American Airlines has just announced two very cool new seasonal routes to New Zealand, which complement their existing seasonal flight from Los Angeles to Auckland.
Continue reading: WOW: American Announces Two New Routes To New Zealand
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
AA should be able to make Auckland routes year-round (via LAX or DFW) and be profitable. Heck, last week I saw an Air New Zealand's 777-300ER at Houston! I think AA is just getting their feet wet.
Interesting. I don’t expect air New Zealand to take this lying down. Should be some good prices coming out of this.
Wouldn’t like to be sitting in Y for the Dallas routes. A long time on a plane.
I really hope that American starts MEL-DFW soon! It would be really convenient. I also wonder if AA would compete with Air NZ by flying from AKL to JFK?
Do you think this might result in lower prices on Air NZ's routes from the US? They're a great airline but their prices are really high (3k for Premium Economy round trip from LA to Auckland).
Wow, Awesome news for us in the DFW metroplex. So many flights added in the last few years and they keep on coming. I do plan on flying DFW-AKL in Business Class.
@ Lucky: This is off-topic for this post, but I am curious if you have read about the Aeroflot CEO's spat with the Russian government over subsidized "flat" fares for economy class between Moscow and several cities in the Far East? I find it quite amusing and a bit bizarre, as I work in Vladivostok and fly Aeroflot quite frequently. In a nutshell, Vitaly Savelyev (Aeroflot's CEO) claims that Aeroflot is losing tons of money and that the routes are not profitable, while the government insists that the fares are to stay in order to make connection between the far regions and Moscow affordable for the average person. For example, Aeroflot has gone as far as not posting a schedule for Moscow-Vladivostok (and vice-versa) after January 1st, which is obviously unusual. Try the Aeroflot website. The usual round-trip "flat" fare on Aeroflot is 25,000 rubles. You can book Moscow-Vladivostok direct one-way in economy on December 30th for the flat fare of 12,500 rubles (11,000 on Rossiya), but there are no direct return flights scheduled on December 31st, and nothing at all beginning January 1st.
It's been an interesting saga, and I am curious to see if Savelyev will keep his job after daring to challenge the flat tariffs. I figured you may like to follow this drama, though I must warn you that finding info in English may be a bit challenging. However, Google translate is your friend in this regard 😉
This seems like a plane utilization move to me. As summer seasonal routes to Europe end, they can use those aircraft on these flights.
This will be the only service connecting the south island direct to the U.S. Perhaps NZ will follow suit with South Island service to the U.S.?
LAX-SFO to ZQN seasonal service would be the best.
Jake,
ANZ's Premium Economy is one of the best - certainly better than First/Business on most US domestic flights
Tom,
I flew in them in PE last year and loved it, and ideally I'd fly it again for another trip to NZ. But a 3x price premium over economy is tough to swallow. Hoping this results in some price cuts.
Direct move to counter the NZ flight to IAH where UA provides feeder traffic in both directions.
No big changes for Aucklanders but for CHCH residents this is huge - they no longer need to travel north to connect in Auckland and presumably this will be on sale too.
I'd rather AA announces an EWR-LAX non-stop. Tired of UA or having to take connecting flights on AA.
Not the first time LAX-CHC has been tried. Air NZ did it in 2004/5 and 2005/6 summers with 747, twice weekly, I think. Probably way too much aircraft, and for NZ it cut into AKL traffic. Will be interesting to see if this works better for American, for whom it enhances the hub.
While you could probably get a 787 on the ground safely at ZQN your ability to fly it out of there to North America would be limited to an incredibly low passenger load. Never going to happen.
This is a great opportunity to get to the South Island direct from the US. The problem for those of us wanting award seats or an upgrade to J is that it is on the 787-8 with only 20 J seats. Unless they really struggle with seat sales like the BLQ flight, good luck getting J award saver seats or upgrades
The timing is really crappy...lose LATAM and now these routes makes it look like AA is rolling over and conceding South America...
Need Delta to pick up the slack and start AKL from SEA or ATL. Even with Virgin Australia, their south pacific network is so weak.
Reportedly AA has reduced leg room on all flights in all classes.
Being 6'5" will impact on my comfort, so why should I fly AA now?
787s can't even do the approach legally into ZQN, let alone turn around on the runway or get airborne with any loads. Even 321Neo aren't being operated as their margins are too narrow for safety.