ELP to Auckland, Sydney to ELP

[Alaskanb]

I am feeling a little lost in exploring dummy fares and flights to NZ/OZ-- I do know that I cannot book yet.

We are booked on a cruise leaving Auckland on Feb 15, 2015 and arriving in Sydney on Feb 27. We will probably want to arrive a few days early in Auckland and stay 1-2 nights in Sydney. We would prefer Premium Economy on the trans Pacific flights.

What strategies have others used to get the most reasonable price for this type of trip. I have a United Explorer card.

What US airlines codeshare with Air New Zealand and Qantas?

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed :confused:…but have lots of time to sort it out :)

Edited February 16, 2014 by Alaskanb

[Gunner22aa]

Air New Zealand is part of the Star Alliance so United would code share with them. Qantas is not but I think they are aligned with American and One World. Air New Zealand offers a great product.

[Gardyloo]

"Codeshare" is unimportant; it refers to airlines allowing one another to sell seats on their flights and placing their own flight number on a given flight, e.g. United XXXX operated by Air New Zealand as NZ YYY.

 

"Partnering" is more useful. As stated Air New Zealand is in Star Alliance while Qantas is in Oneworld; however in addition to being partners with their own alliance members (Qantas with American, British Airways etc., Air NZ with United, Air Canada, Lufthansa etc.) they also have non-alliance partners, e.g. Air New Zealand with Virgin Atlantic, Qantas with Alaska Airlines, and so on.

 

Premium economy is tricky with open-jaw itineraries where more than one long-haul carrier is involved. If it were me I'd look at openjaw alternatives, ELP-AKL//SYD-ELP, but also at simple round trips, such as ELP-SYD-ELP or ELP-AKL-ELP, so that you stick with the same airline transpacific, then just buy a separate ticket for the trans-Tasman portion, allowing yourself plenty of leeway on the connection.

 

Qantas, Air NZ and Virgin Australia all offer premium economy across the Pacific; however Qantas no longer flies from the US direct to New Zealand, nor does Virgin Australia. Air NZ doesn't fly straight to the US from Australia, and when you start combining two of those three in premium economy the price tends to go through the roof. You'll probably find it cheaper to buy a round trip to Auckland, then after the cruise just buy a cheap one-way ticket from SYD back to AKL to pick up the return portion of the RT.

 

But price it various ways to see; use ITA to do your basic searches.

[kenish]

Adding to previous posts, AA and QF have a close partnership and their connections through LAX and DFW are pretty seamless. QF flies SYD-DFW which may be more convenient for you than LAX, although DFW uses 747-400s while LAX is A380s.

 

UA was planning IAH-AKL using a 787 but I'm not sure of the latest plans.

 

Also price out LAX-SYD or LAX-AKL roundtrips. There is a lot of competition, especially LAX-SYD and fares may be low enough to justify combining it with a separate ELP-LAX roundtrip ticket (but you must leave plenty of connect time in both directions) if you're OK flying economy in and out of ELP.

[Alaskanb]

If we were to ticket the ELP-LAX or DFW-ELP trip separately (maybe even with points) what would we physically need to do in LAX regarding picking up luggage and rechecking in with the airline --change of terminals etc.

This is all very helpful.

Edited February 17, 2014 by Alaskanb

[jsmeeker]

If you keep it in the same alliance, you might get them to check the bags through. As far as transferring to a different plane, it would depend on which airport you use and where the flights departed and arrived.

 

Does Qantas still operate some flights out of T4 at LAX? At DFW, Qantas uses D. The flight from El Paso could arrive in A, C, or D. But it's an easy airside transfer.

[Alaskanb]

Anyone done a stopover with Air Tahiti Nui on a LAX to AKL flight? It may be a good option for us.