Has Air NZ Ever Had a 'Sale' or 'Deal' for Houston?

Forums › Travel (planes, train, cruise) › Has Air NZ Ever Had a 'Sale' or 'Deal' for Houston?

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sbiddle

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#1822576 14-Jul-2017 16:18

eracode:

Thanks to all who responded - very helpful.

One more qn: I guess Airpoints Dollars are OK to use as payment/part payment for 'deal' fares?

You can't (yet) use Airpoints dollars for part payment unless you're part of a new trial offering this. If you want to pay for a fare and don't have enough Airpoints Dollars you'll need to purchase these to top up your account.

If you pay for a fare using Airpoints Dollar you won't earn Airpoints Dollars or Status Points - so most frequent flyers don't do it.

dipper

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#1822619 14-Jul-2017 18:02

I am these days a big fan is using Google Flights to search for overseas flights (raised the price difference in a previous post of using Google Flights to search for flights) as you can get a few more options. An example for you I have selected flights from Christchurch to Houston on 25/01 and returning on 02/02.

Cheapest option is via LAX (not a fun airport to fly through) and then back out with the direct flight from Houston.

Google Flights tells me that I can book this flight through United (whom code share with Air NZ) for $1480 NZD or $2,394 through Air NZ site for the same flight or $2,216 for direct flights from Auckland. This option is just over three hours more but you are saving $914 per person on option one or $736 per person for the direct flight.

jonb

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#1822625 14-Jul-2017 18:19

Yeah it seems United are a lot cheaper at the moment, for flying on the same AirNZ plane (Auckland to LAX and Houston to Auckland)

SNicolle

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#1822640 14-Jul-2017 18:59

Check out http://promos.airnz.co.nz/wenza/

Satch

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#1824297 18-Jul-2017 11:52

SNicolle:

Check out http://promos.airnz.co.nz/wenza/

Cool link but I don't see Houston on the list...

kryptonjohn

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#1824298 18-Jul-2017 11:56

Had a look at google flights - it's fast and slick. Not sure yet how accurate it is.

dipper

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#1824302 18-Jul-2017 11:59

I have personally used Google Flights and cross referenced it with other sites and its accurate and very easy to use.

Booked a Trip to the states in October using it.

Its now my first point of call for finding overseas flights

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sbiddle

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#1825610 20-Jul-2017 07:37

dipper:

I have personally used Google Flights and cross referenced it with other sites and its accurate and very easy to use.

Booked a Trip to the states in October using it.

Its now my first point of call for finding overseas flights

Google Flights is simply a front end for ITA Matrix. It uses airline GDS systems as it's primary source of data.

Google Fligths is great but don't rely on it 100% as a resource - it'll often provide you with itineraries that simply can't be booked or break fare rules. It can also spew out messed up GDS data and pricing that's entirely wrong and very different to what's actually available from an airline.

It's a handy resource, and is well suited to travellers who want complex routing and are looking for ideas that they can then take to a travel agent for booking as many things can't be ticketed online (even if you use bookwithmatrix).

frankv

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#1825648 20-Jul-2017 08:59

sbiddle:

It's a handy resource, and is well suited to travellers who want complex routing and are looking for ideas that they can then take to a travel agent for booking as many things can't be ticketed online (even if you use bookwithmatrix).

Why in the world would anyone use a travel agent these days? Extraordinarily high prices. Extraordinarily low interest in setting up an itinerary that suits you. Sad!

sbiddle

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#1825667 20-Jul-2017 09:19

frankv:

sbiddle:

It's a handy resource, and is well suited to travellers who want complex routing and are looking for ideas that they can then take to a travel agent for booking as many things can't be ticketed online (even if you use bookwithmatrix).

Why in the world would anyone use a travel agent these days? Extraordinarily high prices. Extraordinarily low interest in setting up an itinerary that suits you. Sad!

If you're looking at anything beyond basic point to point flights there are plenty of things that you still can't easily do online if you're looking at complex itineraries.

I do agree that the travel agent experience these days can be a poor one. My last experience with Flight Centre a few years ago was not a great one, probably because I knew exactly what I wanted and probably annoyed the travel agent who told me I couldn't do what I wanted to do so I had the explain the fare rules to her.

It's become a minimum wage job these days as there is no margin left in the industry. This has basically meant many people don't have the skills or knowledge that the industry had 10-15 years ago.

RunningMan

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#1828551 24-Jul-2017 16:51

http://mobile.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.php?c_id=3&objectid=11894429
$39, well, not quite!

allan

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#1828566 24-Jul-2017 17:17

frankv:

Why in the world would anyone use a travel agent these days? Extraordinarily high prices. Extraordinarily low interest in setting up an itinerary that suits you. Sad!

Back in 2011 when the Chilean volcano with the unpronounceable name erupted, I was never more grateful to have used a travel agent. We were flying Qantas out of Auckland to the USA and of course they were one of the airlines that decided not to fly at all for about a week. I would never have been able to untangle and reroute/rebook our travel if I had done it all online as a series of single transactions. I became on first name terms with the travel agent as we did a daily check to see if Qantas was back flying via Auckland.

We did eventually get to the USA - Emirates flights to Sydney and then Qantas to LA, but had to drop a leg of our internal USA travel, which meant internal USA flights all needed rebooking as we weren't originating our travel from the original location etc.

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