mitchdew

Still no seats from Aeroplan since i can not get through their phone numbers.
I just called Continental and they said that i could get first class seats with qantas for 135 k miles and they have a flat bed. I thought that qantas had only business and economy.
Anybody flown first with qantas??

Kiwi Flyer

Per post #2 above, Qantas does have first on some aircraft. No first to or from AKL though. And chances of getting 2 F award seats are not good.

The F seats are good. In my opinion about equally as comfy as NZ new business seat, but with more room on QF F.

As for Aeroplan - how long are you holding before giving up? Do you even have the right number? Have you tried other numbers? Have you tried calling at less busy times (ie not at lunch time, not on Monday mornings, etc)?

Traveloguy

You are indeed correct. QF only offers a J service between AKL and LAX. The only way around that would be to take a direct flight to either SYD or MEL and then connect back through to AKL.

og

QF F is very nice. Take it if you can get it. Best of all, you get to turn left .

JerseySlime

When I was setting up my itinerary earlier this year with CO using CO miles on QF, I found it was more difficult to get a J seat out of AKL than getting an F seat in and out of MEL or SYD. I flew F to MEL, had my trip through OZ, flew to AKL out of SYD, had my holiday in NZ, then started my trip home out of CHC.

With CO, you have to fly trans-Pacific in the same class, either both J or both F. You can't fly F over and J back. I was originally planning both J, but since I couldn't get out of AKL in J, I switched to F. Turned out to be a no-brainer. Anyway, according to CO rules, you can only fly trans-Tasman once. I flew trans-Tasman SYD-AKL. But since I was now an F passenger, CO and QF booked me to fly CHC-SYD, overnight in SYD because QF11 was in the air already, and fly in F SYD-LAX the next day.

You can't fly F on QF AKL-LAX. You can fly F trans-Pacific with AKL as a destination if you work it with CO. The CO folks were great to me in working out the logistics. And AMEX Membership Rewards transfer one-for-one into CO OnePass. Good Luck.

mitchdew

Can CO book my return flight from AKL to LAX as a F passenger through SYD then?
AKL-SYD-LAX
Geez, i finally got somebody today at Aeroplan trying to use Air New Zealnd flights and the girl that answered was the most unfriendly agent that i ever have spoken with. She was grumpy!! I guess i will try to make it work with CO instead of Air canada.

JerseySlime

First, start calling the QF desk at CO EXACTLY 330 days out from the start of your trip. If you wait until 330 days from when you want to return, you may be SOL. You can call them anytime and explain exactly what you want to do and they can give you some hints on setting up an itinerary.

Yes, it is possible to fly trans-Pacific in F and visit NZ. But, if you are going to spend time in OZ, you will have to do the OZ leg first. I flew LAX-MEL on QF94 in F, with time spent in PER, MEL, and SYD. You can then fly trans-Tasman to NZ (AKL, CHC, WLG, ZQN) and do your NZ leg. Then, fly home from AKL or CHC via MEL or SYD in a continous manner. My flights home were as follows: Monday - ZQN-CHC-SYD. Tuesday - SYD-LAX on QF11. I flew trans-Tasman twice (technically you're only allowed to cross the Tasman Sea once on a CO award on QF), but the second trip was just to connect me to my F flight home. I could not stay in OZ except for the overnight at SYD for the QF11 flight the next afternoon. Call the QF desk at CO and ask. Most of the folks there are extremely helpful. Setting up and maneuvering itineraries is what they do.

Traveloguy

You can certainly see how reward availability gets so tight to the USA when we have QF, CO, US & AA members all flighting for a couple of reward seats on thost transpac flights not to mention other OW members doing RTW awards etc.

bensyd

Not just RTW rewards.

There really should be 2 inventory buckets for this route, one for QF FF's and one for the rest. Or alternatively why doesn't QF kick CO out, its not as though they need the business???

Traveloguy

Agree completely on this one.

They could also do with kicking out US, especially now that US and UA are partners. US as a partner in the QFF is really harking back to old 'alliances' when BA was going to buy them etc.

JerseySlime

Did QF and CO reach some sort of an agreement when CO essentially left the market? Those midnight arrivals into CNS don't add up to much.

Traveloguy

Yes, when CO pulled out of the market they did a deal with QF to ensure pax could still travel to Australia with CO miles.

I should add however that CO is free to restart services to Australia anytime they wish, and therefore the agreement was not to try and restrict the Australia-US market.

Personally I wish CO would restart services to Australia. I am sure one of their shiny new 777-200ERs would be more than perfect for the job should they decide to fly the route.

bensyd

Its strange CO didn't at least get a codeshare worked into the deal.

Agreed, any competition on this route has to be good. And as far as American airlines go CO is in the top rung.

NM

But its a huge commitment. To make it worthwhile, they need to be operating at least 7 times weekly (i.e. daily). And to operate a daily trans-Pacific requires dedication of 2 aircraft plus extras for cycling maintenance etc.

And CO does not have a natural hub on the USA west coast from which to launch trans-Pacific. So they need to route flights from their hubs at IAH or EWR via either LAX or SFO since the 777-200ER with a nominal full pax range of 7730nm is going to need a west coast stop. They could target IAH-AKL-SYD with the 777-200ER as something unique in the industry which may be attractive to companies in the resources sector.

But even with one daily flight to Australia they will struggle to compete. However, the fleet commitment to operate multiple daily services is beyond most airlines capability. But it would indeed be good to see CO take up the challenge with their 777.

Traveloguy

I think we all know you are right on this one even before you posted. Still it is a nice dream.

There was a day however when CO had a strong presence at both HNL and LAX. I still think a SYD/MEL-LAX-IAH/EWR as possibility (should it even happen in the first place) as it could capture both east and west coast market demand.

That it is!