AirNZ - How to Choose booking class other than "economy

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Zeon

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#312335 7-Apr-2024 22:10

Hey guys,

So I am looking to book some tickets to the USA in July. A couple in the party need visas which I am 90% sure they will get (interview with US visa office booked for May). It will be school holiday time when we are flying so wanting to get the booking in earlier as to avoid higher costs of waiting. I have no love of AirNZ but many thousands of airpoints dollars to use up (thanks credit card).

I am 90% sure they will get their visas but want an option to cancel and refund the tickets if they don't. Air New Zealand has really 3 main classes of fares:

Global Sale - non refundable
Global Saver - Refundable but $150NZD fee
Flexi - Fully refundable

Flexi tickets are an extra ~$900NZD per person so I don't want those, rather I want to buy "Global Saver" and take the $150NZD per person risk. The problem is that AirNZ only allow you to choose "Economy Lowest" when searching. One of the flights is a global saver but the other is "Global Sale" so non-refundable. Am I blind or is there no way other than calling their phone reservations or going to their ticket counter at the airport to order other booking classes than the lowest or "flexi"?

Most other airlines offer this very easily via their websites and have done for years?

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Jase2985

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#3215390 8-Apr-2024 05:15

im not sure what you are asking as it shows economy, Premium economy and business in your dropdown selection there.

There are not any other sections to the plane, economy is, all of economy, you might be able to upgrade slightly and reserve a seat with more leg room or an exit row or something like that, maybe even a skycouch if the plane supports it but other than that they are all the same.

Goosey

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#3215393 8-Apr-2024 06:08

Theres 3 classes. I think you are confusing the "global Sale" terminology with it being a service class when its actually a fare type / sale term.

my interpretation is, it be like "early bird tickets to a concert, (global sale), and you can buy any category you want A, B, C, D reserve and VIP etc etc).

Can travel agents work with payment in airpoints?

cshwone

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#3215396 8-Apr-2024 06:35

I get exactly what the OP is after. It's a bit like when you book a domestic flight where you can have various fare types to chose from. However for long haul this isn't an option when booking. I would suggest you either book through a travel agent (if they can use airpoints) or actually go out to your local airport and book face to face with Air NZ

kiwiharry

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#3215397 8-Apr-2024 06:41

Op is taking about fare bucket.

Economy(T) is showing as partially refundable whereas Economy(K) is non-refundable.

Sorry I don't think you can select a different fare bucket within a booking class. May need to call them to at least check if it can be done online, otherwise yeah may need to book it over the phone

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nova

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#3215400 8-Apr-2024 07:01

It looks like a problem, I can't see any way to update the fare class in the website either. It is pretty crazy given that what you want to do is quite sensible. The difference between the global sale fare and the cheapest global saver fare is likely to be small.

You probably have to ring up the contact centre, and try to convince them not to charge you the phone booking fare, since the problem is that their website is missing the functionality.

The other option is to book through a different channel and spend your airpoints dollars another way (for example convert them to mitre 10 gift cards).

nztim

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#3215404 8-Apr-2024 07:38

Go through a travel agent or another airline that allows you to book this online

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Zeon

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#3215799 8-Apr-2024 17:32

Well the solution was to wait for a day and now there are no more saver fares left... But still - something you can do with other airlines:

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openmedia

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#3215988 9-Apr-2024 07:00

Just try calling Air NZ's contact centre?

Also when you book most international fares their site will usually give you the option of paying extra for a flexible fare, but only later in the process

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.