Circle Pacific Help for Newbie
 

I am planning a trip from US to NZ. The Circle Pacific business fare seems like a deal to me. This will be our first trip in business so we are looking forward to it. The best price I can get is from Air NZ. Air Canada was way out of line on the same routing. We were really looking forward to the flat seats on AirNZ but in looking at the website/schedules/routing if we fly SFO or LAX -PPT-RAR-AKL we won't have this luxury as it doesn't look like these planes have the lay flats, only the long haul LAX or SFO - AKL???
After reading through countless threads I realize that I am totally green about this whole booking thing!! Any suggestions re a better way for this CP fare?

Firstly, welcome aboard. Nice to see a new face! :)
If you can be a tad more elaborate about what you are wanting to do, you will find some of us are more than willing to pass on ideas and first hand experiences with the carriers. I presume you are wanting to go firstly to New Zealand, but via the Islands as your first part of the journey? Where else are you headed & what are your requirements - i.e. flat beds by the sounds of it!!
There are several fares that may fit your needs, both Star Alliance products and individual/seperate fares that use Star partners.
Cheers.

Thanks AL,
Initially we were just going to Cook Islands and NZ. We always fly economy but decided to splurge on business this trip. (Two economy trips to Oz sealed our fate!)
I checked with several carriers and the cheapest business fare I could find to NZ direct from LAX was around $11K pp. I checked all the options I could think of including AMEX companion etc and the Circle Pacific (22K mile) came in at around US$5K pp with Air NZ. I called three times to see if I got the same quote! This seems like an incredible bargain compared to regular business.
Plan now is either LAX, SFO or YVR - PPT - RAR - AKL - overland - CHC - AKL - HKG - PEK - home. I work this route out to just under 22K on the Star Alliance mileage calc and Great Circle Mapper.
Until we started checking Air NZ we didn't even know about the flat seats but now they do seem appealing! On our route I think we will only have them AKL-HKG??
Flat seats aside, does this seem like a reasonable plan? We will have to fly from Fort Myers to one of the west coast gateways, or Toronto to Vancouver.
I was comfortable with this fare but after I started reading posts on FlyerTalk I thought maybe there was a better way that I hadn't considered??
The more you learn, the more you realize you don't know much!!!
Cheers,
Lin

Welcome to FT travellin. The Circle pacific Fares on *A should be the same for AC or NZ as the North American gateways are SFO/LAX/YVR. The difference may be the USD rates. (The RTW from US is more expensive than the one from Canada) Suggest you consider the following
SFO-AKL ( flat bed in NZ--not in the connections I think)-PPT-RAR-AKL-SIN(SQ--nearly Flat bed)-PEK ( SQ)-SFO (UA). That way you can try out the various products!! Please do check out the mileage as I did not do it.

These are the fare quotes I got for a 22K Circle Pacific ex LAX (YVR on AC)
ANZ - CAD$5300 / US$4785 (different calls)
SQ - US$6469
AC - CAD$9149
Not sure why ANZ is so low but I have called three times and received the same quote. Why the big difference in SA airlines?
Can see where the direct to AKL would solve my fladbet dilemma. Spent a month in Singapore when the kids lived there so it would only be a stopover. Will check the mileage.
Thanks!

I think that the AC price is incorrect. The quotes I got for YVR departure (all in Cdn $$) were:

NZ C class $5,590; F Class $7132 (converted from NZ$$)
SQ C class $6469; F Class $8,819
AC C class $6469; F Class $8,819

So NZ looks like a really good deal, especially in F

I am about to start out on a similar business class trip next week, starting with Air NZ, then working my way through sin-bkk, hkg and concluding in japan before returning to states

the 1K desk for United quoted 4785 for 22K and 5740 for the 26K fare

Who do you call to book a Circle Pacific trip that departs from the US? Is there a specialized phone number for these sorts of bookings?

do you get ff miles for the entire 22k? if in business, do you get the bonus?

You can just call the regular reservation line of one of the participating carriers. So you can call UA directly or NZ

You should get your COS bonuses on these tickets.

NZ have their own Circle Pac fare as well as the Star Circle Pac. You need to be very careful, as their own Circle Pac fare 1) books in D, not C and 2) the fare is valid for NZ and JAL flights only. It's quite possible the fare they are quoting you is for their own circle pac and not the Star one as 1 possible explanation for the discrepancy.

The SQ fare you have quoted above seems to me like the CAD level and not the USD as the CPSTAR1 is CAD6469.00. No idea where on earth that CAD9149.00 level came from - although it does exactly match the CRWSTAR1 Round World (not Circle Pac) fare ex Canada that was applicable in May before the June price rise. Maybe whoever you spoke to was reading off the old fare sheet as well as getting the wrong Star product. :)
Cheers.

The NZ CPSTAR1 fare in C is NZ$7969 as of June 01. With the exchange rate, this is roughly equivalent to the CDN$5500 or the US$4785. It seems that the best ber is to book through NZ or UA to take advantage of the exchange.