Since late last year, Air New Zealand has been hinting at starting a new route to North America. At the time, apparently Chicago, Houston, and Las Vegas were on the short list of cities to get service. Well, the announcement is now official -- Air New Zealand will be launching flights to Houston as of…
Continue reading: Air New Zealand Announces Auckland To Houston Flight
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Yeah, exactly what is needed. There are not many airlines operate routes between US and Oceania, so ticket price in these routes are really high.
I wonder why Air Newzeland doesn't use their new 787-9 to fly this route.
That's quite exciting but if United didn't have a hub at IAH, I highly doubt Air New Zealand would have this route.
I'll admit, however, that I'd be more excited if it were an AKL-EWR non-stop flight. I'm not even sure if that's possible but that would be cool to go all the way to NZ nonstop from NYC. 🙂
I believe United themselves were considering this route as their first 787 route but withdrew it to "punish" the city for allowing Southwest to expand at Houston Hobby.
http://www.ausbt.com.au/united-cancels-boeing-787-based-houston-auckland-route
This would be great for me since I go to New Zealand to visit family and live in ATL, but Air NZ's loyalty program is pretty crappy. They have "Air Points", whereas each point equals a NZ dollar and they're kind of stingy with earning rates. And just like you said, it is IMPOSSIBLE to find any award space (even economy) on Air NZ through Star Alliance. I wouldn't fly 20,000 butt-in-seat miles (on one trip!) on an airline that isn't going to give me very much for it...but they do have amazing service, good food, comfy seats and an innovative hard product in all three of their long-haul cabins (space seat in premium economy, sky couch for economy). It's a great airline for people who are making a one-time trip to NZ, but it's not the best choice for people who value points and miles.
@HSO
Air NZ's 789s are configured mainly for Asia flights which do not have as much premium demand as US/LHR flights. Consequently, the J/PY:Y ratio is off for US flights.
nobody's making you sign up NZ Airpoints
Since they're star alliance, feel free to bank the miles to any other program (if eligible booking class)
EWR-AKL is 8,810 miles so theoretically is should be possible... but not sure about the winds...
ANZ will connect American South and South America, with flights to EZE.
I hoping for the 5th to happen between EZE - GRU as it happens with TK and QR.
This is great for anyone not on the west coast that wants to travel to New Zealand. Opens a lot of 1 stop options from the midwest, east coast, and south.
While great to have another route to fly, don't expect much in the service.
We flew their long haul business class and were disappointed:
http://milesdownunder.com/2015/03/review-air-new-zealand-business-class-san-francisco-auckland/
My single favorite business class in the world comes to Houston! If only there were an easy way to get up there with miles...
How sad/crazy is it that some Americans think it takes 40 hours to fly to NZ?!
Why is no one talking about how weird it is when everyone in Biz is facing away from the windows, into the aisle, looking right at each other, with no privacy? I've done it several times on the DL777s, and it's just plain odd and awkward.
@Neil S - I really don't mind the direction issue at all, and most important about the NZ seats is that instead of reclining all the way flat into a bed (leaving a weird crease/bump in the middle) they fold forward to meet the ottoman to make an actual flat bed. By far the most comfortable bed I've ever flown in J (and more comfortable than most F - save for the separate beds such as SQ).
Qantas have also announced a new route today: www.milesdownunder.com/2015/04/qantas-to-resume-flights-between-perth-and-singapore/
(Well a resumption)
@Miles Down Under
I like your blog but it seems like you're mostly dissatisfied no matter which airline/product you fly... 😉
14+ hours on a 777-200? I thought they would use a bigger plane on a long haul like this.
@Santastico A bigger plane? I guess you've never been on a 772. Cabin width is the same as 77W about the same as a 747. Larger than A333, A343.
@Lantean - thanks for reading. Suggest you read our reviews of Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways, as well as JAL First Chicago to Tokyo. We are not a blog that is going to say something was great when it wasn't, but those were all spectacular flights we've done this year.
As a local, I'm very excited about a nonstop option to Oceania although it's unfortunate that Air NZ award travel is nearly impossible. How expensive are upgrades via bidding?
Regarding 40-hour travel time: it's not THAT far off from the reality if you have stops, especially if it's in some Middle East hub. Searching a random date for IAH-AKL brings up mostly flights 25-30 hours long except some tight connections via LAX (19 hours).
@ Ivan Y -- The cabins do send to sell out on their US routes, so wouldn't count on an upgrade bid, unfortunately.
@ Lucky - thanks for the heads-up! Was just wondering because it was mentioned by another commenter (Zkos).
One of the things that makes since about this route is the chunk of tourism that exists for Texans going to New Zealand. A lot of New Zealand's tourism comes from Texas. Houston is the cosmopolitan center of Texas, so it makes since to use this route. Since the amount of Kiwis in the USA is relatively small, they couldn't occupy daily flights from New Zealand to USA, so they have to use other means of transporting people forward and back. Then as the article states, people from Houston could then transfer on throughout the rest of America (Chicago, NYC, Miami, etc.) Then there's the factor that Houston is such a cosmopolitan city, and they have Kiwi families living in the ares. Chicago has the most Kiwis, but you can't base this route just on that factor.
Numerically there may not be a lot of NZers in the US but a disproportionate number of Kiwis are in the air at any one time. Nth American airports on the west coast (LA, SF and Vancouver) are important transit points for ANZ flights to the UK. All ANZ flights on those routes (about 7 or 8 daily) are usually packed out. The Houston service adds another transit opportunity. Maybe, when Hell freezes over, the arch-protectionist FAA will grant ANZ passage through Houston to Europe! Whatsmore, ANZ is still considering Chicago. 65k packed out Soldier Field last year to watch the All Blacks play the US Eagles, and as a major sponsor of the ABs ANZ made a huge effort to attract the local market back to NZ. I think the airline was pleasantly surprised by the good reaction it got to its intensive marketing.