When it comes to releasing Business Class award seats to partner airlines, Air New Zealand would have to be one of the world’s stingiest airlines. But there is now a surprisingly good amount of Business Class award space on certain routes including Melbourne-Auckland, for travel dates within the next three months.
Although New Zealand’s national carrier is part of Star Alliance, it’s normally near-impossible to redeem miles through any Star Alliance frequent flyer program for Business Class award seats on Air New Zealand. The exception is using Air New Zealand’s own Airpoints currency to book a seat, although this represents poor value because Airpoints dollars are just treated like cash – meaning expensive Business Class seats cost a huge number of Airpoints.
But if you look really closely, you can occasionally find Air New Zealand award availability in Business Class on trans-Tasman and long-haul flights through partner airlines. It doesn’t happen often, but you can sometimes find up to one Business award seat on flights from Auckland to Perth or destinations in Asia, and up to four Business seats between Auckland and Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane.
Air New Zealand offers Business Class on its Boeing 787 and Boeing 777 aircraft. Its narrow-body fleet (used on many domestic, trans-Tasman and Pacific Islands flights) only has Economy seating available.
It’s generally easier to find Economy award availability on Air New Zealand. In fact, redeeming KrisFlyer miles to fly to Pacific Island destinations in Economy can be excellent value! Business Class award space is a lot more rare – but does exist!
Keep in mind that you can now convert Virgin Australia Velocity points into Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles, and then redeem KrisFlyer miles for Air New Zealand flights.
Air NZ flights with Business award availability
Air New Zealand award space in Business Class is certainly not easy to find, but unicorns do exist. When searching today, we found Air New Zealand Business Class award seats available to book using Star Alliance currencies including Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles, Air Canada Aeroplan points and Avianca LifeMiles on several international routes to & from Auckland.
For example, at the time of writing, there were many flights available between Melbourne and Auckland with up to four Business award seats for travel between now and October 2022. Here’s just one example, which can be booked through the Avianca LifeMiles program:
Instead of LifeMiles, the above flight could also be booked using Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles or any other Star Alliance currency. Alternatively, you could even transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club and redeem for Air NZ awards through that program!
There are also a few Air New Zealand flights for travel over the coming months between Brisbane and Auckland with up to four Business award seats available. Here’s an example from Air Canada’s website:
There are a few flights between Sydney and Auckland with two Business awards, and we found one Business award available from Auckland to Perth in October 2022.
From Auckland, you can very occasionally also find flights with one Business award seat to destinations such as Tokyo, Seoul or Taipei.
These seats may disappear quickly, so it’s possible that they could already gone by the time you read this article. That said, availability on the Melbourne-Auckland route is now surprisingly good.
We’re certainly not saying that Air NZ Business award availability is now wide open on all of the airline’s long-haul routes – it most certainly is not – and the current award availability probably won’t last. But the point is that you shouldn’t totally disregard Air New Zealand when searching for Star Alliance award availability!
When searching for Star Alliance award space, including on Air New Zealand, you may find the United Airlines website helpful due to its 30-day calendar overview of award availability.
Would you like help using your frequent flyer points?
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Our Frequent Flyer Concierge can help you to find the perfect flights using your points. Just let the team know how many points you have and where you would like to go, and they’ll prepare an itinerary for you.
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