Worthwhile Indulgences

[WanderlustNZ]

Also slightly aside, but I can't believe how airfares work out... like, looking at Christmas this year (since Christmas next year isn't out yet) we could do BNE-LAX AirNZ with Skycouch for a very comparable price to flying Virgin. Yes, there's the extra flight to NZ - but to be able to actually get some sleep on the long haul section, I'm very tempted! Butt-cramp seats with a daytime flight vs skycouch overnight... why aren't the airlines here stepping up their game (in terms of price or service) out of Brisbane?

Yeah, I was just doing some research into skycouches an hour ago, and it seems for $700 extra we can get a couch and a seat across the aisle (i.e 4 seats between the 3 of us). That means my husband and I could take turns sharing the skycouch with our son and we'll hopefully all get a bit of sleep. Very tempting. Very tempting indeed.

 

[Franrose]

Yeah, I was just doing some research into skycouches an hour ago, and it seems for $700 extra we can get a couch and a seat across the aisle (i.e 4 seats between the 3 of us). That means my husband and I could take turns sharing the skycouch with our son and we'll hopefully all get a bit of sleep. Very tempting. Very tempting indeed.

When are you looking for? I'm really starting to doubt the whole process of booking early to get good prices... Admittedly, I'm looking at travel BNE-AKL-LAX, browsing December this year (ie leaving in six weeks time!), but the price difference between skycouch or no was $200 one way.

ETA: Ahh, I see - three of you vs four that is awesome!

Those flights were also $3,000 cheaper than anything I could find for next year flying Virgin BNE-LAX direct. (Virgin at Christmas this year = similar prices to AirNZ with skycouch, more expensive than AirNZ without skycouch.)

 

[Travel Mum]

Hey, the price of a skycouch upgrade is not set in stone. It starts at one price and then, depending on demand, the price changes. The more that are booked, the higher the price goes for further Skycouch bookings. So a Skycouch upgrade, if you know you want one, is definitely something you should book early to get the lowest upgrade cost

 

[battymum]

Wow, that's interesting. I have been wondering what club level is like at Universal hotels.

I too often splash out on club level at hotels if the price isn't too much more expensive. We usually eat enough evening canapes that we don't need dinner. This paired with the club breakfast means we only need to pay for lunch on that day.

Did you go to evening canapes and drinks at the Hard Rock. Were they any good?

The club room at HRH had only 9 tables to serve the entire top floor of the hotel, so it was always crowded and noisy at breakfast. We did have evening canapés but then went out for our meal, so wouldn't have missed it. I am not much of a wine drinker, DH would grab a beer and bring back to the room - it just wasn't a relaxing place to be - I would have preferred to pay for a drink and sit somewhere more pleasant.
So instead of it being an indulgence I felt like we were being cheap - which I guess we were, but would have got better value buying some beers and snacks at a supermarket.

 

[PrincessInOz]

That's the second recommendation for the dessert package. It sounds like it's a must-do. Do they have the same thing at WDW?

If you LOVE sweet things, then the Fireworks or Wishes Dessert at WDW is a must-do.

You do have to book and it is one of those events that they take payment in advance and at the time of booking. Not refundable within a 24 or 48 hour cancellation, can't remember which.

Everyone gets a seat at a table and the desserts are pretty good (but not necessarily great). It is all you can eat and includes coffee/tea and juice.

When the fireworks starts, the guests all wander up to the Tomorrowland Terrance balcony. There is plenty of elbow room and you don't have to jostle anyone or stake out a spot. The Tomorrowland Terrace is towards the right of the castle; so your view isn't dead straight on. There are better spots for viewing the fireworks; but if you like Dessert, it can be worth it.

 

[Franrose]

It's a great spot for seeing Tinkerbelle!

I loved it, then seeing them all over again a few nights later from the California Grill. Two different perspectives of the same awesome 'Ohana has a great view too.

 

[Franrose]

Hey, the price of a skycouch upgrade is not set in stone. It starts at one price and then, depending on demand, the price changes. The more that are booked, the higher the price goes for further Skycouch bookings. So a Skycouch upgrade, if you know you want one, is definitely something you should book early to get the lowest upgrade cost

Do seat prices waiver much though? I'm wondering if I could get airfares around the $6000/$7000 mark (ish - much prefer $6000 ) a year ahead, or if it's better to wait. For eg, if I can see airfares for this December (using our proposed dates of travel) at about that price, have they dropped because it's getting closer to December and they want to fill the planes, or will they have consistently been at that price?

For our trip last year, I booked/paid for virgin flights back from NY to LAX and the next WEEK they dropped by $600 (for our whole family). Gah.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

The club room at HRH had only 9 tables to serve the entire top floor of the hotel, so it was always crowded and noisy at breakfast. We did have evening canapés but then went out for our meal, so wouldn't have missed it. I am not much of a wine drinker, DH would grab a beer and bring back to the room - it just wasn't a relaxing place to be - I would have preferred to pay for a drink and sit somewhere more pleasant.
So instead of it being an indulgence I felt like we were being cheap - which I guess we were, but would have got better value buying some beers and snacks at a supermarket.

That doesn't sound good. Only 9 tables! I imagine with the early Harry Potter hour that most of the club customers would be eating breakfast at the same time and looking for something quick and relaxing, not packed and chaotic.
Also, do I take from your wine and beer comment that there were no cocktails (i.e spirits)?
It sounds like it might be an indulgence I won't be splashing out on.
Cheers for the info.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Hey, the price of a skycouch upgrade is not set in stone. It starts at one price and then, depending on demand, the price changes. The more that are booked, the higher the price goes for further Skycouch bookings. So a Skycouch upgrade, if you know you want one, is definitely something you should book early to get the lowest upgrade cost

Thanks TravelMum. I've also noticed how much School holidays vs. no school holidays makes a difference.
I'm able to price up the day we want to leave, but at the moment I have been stabbing in a dummy return date that is a few days early.
The funny thing is that the return date I chose was only released yesterday, yet it is already quite a bit more expensive ($1100) for the skycouch and extra seat upgrade than the trip there ($700). The difference being that the flight home is in school holidays while the flight there is a few weeks before the holidays start.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Do seat prices waiver much though? I'm wondering if I could get airfares around the $6000/$7000 mark (ish - much prefer $6000 ) a year ahead, or if it's better to wait. For eg, if I can see airfares for this December (using our proposed dates of travel) at about that price, have they dropped because it's getting closer to December and they want to fill the planes, or will they have consistently been at that price?

For our trip last year, I booked/paid for virgin flights back from NY to LAX and the next WEEK they dropped by $600 (for our whole family). Gah.

Isn't it frustrating how difficult they are to predict? I booked my last flights to Fiji about 9 months early. Just a few weeks later they had a special and silly me checked. I was kicking myself when I realised I could have saved a few hundred just by waiting a few weeks. However, I also continued to check periodically after that (I know. I know. What's the point?), but I was happy to see that they continued to sky rocket in price. A last minute booking would have seen me paying close to double what I paid 9 months in advance

I pretty much weigh up the gamble of school holiday bookings. What would upset me more? Paying $5000 now and then a few months later finding out they went down to $4000. Or forgoing the $5000, finding out that no deals are offered, and then end up paying $6000? I would be quite a bit more upset with the latter, so I usually don't take any chances and book early.

I'm curious. Do all Australians flying ANZ come via Auckland, or does ANZ have some direct flights between AUS and LAX?
Can I ask why a lot of you are happy to fly ANZ despite the flight being not direct? I like ANZ, but imagine I would definitely consider another airline if it got me to my destination faster.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Hey, the price of a skycouch upgrade is not set in stone. It starts at one price and then, depending on demand, the price changes. The more that are booked, the higher the price goes for further Skycouch bookings. So a Skycouch upgrade, if you know you want one, is definitely something you should book early to get the lowest upgrade cost

Travel mum, I was just wondering something else that you might know the answer to.

Do you know if the majority of ANZ flights to LAX sell out? I will be taking a mid week (Tuesday) flight a few weeks before school holidays and are quietly hoping it will have some empty seats.

My theory (hope) is that if I book the skycouch as well as the seat across the aisle, we may also end up with the seat next to the aisle seat being empty. IMO, not many groups of 3 like to book seats down the middle of the plane if they know that access to one of the aisles is going to be blocked by a stranger.
Although, that's just my theory which could indeed be very wrong. Wishful thinking I suppose

 

[WanderlustNZ]

If you LOVE sweet things, then the Fireworks or Wishes Dessert at WDW is a must-do.

You do have to book and it is one of those events that they take payment in advance and at the time of booking. Not refundable within a 24 or 48 hour cancellation, can't remember which.

Everyone gets a seat at a table and the desserts are pretty good (but not necessarily great). It is all you can eat and includes coffee/tea and juice.

When the fireworks starts, the guests all wander up to the Tomorrowland Terrance balcony. There is plenty of elbow room and you don't have to jostle anyone or stake out a spot. The Tomorrowland Terrace is towards the right of the castle; so your view isn't dead straight on. There are better spots for viewing the fireworks; but if you like Dessert, it can be worth it.

great to know. Thanks

 

[5ofus]

I'm curious. Do all Australians flying ANZ come via Auckland, or does ANZ have some direct flights between AUS and LAX?
Can I ask why a lot of you are happy to fly ANZ despite the flight being not direct? I like ANZ, but imagine I would definitely consider another airline if it got me to my destination faster.

As far as I know they all go through Auckland. Three things are factoring in for me; price (they are close to the cheapest), time of day (the short flight to Auckland won't be too bad and then hopefully we could feed the boys and get them to sleep) and the Skycouch . I figure an extra couple of hours will be worth it if the boys are more likely to get at least SOME sleep. We have done all-day flights to Japan and the kids didn't sleep at all - not fun

 

[Franrose]

As far as I know they all go through Auckland. Three things are factoring in for me; price (they are close to the cheapest), time of day (the short flight to Auckland won't be too bad and then hopefully we could feed the boys and get them to sleep) and the Skycouch . I figure an extra couple of hours will be worth it if the boys are more likely to get at least SOME sleep. We have done all-day flights to Japan and the kids didn't sleep at all - not fun

Yes to this! Last year we left bne at 10.20 am and it was a 14 hour flight. Our kids got an hours sleep if they were lucky and then had to do another full day (we arrived at 6am, bus tour for the morning, room not ready till later in the afternoon).

For us as well, being kiwis I see we can split the return trip and stay in akl a couple of nights & visit family

 

[Travel Mum]

Travel mum, I was just wondering something else that you might know the answer to.

Do you know if the majority of ANZ flights to LAX sell out? I will be taking a mid week (Tuesday) flight a few weeks before school holidays and are quietly hoping it will have some empty seats.

My theory (hope) is that if I book the skycouch as well as the seat across the aisle, we may also end up with the seat next to the aisle seat being empty. IMO, not many groups of 3 like to book seats down the middle of the plane if they know that access to one of the aisles is going to be blocked by a stranger.
Although, that's just my theory which could indeed be very wrong. Wishful thinking I suppose

Well, if you had have asked me this a year ago, I would have said that certainly flights in the school holidays most certainly do sell out and that includes flights departing a few days before because they may as well be considered school holiday flights. However I would have said that pre-school holiday midweek flights were much less likely to sell out. However, we are in a different era now as, since QF pulled out, Air NZ are the only ones to fly the N.Z. to U.S. route direct. As a result, they will be creaming it on that route and we just have to hope that, because they do have a bit of competition from airlines offering non-direct routes via Australia or the Pacific (QF, DL, UA, Virgin, Air Pacific, Air Tahiti Nui), their prices will not go too high.

It amuses me to see that, by what I read on these boards, they are doing so well on the ex Australia market to the U.S. On one hand I am pleased for Air NZ but on the other hand, it's worrying because, if the planes fill up with ex-Australia fares, the fares for Kiwis, who pay a premium to fly direct anyway, will go up!

 

[Travel Mum]

Do seat prices waiver much though? I'm wondering if I could get airfares around the $6000/$7000 mark (ish - much prefer $6000 ) a year ahead, or if it's better to wait. For eg, if I can see airfares for this December (using our proposed dates of travel) at about that price, have they dropped because it's getting closer to December and they want to fill the planes, or will they have consistently been at that price?

For our trip last year, I booked/paid for virgin flights back from NY to LAX and the next WEEK they dropped by $600 (for our whole family). Gah.

When a flight is first loaded into the system (for eg Air NZ AKLLAX 14 October 2013 was loaded this morning), the flight is normally loaded with the full range of booking classes for the long-term airfares. These are the airfares that are available year round. There are a certain amount of seats sold at each fare level and ,as a booking class sells out, the next fare up becomes the lowest available etc. Then, at certain times throughout the next 11 months until that flight, the airline may release seats at extra booking classes that are valid for short-life special fare bookings. This is what we cannot predict even though there are some pretty sure bets such as Earlybird fares to UK/Europe on sale the October/November the year before (i.e. we are selling now for 2013 travel). Air NZ also normally does a New Year worldwide sale too. However the rest of the specials are all mainly based on either a mission to boost loadings or as a response to a competitor's special. So very hard to predict, unless you have the ear of an airline insider, and of course Franrose, I'm not familiar with the ex-Australia market.

There are certain times of the year when you can be sure no special fare will be released such as at Christmas. Since we are departing for Hawaii on 29th December, I knew that there would be no lower fare than the lowest longterm fare available for sale with the fight was first loaded. So, as a result, I booked our seats the moment the flights were loaded onto the system and sure we paid a pretty high fare but you should see them now!!!!

 

[Caroline NZ]

Also bear in mind that Air NZ is increasing it's capacity to North America next year (yay).
See following media release on 3rd Oct:

3 October 2012

Air New Zealand to further increase capacity to North America

Air New Zealand will add approximately 5,000 return seats a month to North America as it further increases capacity to San Francisco, Vancouver and Los Angeles from April 2013.

The airline will operate daily return flights on the Auckland San Francisco route. To date, the San Francisco service has predominantly run five times per week. In addition to being an exciting destination in its own right, San Francisco offers connections to over 100 other destinations in the United States.

Auckland to Los Angeles will also increase, with twice daily flights from April, compared with 12 flights per week at the same time this year. Air New Zealand will continue to operate a third Los Angeles flight one day a week in peak demand periods around the July and October school holidays.

The additional capacity will replace more than 75% of the seats lost from the California market earlier this year following the exit of one of Air New Zealands competitors.

The Auckland to Vancouver route will also see a significant boost in capacity with three return services per week in off peak periods (previously two). Air New Zealand will operate five times a week over peak demand times from mid December to the end of February.

The increase builds on already boosted capacity increase on North American routes which was announced in March and Air New Zealand anticipates announcing further capacity additions beyond July 2013 in the coming weeks.

This is a huge boost for the visitor economy from North America and offers additional opportunities for New Zealand exporters, says Norm Thompson, Deputy CEO.

 

[marvel]

We have flown AirNZ a couple of times to the USA and found them to be great. In regards to the Skycouch thing, i am pretty sure I read a review somewhere here where they didn't think it was worth it because the angle of recline didn't really mean that the kids could sleep and they weren't very positive about the value of the $700 they paid extra for the seat.

I think we all know people that have the money to travel and enjoy life but just don't. It must be a mindset that is hard to change. But i have adopted the 'life is too short' motto as of the past year or so as well. In particular after our house was wrecked at Xmas by hailstorms.

Our indulgances have included helicopter flights in Vegas, awewsome but really expensive, but extra money coming in at the time. Also, have done concierge at Poly, which was good and bad. But wouldn't do it again. Concierge was fine the food great, but for the price, the rooms were average at best and the pool was actually super cold. Very disappointing.

We have also done the Dessert Buffeet Fantasmic viewing thing, which is really $200 for unlimited cookies, and way too expensive, but then, the kids still talk about it, even though they were 7 and 5 at the time. They remember it clearer than many other things on the trip, glad we did it, but probably wouldn't do it again.

As with most others, I have always looked at Premium Economy as a possibility, but then multiplied x 4 people, and I just can't justify the expense for 14 hours. I always think that the extra $4000 can pay for 5 star hotel, where I really enjoy myself, so maybe one day with frequent flyer points!

 

[australiankaren]

ANZ PE..best money we have spent..so much better than VA

Concierge upgrade on Disney cruise...waste of money, could have used that $1600 for other things.

great to hear ANZ are increasing flights...& I do enjoy the Auckland terminal 1Km dash...gets the blood pumping before a long flight

 

[Travel Mum]

I do enjoy the Auckland terminal 1Km dash...gets the blood pumping before a long flight

I travel a few times a year for work and fly via Auckland International so maybe, just maybe, one day I'll be airside in the terminal while you dash past and we can highfive each other on the way!!