Air New Zealand has recently released an abundance of award seats in both economy class and business class for last-minute bookings.
This is an unusual development, since award seats on Air New Zealand flights have historically been quite difficult to come by.
If you’re looking to fly to New Zealand in the near future, now is an excellent opportunity to score a direct routing booked with points.
Air New Zealand Releases Last-Minute Award Seats
While Air New Zealand has offered direct flights between North America and its hub in Auckland for quite some time, award seats have been difficult to find, especially if you’re looking to travel in business class.
In the past, there’s been no real pattern as to how award seats were released, which made it a quite a challenge to book. However, this appears to have changed, as there’s currently plenty of award availability between North America and New Zealand for last-minute bookings.
As it stands, the most availability seems to be for travel out of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Houston. However, there are also a few seats available from Chicago.
Regrettably, even though Air New Zealand flies to Vancouver, there only seems to be award seats in economy class at this time.
The good news is that there’s availability in both directions, which means that you’d be able to fly to and from New Zealand without having to worry about finding a different itinerary in either direction, which can be challenging.
Currently, the vast majority of award availability is for travel throughout the month of August until the first week of September. Therefore, if you’re able to fly to or from New Zealand soon, be sure to book sooner rather than later.
It’s worth noting that it’s unclear if this is a one-off occurrence, or if it signals a change in Air New Zealand’s approach to award availability.
How to Book Air New Zealand Flights with Points
When it comes to booking award flights on Air New Zealand, the best programs to use are Avianca LifeMiles or Air Canada Aeroplan.
This is because Aeroplan and LifeMiles have the most favourable pricing when compared to other Star Alliance partner airlines, such as United MileagePlus. Furthermore, both programs have an abundance of transfer partners, which makes it easy to accrue points.
As a reminder, Aeroplan is a 1:1 transfer partner of the following programs:
- American Express Membership Rewards
- American Express US Membership Rewards
- Capital One Miles
- Chase Ultimate Rewards
- Bilt Rewards
LifeMiles is a 1:1 transfer partner of the following programs:
- American Express US Membership Rewards
- Brex Rewards
- Capital One Miles
- Citi ThankYou Rewards
From the West Coast and Houston, an economy class ticket costs 50,000 Aeroplan points and $127 (CAD) in taxes and fees, while a business class seat costs 75,000 Aeroplan points and the same amount of taxes and fees.
If you were to book a flight between the West Coast and New Zealand with LifeMiles instead, an economy class seat costs 35,000 LifeMiles and $65 (USD) in taxes and fees, while a business class seat costs 80,000 LifeMiles and the same in taxes and fees.
From Houston, economy pricing goes up to 40,000 LifeMiles and marginally more taxes and fees, whereas business class pricing stays the same.
It’s also possible to find multiple award seats available, including in business class.
If you’re located elsewhere in Canada or the United States, it’s easy to piece together a positioning flight with another airline to connect with a flight with Air New Zealand.
For Vancouverites, the optimal scenario is to look for flights via San Francisco. This way, you’ll remain under the 7,500-mile threshold in the second distance band on the “Between North America and Pacific zones” section of the Aeroplan Flight Reward Chart.
If you can find seats, it’ll only cost around 45,000 Aeroplan points in economy or 75,000 Aeroplan points in business class.
For those living elsewhere in Canada or the United States, it’s possible to travel from your home airport to either Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Houston and continue onwards to Auckland with a single connection.
In economy class, it should cost around 60,000 Aeroplan points and around $184 (CAD) in taxes and fees, or 87,500 Aeroplan points in business class.
Of course, dynamic pricing with Air Canada could skew these numbers higher or lower.
It’s worth noting that if you were to book the same itineraries through United MileagePlus, the prices are less favourable, especially in business class. From the West Coast, it’ll cost 60,500 United miles and $44 (USD) in economy, or 110,000 United miles and the same in taxes and fees for a business class seat.
It’s interesting to note that the pricing with MileagePlus doesn’t change if you’re flying from the West Coast, Chicago, or elsewhere in North America and connect to an Air New Zealand flight.
In this niche case, it could make sense to consider if Air Canada’s dynamic pricing skews the cost upwards. However, generally speaking, most travellers will get the best deal by sticking with Aeroplan or LifeMiles to complete a booking.
Conclusion
Air New Zealand has recently released a number of award seats in both economy class and business class for last-minute travel between North America and Auckland.
Award availability for Air New Zealand flights has historically been difficult to come by, and it’s unclear if this will continue to be the case going forward.
Therefore, if you’ve been looking for a great deal on direct or single-connection flights to or from New Zealand, it’s in your best interest to book sooner rather than later.