The best uses of Etihad Guest miles for travellers in New Zealand

Etihad is a Virgin Australia partner for points earn and redemption, making it a useful program to know about – and it has some especially good redemption rates for many Virgin Australia Trans-Tasman and South Pacific routes.

In this guide, we’ll look at the options for redeeming Etihad Guest miles mainly on partner airlines, and we’ll explain why outright redemptions and upgrades on Etihad flights don’t make much sense from New Zealand. Continue reading…

American Airlines AA142 New York – London Business Class Review

After a couple of weeks in New York City, it was time to head over to London for the last leg of our big trip for this year – and we ended up on American Airlines on a new day flight, AA142, operated between the two cities.

I seem to be cursed in having ‘not the best’ experiences when flying between the US and the UK – a crappy flight with British Airways was one of my first reviews I wrote for Point Hacks around 5 years ago(!). Continue reading…

Update!: now including Hawaiian – Flight Deal – New Zealand to Los Angeles direct, Business Class return for $3,500!

Update! Hawaiian Airlines have now jumped into this sale with return business class fares between Auckland and Los Angeles via Honolulu for $3,520. Sale fares are available on selected days from now until late June 2017 including holiday periods, and as shown later can also be booked to include a stop in Honolulu for no extra.

This week has seen some great return airfare deals across multiple carriers advertised for flights to North America.

We’ve written about the multiple carriers advertising sub $1,000 return fares to US currently on the market, however here I’m focusing purely on the ground-breakingly low business class fares the airlines have been a little more discreet about, and are available for booking all the way out to the end of June 2017.
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American & United start Trans-Pacific Dreamliner flights – our first take on using Points to travel direct to the US

For the first time in 4 years there’s competition for Air New Zealand on Trans-Pacific flights direct from New Zealand to the US mainland.

On the 3rd of July, United Airlines flight UA917 touched down in Auckland on its maiden direct service from San Francisco. The weekend before, American Airlines also commenced their daily direct service connecting Auckland with their Los Angeles hub.

Given these new additions for Kiwi’s who have long been waiting for affordable direct flights to the US, we thought we’d give you some details about both new options for points earn and burn to the US.
Continue reading…