to position from NYC to another city to get an award. Many USA-NZ/AU flights leave from SFO LAX. QF has/had DFW and JFK and maybe will have ORD. NZ had IAH-AKL. AA flew LAX-AKL for a short time before CV19. I used to have a list of USA-AU/NZ routes and carriers which often posted in thread like this. But since CV19 is now not up to date. In Jan-Feb 2022 will consider if worth updating.

Premium class awards USA-NZ/AU have always been very hard to get. That will not change post pandemic.

JamesBigglesworth

No idea if this will apply/work when things do eventually re-open, but IME it was often was easier to find award space if you searched *outside* of the hubs, especially at the destination end of things.

NYC-AKL space, for example, might not show anything, but NYC-TRG often would. This worked especially well for me for getting space on QF, CX, and NZ to New Zealand. Because most awards are offered one way these days I had considerable success with awards from the US on flights MCI-TRG or STL-GMN when things like LAX-CHC were showing as nil for months on end. (Only way I ever found F space on QF LAX-CHC at New Years was by playing that game and flying STL-(LAX-SYD-CHC)-GMN. (And what a letdown F on QF LAX-SYD was!))

The key is (was!) to pick a final destination that works through (ALK, CHC, WLG, DUD, ZQN) where you actually want to go, and then ditching that last leg that you don't really need. As a one way it doesn't cancel the return. Awards *out* of New Zealand seem to be easier to come by.

Buckguy

I live in North Jersey so am close to EWR but it isn't a problem to fly out of JFK or LGA if they have a better flght.

Mwenenzi

You may have to start from any major gateway for NZ-AU flights (LAX SFO DFW IAH ORD and more). Or as above, a flight from a minor airport via a major gateway. . May need to pay $ for a separate ticket to get to your starting airport. You need to be creative.

As asked above what class of travel are you hoping for?

snic

The nice thing about SQ is that they accept both UR and amex transfers. They tend to be a bit pricier (points-wise) than, say United, but their "promiscuity" with various credit card points partners makes them an attractive way of combining points. They are extremely stingy with releasing their business and first class awards to partner airlines. For premium seats it seems to be easier to book partner award tickets using SQ than the other way round. And, SQ flies to JFK with generally good connections in Singapore to all sorts of Pacific destinations including NZ.

Finally, I think they're having a 15% bonus promotion on points transfers at the moment.

Nomers22

I'm looking at the same route as you, but want to go in November. So far here's what I found (which echoes a lot of what was said here):

• United have award space available for flights from EWR > SFO > AKL. However it will cost 200k miles one way. A better strategy may be to book them via another airline partner. Maybe the more experienced users can help with this questions.
• Singapore have business class seats available and you can even find savers from 129k one way for business class! There's a direct flight from EWR to SIN and JFK to SIN, but that's a 19-hour flight followed by a 9-hour flight to AKL.
• Emirates also flies from EWR and JFK and have business award flights available for 179k one way. May be worth checking out.

My only hesitation with flying East versus West is the considerable flight time, however I do want to maximize my points. I have enough points to buy first class on Emirates and Singapore, and I figured that if I'm going to spend 30+ hours on a plane, may as well be in a suite. Kicking myself for missing out on the Krisflyer promo.