Crazy Fares NZ-LAX!

[zanzibar138]

DH has just found some super cheap fares, so I thought I'd share the love

Qantas
For travel 14th October - 19th November and 19th January - 31st March
Auckland - LAX (via Australia) - NZ $999

Virgin
Travel periods are about the same
Auckland - LAX (via Australia - NZ $850

A quick AP trip for our anniversary is looking pretty good right now...

 

[LizfromOz]

At those prices you would SAVE money by going, lol.

 

[zanzibar138]

At those prices you would SAVE money by going, lol.

 

[Travel Mum]

DH has just found some super cheap fares, so I thought I'd share the love

Qantas
For travel 14th October - 19th November and 19th January - 31st March
Auckland - LAX (via Australia) - NZ $999

Virgin
Travel periods are about the same
Auckland - LAX (via Australia - NZ $850

A quick AP trip for our anniversary is looking pretty good right now...

Yes I shared them on my Facebook page last night. Just be aware that, with Virgin, you do not get meals/drinks/movie service on the Trans-Tasman leg but with Qantas you get them on all legs

 

[BecBennett]

wow! Off to the virgin site to see if there are comparable prices for Oz to LAX

ETA - where did he find them?

 

[zanzibar138]

Yes I shared them on my Facebook page last night. Just be aware that, with Virgin, you do not get meals/drinks/movie service on the Trans-Tasman leg but with Qantas you get them on all legs

If we were to get them, we'd go with Qantas so we could get our elite status benefits

But I'm sure we could handle the few hours across the Tasman without the extras for $150 saving

wow! Off to the virgin site to see if there are comparable prices for Oz to LAX

ETA - where did he find them?

Unfortunately I don't think there were... For us the flights across the Tasman aren't a big deal (and earn us extra status/points!). But I can see that if you're not keen on flying or travelling with kids it could make it a bit of an ordeal. I put it up more for the Kiwis on the board really.

I'm not sure how he came across them. He often checks the prices from Auckland as they are nearly always cheaper than from Australia. Rarely by that much though!

 

[BecBennett]

I still think I'm going to give Virgin a call in the morning and discuss it. I'm happy to pay the full advertised price, but just get on in Sydney or Brisbane...

 

[WanderlustNZ]

There have been some really great deals lately.

A couple of days ago I saw some for NZ$799 return with Virgin (via Australia) for the first 100 bookings, and Fiji Airways had some a few weeks back for NZ$1100 return via Nadi.

Under $1000 is super cheap and would certainly tempt me if I was in the position to book another trip (which I'm not). But on the flipside, going via Australia is pretty much the least desirable route to LAX. AKL to LAX via Aus is noticeably longer than Aus to LAX via AKL.

I could have saved hundreds per person by going Virgin on my last trip to the USA. But in the end I hate flying and just couldn't stomach the extra time in the air. Auckland direct to LA is 12 hours. Via Australia it is closer to 18-19 hours flying (22 hours once you add on the layover). If you were to fly from Australia to Auckland first to catch one of these flights, you would be looking at closer to 30 hours with layovers. Even without a child, I'm not sure I could be tempted.

Don't get me wrong, these flights are a great deal for anyone who doesn't mind flying. Just make sure you check all the timings to make sure you're okay with them.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

I still think I'm going to give Virgin a call in the morning and discuss it. I'm happy to pay the full advertised price, but just get on in Sydney or Brisbane...

If only it were that easy.

Airlines charge the cheapest fares for the longest, least desirable, routes. It's why you guys get better Air NZ deals than we do. I'm pretty sure they cancel your flight unless you're on the first leg.

 

[zanzibar138]

There have been some really great deals lately.

A couple of days ago I saw some for NZ$799 return with Virgin (via Australia) for the first 100 bookings, and Fiji Airways had some a few weeks back for NZ$1100 return via Nadi.

Under $1000 is super cheap and would certainly tempt me if I was in the position to book another trip (which I'm not). But on the flipside, going via Australia is pretty much the least desirable route to LAX. AKL to LAX via Aus is noticeably longer than Aus to LAX via AKL.

I could have saved hundreds per person by going Virgin on my last trip to the USA. But in the end I hate flying and just couldn't stomach the extra time in the air. Auckland direct to LA is 12 hours. Via Australia it is closer to 18-19 hours flying (22 hours once you add on the layover). If you were to fly from Australia to Auckland first to catch one of these flights, you would be looking at closer to 30 hours with layovers. Even without a child, I'm not sure I could be tempted.

Don't get me wrong, these flights are a great deal for anyone who doesn't mind flying. Just make sure you check all the timings to make sure you're okay with them.

NZ $799 Wish I'd have known about that one (not that we have an extra $1500 just sitting around at the moment ). The Fiji Airways one isn't that special, we can get that price in Australia. But that would be a pretty good flight for Kiwis and I can't imagine they'd have too much trouble getting bookings for it.

I think we've finally found one area of travel where we don't have exactly the same opinion I'll happily do as many short haul segments as it takes to get the best fare OR to get around doing one overnight segment. It all adds up to extra miles to play with later In fact, I would rather pay a little more and go Melbourne-Auckland-Fiji-Hawaii-LAX if they could all be day time flights, just to get around doing that awful overnight flight.

If only it were that easy.

Airlines charge the cheapest fares for the longest, least desirable, routes. It's why you guys get better Air NZ deals than we do. I'm pretty sure they cancel your flight unless you're on the first leg.

This We learnt this the hard way. A few years ago DH missed his outward flight to Thailand. When he turned up at the airport on the way home, they told him his flight had been cancelled and the plane was now full! Luckily there were enough no-shows that he managed to get a seat, and they didn't hit him with any extra charges for the privilege.

Having said that, we called Jetstar the other day to ask about our flights to Bangkok, and they said that the flights are treated as separate entities and our return flight wouldn't automatically be cancelled if we weren't on our outward flight. So I think it depends on the airline and how they structure their flights. They weren't connecting flights though.

There are also implications for tax and fees depending on where your original departure point is.

You could ditch the last leg and just stay in Australia, but your luggage would be checked through to NZ

Let us know how you go though Bec and whether you have any luck

 

[BecBennett]

No luck unfortunately. I just spoke to someone at Virgin and asked her about it, and was told it couldn't be done. I asked why not and was told "It doesn't work that way" Well yes, I get that, what I want to know is why...

I could have saved hundreds per person by going Virgin on my last trip to the USA. But in the end I hate flying and just couldn't stomach the extra time in the air. Auckland direct to LA is 12 hours. Via Australia it is closer to 18-19 hours flying (22 hours once you add on the layover). If you were to fly from Australia to Auckland first to catch one of these flights, you would be looking at closer to 30 hours with layovers. Even without a child, I'm not sure I could be tempted.

Bleh! No, definitely not doing that It's only 14-15 hours from Sydney though.

Oh well, it was worth a shot

 

[zanzibar138]

FWIW DH has worked out that for an extra $100 (on the Qantas fares) you can do 'stopovers' in both directions to make it more worthwhile.

Here's what I mean.

Make your own way to NZ on a cheap or award flight. Spend a long weekend there, then fly back to Australia on the first leg of your NZ-LAX flight (NZ-Australia).

Spend your 'stopover' in Australia until it's time to leave for your US trip. Take the next leg of your NZ-LAX flight (Australia-LAX). Have your US trip, then return to Australia on your return leg. As you've booked a 'stopover' in Australia, you will be able to collect your luggage.

Then you can either just not show up for the final leg, or you could take the final leg a while later and make it into another NZ holiday, and get a cheap/award flight back.

It means that the fares go up to about NZ $1100, and you'd have to get yourself to NZ on top of that. But at the end of the day you'd be getting 2-3 holidays out of it. It's probably what we would do if we could afford any long haul flights at the moment.

 

[BecBennett]

Yeah I was thinking about stop overs to make it work.

I wonder how long a stop over you can have in Sydney, without the flight going up...

As in, we could have a NZ holiday for a week or so, then come home for a month, then have a US holiday for a couple of weeks, then come home again...

I'm off to look into it!

 

[BecBennett]

Oh my goodness! That works... Seriously considering a holiday to NZ in October for my birthday, and a holiday to the US in Feb/March for our wedding anniversary...

Waiting for DH to get back to me.

 

[zanzibar138]

Yeah I was thinking about stop overs to make it work.

I wonder how long a stop over you can have in Sydney, without the flight going up...

As in, we could have a NZ holiday for a week or so, then come home for a month, then have a US holiday for a couple of weeks, then come home again...

I'm off to look into it!

Yes, something like that definitely works

Oh my goodness! That works... Seriously considering a holiday to NZ in October for my birthday, and a holiday to the US in Feb/March for our wedding anniversary...

Waiting for DH to get back to me.

When is your anniversary? Ours is 3rd March, so our anniversary trips are usually Feb/March too. I would love to take advantage of these fares for next year's trip (since we'll already have APs!), but with our big trip coming up in September it doesn't look like we can make it happen.

 

[BecBennett]

We're March 1st

 

[BecBennett]

eeep! I'm doing it! I'm on the phone booking it!

 

[zanzibar138]

eeep! I'm doing it! I'm on the phone booking it!

I'm so glad someone managed to get something out of it!

 

[BecBennett]

I was about ready to get on here and b*tch about how useless the woman from Virgin was. She couldn't tell me I'd there was a maximum number of days allowed for a stop over. Then she was telling me that each leg of the flight had to be booked separately, and a heap of other stuff that really infuriated me. I was about to tell her to put me onto someone higher, when I decided to just get the price for what I wanted and it came back at roughly $950 each!

I put her on hold called DH and he said to go ahead and book it. So I came back to the Virgin rep and gave her the go ahead. I almost thought it wasn't going to work when she muttered something about an error coming up, but it went through and now we have our tickets!

We've now got to decide when we want to fly to NZ and how long we want to stay for. So far our dates are:

16/10/14 Auckland to Sydney
14/02/15 Sydney to LA
07/03/15 LA to Sydney
09/03/15 Sydney to Auckland (however I'll cancel this flight when we touch down in Sydney).

 

[zanzibar138]

I often find with flights where we kind of play the system that it's easier to just do it online. But it sounds like you got there in the end

Just make sure you cancel that last flight with enough notice that they can unload your luggage in Sydney.