Over many years of flying from Australia to New Zealand to visit family, I’ve used pretty much every airline that operates trans-Tasman flights. This includes the international carriers with niche fifth-freedom routes, like LATAM from Sydney to Auckland.
I actually really like flying with Air New Zealand. With its comprehensive trans-Tasman network, the Kiwi national carrier is an obvious choice when flying to New Zealand. It even has convenient schedules on the routes I usually fly. Yet, time and time again, I end up choosing a different airline for my trans-Tasman flights. It’s usually Qantas.
Why I like flying Air New Zealand
Overall, Air New Zealand is a good airline. I love the friendly Kiwi staff, the in-flight entertainment is great and I like the food served on board (although it’s not always included). Air New Zealand has a good safety record, so I have no concerns there.
I have Star Alliance Gold status (in addition to Qantas status), which means I don’t have to wait in long queues or miss out on status perks like lounge access when flying Air NZ. And I generally find Air New Zealand’s airport lounges pretty good, especially in Auckland where it’s leagues ahead of Qantas’ decades-old lounge that’s now so overdue for a refurbishment, it’s become a running joke.
Air New Zealand has modern planes, too. I find Economy Class comfortable on the A320neo and A321neo jets that Air New Zealand uses on trans-Tasman routes. I also like having the choice to fly wide-body planes on the routes from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth to Auckland, which come with the added bonus of Premium Economy and lie-flat Business Class being available.
So, why don’t I book Air New Zealand more often?
Why I usually book a different airline
Whenever I book a flight, I book whatever airline will give me the best benefits, price and schedule for that particular trip. This is to say: I don’t just blindly book with Qantas out of national pride or some sort of misguided loyalty.
If there are multiple options, I do very much consider the benefits I’ll get with my frequent flyer status, and the points and status credits I could be earning. And more often than not, even though Air New Zealand is a good airline, it just isn’t my first choice when I take the full package into consideration. Here are six reasons for that…
1. Air New Zealand’s harsh refund policy
The main reason I hesitate to book Air New Zealand flights has nothing to do with its schedule, price or service. Rather, I don’t like its refund policy.
If Air New Zealand cancels your flight for a reason outside its control, it will not refund your money. It will only give you a flight credit that’s valid for 12 months.
This policy is outlined in section 15.5 of Air New Zealand’s conditions of carriage:
15.5 When does Air New Zealand issue a credit instead of a refund?
Sometimes the cancellation, delay, failure or misconnection is because of circumstances beyond our control. For example, the following circumstances may be beyond our control: a weather event or conditions, public health event (including epidemic / pandemic), airport or facility closures, air traffic control event, medical emergencies, strike, terrorist act, governmental, regional or local authority restrictions, change in law. In these cases, you may be entitled to a travel credit instead of a refund, which will be valid for 12 months from the date your Ticket was originally issued (or in certain circumstances an extension may be separately agreed with us). This credit will be for the value of the unused non-refundable part of your Ticket.
We may deduct a reasonable service fee from the credit amount to cover our administration costs.
This caught a lot of Air New Zealand customers off guard during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the airline copped a lot of public criticism for it. I was one of those customers, and I have a long memory.
Unfortunately, this is still Air New Zealand’s refund policy. If your flight gets cancelled due to weather, airport closures, a strike, or anything else that Air New Zealand determines is outside its control, you can’t get your money back.
Since the pandemic, Air New Zealand has made it easier for customers to book refundable tickets. But as far as I’m concerned, I should only have to pay extra to buy a refundable ticket in case I want to cancel it. I shouldn’t have to pay more just to be sure I’ll be entitled to a refund if the airline cancels my flight.
With a policy like this, it’s no surprise that expired credits are currently contributing millions of dollars to the airline’s bottom line.
This policy is not legal in certain countries such as the USA, so Air New Zealand does still have to refund customers in the United States if it cancels their flight. But the Australian Consumer Law guarantees don’t technically apply if a business fails to provide a service for reasons wholly outside its control.
As long as it doesn’t break any laws, it’s Air New Zealand’s right to implement such a policy. As a customer, it’s also my right to choose a different airline – such as Qantas, which does offer a refund in these circumstances.
2. “Seats to Suit” doesn’t suit me
Air New Zealand offers full service on its long-haul routes. But since 2010, when it first introduced “Seats to Suit”, it’s effectively been a low-cost carrier in the trans-Tasman market.
On flights between Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, Air New Zealand’s cheapest Economy Class fares do not include a checked bag, meal or seat selection. Since last year, the seat-only ticket does now include a snack and movies – but that’s it.
Food, checked baggage and seat selection are all things that I value, and they’re included on Qantas. They’re also included on most of the other airlines crossing the Tasman, excluding Jetstar.
Admittedly, Air New Zealand’s “Seat” fare is often slightly cheaper than Qantas. But if I upgrade to a “Works” ticket that includes the same things that I’d automatically get on Qantas, it often ends up being either the same price or more expensive than Qantas.
In fact, on my last few searches, I found that Qantas’ Economy airfare was actually cheaper than a “Seat” fare on Air New Zealand. I’m not sure why I would choose to pay more to Air New Zealand to get less in return.
3. I don’t like the Airpoints program
I’m sure there are some people who love the simplicity of the Airpoints frequent flyer program. I’m not one of them.
The Airpoints program is simple because it doesn’t offer good value – especially not to Australians, who have countless other choices of frequent flyer programs. In fact, I’m a member of more than two dozen airline programs – but Air New Zealand is not one of them. I just cannot see the value in signing up.
When you redeem “Airpoints Dollars” for Air New Zealand flights, you’re effectively just using your points like cash. There’s no opportunity to get outsized value because, if a Business Class ticket costs $8,000, you’d need to spend 8,000 Airpoints Dollars.
Even though your Airpoints Dollars are kind of like cash, you still need to pay taxes & fees on award tickets using money. And if you only have enough Airpoints to cover half the ticket price, there’s an extra fee for that.
And for a flight from Sydney to Auckland, I would earn as little as one Airpoints Dollar. Which is effectively just $1 cash back, but with lots of strings attached.
The program also uses an outdated “time stamping” expiration policy, and prices partner award flights based on individual segments, using kilometres (rather than the industry standard of miles). Yeah, nah.
4. Difficulty accessing Star Alliance Gold and Velocity status benefits
I’m told that Air New Zealand looks after its top-tier elite members very well, and have no reason to doubt that.
But the experience flying Air New Zealand as a Star Alliance Gold member is just not quite seamless.
Firstly, many of Air New Zealand’s cheaper airfares do not earn any points or status credits if you credit to a partner airline program other than United MileagePlus. I currently use Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles as my main Star Alliance program (I have Star Alliance Gold status with them), so this doesn’t work well for me.
Secondly, every time I book an Air New Zealand flight and enter my Turkish Airlines frequent flyer number, the website still wants to charge me to choose a seat. In addition, it won’t let me choose one of the “frequent flyer” seats towards the front of the plane at all.
To select a seat for free as a Star Alliance Gold member, I invariably have to call or message Air New Zealand. It’s a small hassle, but one that I could avoid by booking a different airline.
On occasions where I’ve wanted to change the frequent flyer number on my booking, Air New Zealand has also made this frustratingly difficult to do. It’s as if they can’t understand why anyone flying with them wouldn’t be an Airpoints member.
Thankfully, I’ve never had issues accessing Air New Zealand’s lounges or priority queues as a Star Alliance Gold member. Once at the airport, things usually work fine.
If you’re a Velocity Frequent Flyer member and want to access your status benefits flying with Air New Zealand, it’s not much better. You have to book a VA-marketed codeshare flight, which may or may not be more expensive, and you may or may not be able to choose a seat. You also need to show your membership card to enter Air New Zealand’s lounges, as the automatic gates will deny entry, and you cannot book a Premium Economy ticket.
5. Lack of reward seat availability
Since I don’t see the value in collecting Airpoints Dollars, I would need to use points or miles with a partner airline to book a reward seat on Air New Zealand.
Air New Zealand trans-Tasman award flights can be good value, for example, when redeeming Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles or Virgin Atlantic points. But Air New Zealand rarely releases any award seats to partner airlines.
There’s also a bug where, sometimes, the Singapore Airlines website will show a KrisFlyer award seat on Air NZ but the ticketing fails.
Booking a reward seat is not an option with Velocity points, either, unless you want to use Points Plus Pay.
6. Qantas’ double status credit offers
There’s one final reason that I tend to keep booking Qantas for my trans-Tasman trips. Admittedly, this one is kind of outside Air New Zealand’s control. But the fact is, Air New Zealand just doesn’t run any promos that excite me quite like Qantas’ double status credit offers.
Whenever Qantas releases a double status credits offer, like many AFF members, I usually think about the flights I will take over the next year and make a few bookings. As it happens, Qantas flights to New Zealand are one of the “sweet spots” for booking on double status credits, as the number of status credits earned is relatively high compared to the dollars spent.
So, in order to maximise my status credits, it makes sense for me to book the flights I’m going to take to New Zealand on Qantas. And once I’ve finished making those bookings, there aren’t that many trans-Tasman flights left for me to book on other airlines.
Without the Qantas status machine and regular double status credit offers, I probably would have flown with Qantas to New Zealand a lot less. I don’t particularly love flying on Qantas’ Boeing 737s across the Tasman when there are better options. But I’ll be the first to admit that Qantas Frequent Flyer has done a good job of influencing my spending decisions – exactly as Qantas designed it.
Oh, and if flying out of Sydney or Melbourne, the Qantas First Lounges are another pretty good reason to choose Qantas if you have Qantas Platinum or Oneworld Emerald status.
Do you choose to fly Air New Zealand? Why/why not?
Those are just my personal thoughts. I’m sure some Australian frequent flyers will agree, while others will have completely different points of view!
I’d be interested to hear why you do or don’t choose to fly with Air New Zealand on the AFF forum:
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