Round trip LAX to New Zealand - July/August - $220 + tax
Jun 8, 2003, 7:56 pm
#1
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Join Date: Jun 2000
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Round trip LAX to New Zealand - July/August - $220 + tax
No-one seems to have posted this, and as Air Tahiti do not have a separate Forum many may not be aware of this. Thanks to ScottC's alert list, and Jeff for passing this gem around. 
Regular fare is around $1000 round trip.
I just checked and a number of dates LAX-AKL in July and August show as bookable for $220 plus taxes. Sadly for anyone living this side of the world, AKL-LAX runs about $US1200 on the same airline, same booking engine, but them's the breaks.
A number of dates in July and August show as available on www.zuji.com.sg
You must check "dates are flexible" in the booking screen.
Thu-Sun travel
7 day min stay
------------------
~ Glen ~
Come visit HERE the most ** FRIENDLY FORUM ** on FlyerTalk. No flame wars, no personal abuse, no substance abuse. Not much of anything really!
[This message has been edited by ozstamps (edited 06-08-2003).]
Regular fare is around $1000 round trip.
I just checked and a number of dates LAX-AKL in July and August show as bookable for $220 plus taxes. Sadly for anyone living this side of the world, AKL-LAX runs about $US1200 on the same airline, same booking engine, but them's the breaks.
A number of dates in July and August show as available on www.zuji.com.sg
You must check "dates are flexible" in the booking screen.
Thu-Sun travel
7 day min stay
------------------
~ Glen ~
Come visit HERE the most ** FRIENDLY FORUM ** on FlyerTalk. No flame wars, no personal abuse, no substance abuse. Not much of anything really!
[This message has been edited by ozstamps (edited 06-08-2003).]
Jun 8, 2003, 8:26 pm
#4
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Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Sunny SYDNEY!
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Yes. Best deal I have ever seen offered from the USA to this part of the world. 
Ever better when one considers nearly all of France takes off August for vacation and likes French speaking destinations like Tahiti, and nearly all of the USA takes off July. So this is 105% PRIME TIME high season for an airline.
I advise those wanting this to book FASSSST as the available dates I got offered from their calendar when looking just now are about half as many as when I looked an hour back.
------------------
~ Glen ~
Come visit HERE the most ** FRIENDLY FORUM ** on FlyerTalk. No flame wars, no personal abuse, no substance abuse. Not much of anything really!
Ever better when one considers nearly all of France takes off August for vacation and likes French speaking destinations like Tahiti, and nearly all of the USA takes off July. So this is 105% PRIME TIME high season for an airline.
I advise those wanting this to book FASSSST as the available dates I got offered from their calendar when looking just now are about half as many as when I looked an hour back.
------------------
~ Glen ~
Come visit HERE the most ** FRIENDLY FORUM ** on FlyerTalk. No flame wars, no personal abuse, no substance abuse. Not much of anything really!
Jun 8, 2003, 8:36 pm
#8
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: YYZ
Posts: 6,138
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Laserjet:
Any miles?</font>
Any miles?</font>
I didn't take advantage of the deal myself, but I booked a few friends who don't care about the lack of miles.
New Zealand is a wonderful place, and there are some really low trans-Tasman fares out there right now so you could easily throw in a few days in SYD for a few more bucks.
Jun 8, 2003, 8:53 pm
#9
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Sunny SYDNEY!
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Posts: 32,330
As a side bar to Jeff's last comment, I'd like to add this for anyone who does book and wants to come over to OZ when you are done with NZ.
As I posted a couple days ago to assist another FT'er here your best option by FAR is to use miles to get an Star award ticket from either Tahiti or from NZ to Australia.
The Star Alliance award using Air New Zealand is a real humdinger.
How about this - from Tahiti to anywhere in Australia that Air NZ flies takes only 20,000 United miles in coach on 40K in BIZ. (Look THAT distance up on a map - especially PPT-AKL-PER!)
Even smarter .... Auckland to Australia is only 30K in business class RT. That covers at least SYD, MEL, BNE PER and I *think* Air NZ even fly Cairns - and the Great Barrier reef.
That award allows an open jaw - so for 30,000 in biz class you can flt into SYD or MEL and fly back to AKL from PERTH ... which is 1000s miles way. You simply need buy a one way cheapie on Qantas or Virgin Blue to connect up the dots. For instance in today's newspaper VirginBlue is offering SYD-PER for $A159 inc all taxes (or about $US100) and that it is a USA transcon type distance.
Unlike most other countries in Australia both airlines sell all tickets as one-ways, at half the RT price, so they lends themselves perfectly for this.
If you do not have the 30,000 United miles there are plenty of folks on this board that do, and you may wish to speak to them. (coff. )
But Auckland - Perth - Auckland for 30K in the CLASSY Air NZ Biz cabin is the best deal on earth. And 40K from Tahiti to Auckland to Perth for 40k is even better. (Just cancel out the PPT-AKL-PPT legs on this cheap ticket!) A HUGE amount of flying and distance.
------------------
~ Glen ~
Come visit HERE the most ** FRIENDLY FORUM ** on FlyerTalk. No flame wars, no personal abuse, no substance abuse. Not much of anything really!
[This message has been edited by ozstamps (edited 06-08-2003).]
As I posted a couple days ago to assist another FT'er here your best option by FAR is to use miles to get an Star award ticket from either Tahiti or from NZ to Australia.
The Star Alliance award using Air New Zealand is a real humdinger.
How about this - from Tahiti to anywhere in Australia that Air NZ flies takes only 20,000 United miles in coach on 40K in BIZ. (Look THAT distance up on a map - especially PPT-AKL-PER!)
Even smarter .... Auckland to Australia is only 30K in business class RT. That covers at least SYD, MEL, BNE PER and I *think* Air NZ even fly Cairns - and the Great Barrier reef.
That award allows an open jaw - so for 30,000 in biz class you can flt into SYD or MEL and fly back to AKL from PERTH ... which is 1000s miles way. You simply need buy a one way cheapie on Qantas or Virgin Blue to connect up the dots. For instance in today's newspaper VirginBlue is offering SYD-PER for $A159 inc all taxes (or about $US100) and that it is a USA transcon type distance.
Unlike most other countries in Australia both airlines sell all tickets as one-ways, at half the RT price, so they lends themselves perfectly for this.
If you do not have the 30,000 United miles there are plenty of folks on this board that do, and you may wish to speak to them. (coff.
) But Auckland - Perth - Auckland for 30K in the CLASSY Air NZ Biz cabin is the best deal on earth. And 40K from Tahiti to Auckland to Perth for 40k is even better. (Just cancel out the PPT-AKL-PPT legs on this cheap ticket!) A HUGE amount of flying and distance.
------------------
~ Glen ~
Come visit HERE the most ** FRIENDLY FORUM ** on FlyerTalk. No flame wars, no personal abuse, no substance abuse. Not much of anything really!
[This message has been edited by ozstamps (edited 06-08-2003).]
Jun 8, 2003, 10:59 pm
#11
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: SJC
Posts: 132
Thanks Oz....I think....
After seeing the post we booked two seats leaving Aug. 8/returning Aug. 28 at $290/each plus tax. Very good fare but remember, no FF miles and we still have to fly to LAX. Nevertheless, when it came time for confirmation received a message basically telling me nothing was guaranteed because it was all subject to "acceptance" and "ticketing" by Air Tahiti Nui. I immediately e-mailed Zuji customer service to advise it had no authorization to follow through on any reservation if different dates of travel/a different price. I figured there was no way this one would come through especially because I went to Travelocity and verified the flights but got a $2K/person fare. Again, I figured there was no way Tahiti Nui would agree to ticket for such a low fare.
Now I'm scared. Received an e-mail confirmation we're booked and the paper tickets are on the way. I am very concerned about the 10 hour layover in Tahiti just before midnight (I wouldn't be so concerned if we could sleep on the beach). Also am concerned about the flight per se. It is obviously 100% booked; are we going to get bumped and if so what rights will we have given this airline offers one flight/week? And if we get on the flight is it going to be a cattle call which can be very uncomfortable given the length of the flight? Any recommendations on the ability to upgrade with miles at this incredible fare? Do you or any other FTers out there have any recommendations on a place to sleep with airport transfers if there are such beasts? Or has anyone else been lucky enough to grab seats on the same flights as ours?
For anyone else considering, good luck; the layover on the return is less than 3 hours.
Don't know if this trip is going to be a mistake or not but I guess we're going to find out! We have been to New Zealand many times before and love it so once we get there we're not concerned. It's just the getting there part that does have me concerned.
Thanks again...
After seeing the post we booked two seats leaving Aug. 8/returning Aug. 28 at $290/each plus tax. Very good fare but remember, no FF miles and we still have to fly to LAX. Nevertheless, when it came time for confirmation received a message basically telling me nothing was guaranteed because it was all subject to "acceptance" and "ticketing" by Air Tahiti Nui. I immediately e-mailed Zuji customer service to advise it had no authorization to follow through on any reservation if different dates of travel/a different price. I figured there was no way this one would come through especially because I went to Travelocity and verified the flights but got a $2K/person fare. Again, I figured there was no way Tahiti Nui would agree to ticket for such a low fare.
Now I'm scared. Received an e-mail confirmation we're booked and the paper tickets are on the way. I am very concerned about the 10 hour layover in Tahiti just before midnight (I wouldn't be so concerned if we could sleep on the beach). Also am concerned about the flight per se. It is obviously 100% booked; are we going to get bumped and if so what rights will we have given this airline offers one flight/week? And if we get on the flight is it going to be a cattle call which can be very uncomfortable given the length of the flight? Any recommendations on the ability to upgrade with miles at this incredible fare? Do you or any other FTers out there have any recommendations on a place to sleep with airport transfers if there are such beasts? Or has anyone else been lucky enough to grab seats on the same flights as ours?
For anyone else considering, good luck; the layover on the return is less than 3 hours.
Don't know if this trip is going to be a mistake or not but I guess we're going to find out! We have been to New Zealand many times before and love it so once we get there we're not concerned. It's just the getting there part that does have me concerned.
Thanks again...
Jun 8, 2003, 11:36 pm
#13
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: San Diego, CA, USA
Programs: Plat Marriott, GM Delta, 1K United
Posts: 262
Booked for 8/22 returning 8/31 -- planning to rent a motorhome for the week in New Zealand.
Any problem with checking into an airport hotel for that 10 hour layover ?
Looks like the Sheraton is close enough --
Any problem with checking into an airport hotel for that 10 hour layover ?
Looks like the Sheraton is close enough --
Jun 8, 2003, 11:59 pm
#14
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: SFO
Programs: UA1K
Posts: 150
Wow, thanks Oz!
I booked two for 22 August - 05 September for $710 total. I had been planning to take my girlfriend to SIN, but I just couldn't pass this up.
Been lurking here for a long time, finally decided to jump in...
fiat_owner
I booked two for 22 August - 05 September for $710 total. I had been planning to take my girlfriend to SIN, but I just couldn't pass this up.
Been lurking here for a long time, finally decided to jump in...
fiat_owner