In June American and Qantas announced an expansion of their partnership and joint venture, whereby American would launch flights between Los Angeles and Sydney as of this December. Furthermore, Qantas announced they’d restart San Francisco to Sydney as part of this partnership, which is an exciting route to bring back.
During the press conference in June, Doug Parker specifically talked about his desire to start service to New Zealand. As he explained it, “New Zealand is a market neither of us serve, but this provides that opportunity. We can’t ignore New Zealand.”
In October we further learned that an American flight between Los Angeles and Auckland was “certain,” though we still didn’t have a start date. Unfortunately United beat them to the punch, as in early October they announced that they’d launch a San Francisco to Auckland flight as of July 1, 2016.
Anyway, it seems like the wait is over, as American just Tweeted the following:
Kiwis make for #GreatMates too.
Learn more tomorrow.https://t.co/uCnPoiYdMn
— americanair (@AmericanAir) November 9, 2015
American made a similar announcement a day before they announced flights to Australia, so I think it’s safe to say American is announcing flights to New Zealand tomorrow. This is further confirmed by talks of American holding press conferences in both Los Angeles and New Zealand tomorrow.
Bottom line
I can’t wait for this route to be announced. It’s awesome to see two US carriers launch flights to New Zealand within a matter of months. New Zealand is one of the most gorgeous countries in the world, and it’s nice to get easier access there, especially as Air New Zealand is possibly the stingiest airline when it comes to releasing award space.
Now we just have to see how many frequencies American will operate in the market per week, and what kind of plane they’ll use (I’d assume a 787, but you never know).
Are you excited about American announcing flights between Los Angeles and Auckland?
Why is it "unfortunate" that UA announced before AA?
@Toby "So if AA wont put and of the F J seats in the Saaver level who cares about the flights?".
Ermmmm, the 90%+ of passengers not flying saver J/F?
This is exciting! My sister lives in New Zealand so I go every year. Last year, I went on Delta via Sydney (and VA from Sydney to Wellington). Last month, I used my Skymiles to get in biz on Virgin Australia on the same route. I've been able to split my loyalties more recently between American and Delta thanks to more work travel so I'm excited to be able to fly this route! I wouldn't...
This is exciting! My sister lives in New Zealand so I go every year. Last year, I went on Delta via Sydney (and VA from Sydney to Wellington). Last month, I used my Skymiles to get in biz on Virgin Australia on the same route. I've been able to split my loyalties more recently between American and Delta thanks to more work travel so I'm excited to be able to fly this route! I wouldn't think American would use their 787 though. LAX-AKL is about a 13 hour flight and I'm pretty sure they'd use their 777-200/300 for this route. DL uses their 777 for Australia routes, as does Air NZ (despite having 787s in their fleet). Unless American is going to use flying their 787 as a competitive advantage over United/DL to Oceania, I don't see why they'd fly the Dreamliner there.
SYD, and now AKL - - indeed, thumbs up. With the RDM changes coming - - should back around 500 RDMs too! ;)
@stvr -- While NZ's economy is heavily influenced by China, and its currency has been volatile, the Kiwi is actually relatively strong compared to the Aussie dollar at the moment.
Surprised this is all happening now. NZ economy is tanking and their dollar is in the toilet. When I visited recently, everyone told me they felt poor.
Surprised delta never launched service
If from ord yes cuz no direct flights from ord to New Zealand, but I know it won't be haha
@Ari aren't all flights set up that way? But this blogg is all about travel hacking and flying for the least amount of money as possible. So if AA wont put and of the F J seats in the Saaver level who cares about the flights?
Yes, YES!! So excited!! I love the country and can't wait for more options!!! Granted, I am pretty loyal to Air NZ as their hard product is amazing.
@Tony
I think their goal might be to sell tickets for dollars.
Yes it nice to see competition, however, if they are going to charge 145K miles each way it's not worth it.
Finally, being a New Zealander, flights to the US are soooo limited.
Air New Zealand finally has competition, along with United starting soon too! Yay! Looks like a fare war.
@Nick "not in the tank at ALL for American Airlines"
Well, they do have an excellent-- oops, make that an AAverage frequent flyer program.
"Unfortunately United beat them to the punch..."
No, not in the tank at ALL for American Airlines, are we? ;-)