Award travel to Fiji or Tahiti using MileagePlus Miles?
Jul 9, 2015, 10:35 am
#76
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: san antonio, texas
Programs: 3.2MM AA, 1.4MM UA,StwdLftPlt
Posts: 1,586
30K UA miles OW
Jul 9, 2015, 2:11 pm
#77
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: DCA, ex-IAH
Programs: nada
Posts: 1,368
So the options are:
1. NZ, which as noted is nearly impossible to book up front.
2. UA to SYD or such, then miles in Y or paid C on one of the few transtasman flights that does have C. An additional weakness is that you're forced onto just a couple of UA flights for options.
3. via asia, which some people hate or otherwise blow off.
Why all the Asia routing hate? People here would generally say the airlines and lounges are better there, and this is where *A has a heavy presence: CA, BR, NH, SQ, TG, and OZ (is that all?). In fact, I'd say the hardest thing about going through Asia is trying to determine the best options because there are so many.
1. NZ, which as noted is nearly impossible to book up front.
2. UA to SYD or such, then miles in Y or paid C on one of the few transtasman flights that does have C. An additional weakness is that you're forced onto just a couple of UA flights for options.
3. via asia, which some people hate or otherwise blow off.
Why all the Asia routing hate? People here would generally say the airlines and lounges are better there, and this is where *A has a heavy presence: CA, BR, NH, SQ, TG, and OZ (is that all?). In fact, I'd say the hardest thing about going through Asia is trying to determine the best options because there are so many.
Jul 9, 2015, 2:50 pm
#78
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Northern Calif./Eastern Ida.
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Otherwise via Asia you are back to transiting SYD, which adds a stop and doesn't eliminate the 3 1/2 hour TT flight in Y or paid C.
Jul 9, 2015, 3:52 pm
#79
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: san antonio, texas
Programs: 3.2MM AA, 1.4MM UA,StwdLftPlt
Posts: 1,586
Respectfully disagree. Until recently, it was fairly routine to get NZ from AKL to SIN, HKG, NRT, or PVG in J. Now, basically the only route you can count on is AKL-PVG, or BKK-AKL on TG. NRT and SIN are still occasionally available on NZ, but you have to be flexible. I have heard, but cannot verify, that SQ releases some J from CHC/AKL to SIN as well, but only within 14 days of dep.
Otherwise via Asia you are back to transiting SYD, which adds a stop and doesn't eliminate the 3 1/2 hour TT flight in Y or paid C.
Otherwise via Asia you are back to transiting SYD, which adds a stop and doesn't eliminate the 3 1/2 hour TT flight in Y or paid C.
Jul 9, 2015, 8:08 pm
#80
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Japan
Posts: 5,577
Jul 9, 2015, 8:12 pm
#81
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Japan
Posts: 5,577
Respectfully disagree. Until recently, it was fairly routine to get NZ from AKL to SIN, HKG, NRT, or PVG in J. Now, basically the only route you can count on is AKL-PVG, or BKK-AKL on TG. NRT and SIN are still occasionally available on NZ, but you have to be flexible. I have heard, but cannot verify, that SQ releases some J from CHC/AKL to SIN as well, but only within 14 days of dep.
Otherwise via Asia you are back to transiting SYD, which adds a stop and doesn't eliminate the 3 1/2 hour TT flight in Y or paid C.
Otherwise via Asia you are back to transiting SYD, which adds a stop and doesn't eliminate the 3 1/2 hour TT flight in Y or paid C.
then hopping on NZ to AKL and PPT or NOU. Great experience on SQ,
lounge, service and seat. It's more difficult to find nowadays and one
has to use the ANA tool since UA does not show SQ biz any longer. It's a great option. Never got SIN-AKL, though.
Jul 9, 2015, 8:39 pm
#82
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Programs: DELTA
Posts: 15
Newbie Question. When you are trying to book a J award ticket on NZ and it says mixed cabin (sold out) usually for SYD-AKL, MEL-CHC, and NZ domestic legs, are you placed on an upgrade list in the event a seat is open at boarding or do you have to take your seat in Y?
Jul 9, 2015, 8:45 pm
#83
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Japan
Posts: 5,577
In all my years of doing this I can assure you there is no upgrade list. I don't even think that NZ upgrades their own members. If the flight offers Premium Economy, the 77 out of NAN did, I have been able to reserve any of those seats. But I am not sure if that's because it was a biz award with a mixed cabin or as *G.
Jul 10, 2015, 12:39 am
#84
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: MEL CHC
Posts: 21,032
In all my years of doing this I can assure you there is no upgrade list. I don't even think that NZ upgrades their own members. If the flight offers Premium Economy, the 77 out of NAN did, I have been able to reserve any of those seats. But I am not sure if that's because it was a biz award with a mixed cabin or as *G.
Air NZ does not have business class domestically and most trans tasman (NZ Aust) are economy only
With non USA based airlines all-ways expect to fly in the class you buy/are ticketed.
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Jul 10, 2015, 1:12 pm
#85
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In all my years of doing this I can assure you there is no upgrade list. I don't even think that NZ upgrades their own members. If the flight offers Premium Economy, the 77 out of NAN did, I have been able to reserve any of those seats. But I am not sure if that's because it was a biz award with a mixed cabin or as *G.
NZ also has a program for cash upgrades called OneUp that allows you to bid for an upgrade to the next cabin (Y->W, W->J). However, OneUP are only offered for flights where an NZ Airpoints account is used for earning.
How did you get the PE seats on your awards, by calling NZ in advance, asking for them/being given one at the airport, or some other method?
Jul 10, 2015, 9:38 pm
#86
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Japan
Posts: 5,577
NZ does in fact upgrade their own members via the Recognition Upgrade program, but i'm not sure if this happens on award bookings.
NZ also has a program for cash upgrades called OneUp that allows you to bid for an upgrade to the next cabin (Y->W, W->J). However, OneUP are only offered for flights where an NZ Airpoints account is used for earning.
How did you get the PE seats on your awards, by calling NZ in advance, asking for them/being given one at the airport, or some other method?
NZ also has a program for cash upgrades called OneUp that allows you to bid for an upgrade to the next cabin (Y->W, W->J). However, OneUP are only offered for flights where an NZ Airpoints account is used for earning.
How did you get the PE seats on your awards, by calling NZ in advance, asking for them/being given one at the airport, or some other method?
Jul 10, 2015, 10:23 pm
#87
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Taipei, Taiwan
Programs: UA 1MM, SPG Gold, EVA Diamond
Posts: 1,072
First time posting, sorry if in wrong area!
I'm trying to use miles to fly 2 of us business class from Cleveland, OH to New Zealand with stop in Fiji in April 2016. I've read several things online about booking via Asia, using Fiji as main stop, etc. but really am just spinning my wheels looking at all the ways to try to make it work and thought I'd ask before continuing to spend more hours trying to figure it out.
I have about 370K miles to use and am finding super saver one way, but not the other, trying to get super saver both ways to cover it all with miles
I'm not sure how to start in terms of getting this to work. I started by looking at LAX to Auckland and/or adding Fiji in. Do I do this for legs to find flight possibiities and then call? I see in several places that the wesite can't always do it. I'm betting a lot of messages to call when trying different options.
We would be willing to stop over somewhere else beside Fiji if needed (Hawaii or another oceanic island) to make it work with super saver.
I'm trying to use miles to fly 2 of us business class from Cleveland, OH to New Zealand with stop in Fiji in April 2016. I've read several things online about booking via Asia, using Fiji as main stop, etc. but really am just spinning my wheels looking at all the ways to try to make it work and thought I'd ask before continuing to spend more hours trying to figure it out.
I have about 370K miles to use and am finding super saver one way, but not the other, trying to get super saver both ways to cover it all with miles
I'm not sure how to start in terms of getting this to work. I started by looking at LAX to Auckland and/or adding Fiji in. Do I do this for legs to find flight possibiities and then call? I see in several places that the wesite can't always do it. I'm betting a lot of messages to call when trying different options.
We would be willing to stop over somewhere else beside Fiji if needed (Hawaii or another oceanic island) to make it work with super saver.
I don't see your status but pretty much unless you are 1K its going to be close to impossible to get a close to efficient C class routing on this. I worked on this itinerary for my honeymoon a few years back and it literally (not exaggerating one bit) took 1 year from 330 days out of checking every single day on the ANA tool as well as calling UA to actually get the correct routing. It was not until the month before flying did things get to the final state.
To answer your question directly, YES when talking to agents focus on getting the USA-AKL-USA leg first. Even if it means doing something ridiculous you can always buy yourself a domestic ticket to get to where you start from. For example SEA-AKL-SEA or YVR-AKL-YVR or HNL-AKL-HNL or NRT-AKL-NRT. (I'm not sure if all these routes still exist, but hopefully you get my point)
Here is a simplified version of the probably 3 dozen itinerary changes I made over a year...
1.) SFO-LAX-SYD-AKL-NAN-SYD-LAX-SFO in Economy mostly on UA
2.) SFO-LAX-AKL-NAN-AKL-LAX-SFO, all in economy but managed to switch to Air NZ.
3.) SFO-LAX-AKL-NAN-AKL-LAX-SFO, managed to get lucky and upgrade AKL-NAN-AKL in C
4.) SFO-AKL-NAN-AKL-LAX-SFO, managed to get lucky and get SFO-AKL in C on Air NZ
5.) SFO-AKL-NAN-AKL-LAX-SFO, managed to get lucky and get AKL-LAX in C on Air NZ.
In general there are seats but you better be insanely patient and have 1K so you don't have change fees or.... yeah its not going to happen....
Jul 11, 2015, 3:13 pm
#88
Join Date: Jul 2015
Posts: 9
I think the more we look at it we will just enjoy 2-wks in NZ and not try to fit in Figi or another island - we'll be traveling around NZ most of the time and to add in more travel/connections and most importantly the time it will take to find those tickets... not worth it in our eyes. Could be that we just got back from a European vacation and I'm burned out with planning 
.
I still see the 1 option of LAX-Auckland with super saver business class, but it is a shorter turn around than we want. So, we are going to keep eye out should anything open, but focus on LAX-SYD and then just buy tickets from SYD to NZ. Sometimes time is worth spending a few hundred extra...! Thanks for all the ideas!
. I still see the 1 option of LAX-Auckland with super saver business class, but it is a shorter turn around than we want. So, we are going to keep eye out should anything open, but focus on LAX-SYD and then just buy tickets from SYD to NZ. Sometimes time is worth spending a few hundred extra...! Thanks for all the ideas!
Jul 11, 2015, 4:21 pm
#89
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: MEL CHC
Posts: 21,032
- Air New Zealand (codeshares with VA) [Star Alliance]
- Virgin Australia (codeshares with Air NZ) (Delta partner)
- Jetstar (a low cost low quality carrier with low-medium-high priced fares owned by QF)
- Qantas (codeshares with EK) [OneWorld]
- Emirates (codeshares with QF)
- LAN (SYD AKL) [OneWorld]
- China Airlines (BNE/SYD - AKL & SYD - CHC) seasonal [Skyteam]
Jul 17, 2015, 5:42 pm
#90
Join Date: Feb 2007
Programs: NZ Koru
Posts: 6,415
Now this has ended from October 2015, where on the 772/789/77W services on AKL-BNE/SYD/MEL/NAN/RAR PE will now be sold.
From October the only aircraft left with extra legroom for Frequent Flyers (e.g Gold), is on the Regional (Tas/Pac) & Domestic A320s. Which is an 34-34" pitch, where the rest of the plane is around 30-31".
Regional (Tas/Pac) - 3-12 ABC & 3-4DEF
Domestic - 1-12 ABC DEF