Fare Alert Qantas $225 LAX or SFO to Auckland NZ round trip

Update: Deal Gone around 8:00am ET Tue Apr 12 according to most recent Flyertalk posts.

There is another amazingly cheap fare as low as $210 round trip from California LAX or SFO to Auckland, New Zealand today on CheapoAir.com at $225 or search Momondo.com to find $210 fares flying Qantas and American Airlines. This one is a straight forward round trip ticket, possibly a mistake fare since I can’t find the low ticket price on the airlines’ sites.

Unlike the Delta and United fare war to Australia with $390 open-jaw fares from Seattle to Australia and back to LAX, or $560 to $580 round trip from LAX (United) or SFO (Delta) these past few days and widely bookable through the airline’s own sites, this deal is one I only see on CheapoAir. Update: Fare also found on many other OTA sites, including Orbitz and Travelocity.

Check out this FlyerTalk thread for latest info on AKL sale.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mileage-run-deals/1759015-aa-lax-sfo-akl-212-rt-2.html

HT: One Mile at a Time

HT: SecretFlying ERROR FARE: USA TO NEW ZEALAND FOR A CRAZY CHEAP $210 RETURN

I played around for the past hour to see possibilities. Here are the parameters.

Airlines: Qantas, with some flights operated by American Airlines as Qantas codeshares. I found some routings with AA flight numbers outbound.

Fare:

• as low as $225 round trip Los Angeles LAX – Auckland AKL
• as low as $241 round trip San Francisco SFO – Auckland AKL
• some itineraries offer LAX-AKL with Qantas codeshare for AA operated nonstop flights LAX-AKL. (See image below showing LAX-AKL AA nonstop flights both ways for $225.)

Dates:

• Departure dates July 1 – Sep 1; Oct 28 – Nov 30. One Flyertalker reports booking return flight in early December.

Cities: Auckland AKL is the only destination I found low fare. Routings are primarily via Sydney on Qantas. Possible to book an all-day layover in Sydney.

Extra Fees: Seat Fee is $25 per seat + $12.95 CheapOAir seat selection fee (one fee for all seats). Trip protection $12.95. Do not bother with paid seat selection since you can choose seats for free on Qantas.com once you have you flight booking confirmation with Qantas record locator. Update: Apparently there is also a charge to book seats on Qantas website according to FlyerTalk posts. My seat selection was free as Oneworld Emerald.

Promotion discount: APRL20 saves $20 on ticket cost.

Booking Code: Qantas Economy O; earns 25% flight miles in AAdvantage or 100% flight miles in Alaska Mileage Plan if you have Qantas operated and marketed flights with eligible flight numbers. Qantas marketed flights with flight numbers 32xx do not earn Alaska Mileage Plan miles according to this Alaska Airlines earn miles page. ($225 fare in image shown in this post are AA operated, Qantas 32xx codeshares ineligible for Alaska Mileage Plan miles.)

Yet, there is a dispute in the FlyerTalk thread about the eligibility of the 32xx Qantas codeshares on AA marketed flights. Alaska Airlines representative on Twitter stated the Qantas 32xx flights operated by American will earn miles.

Qantas 

Eligible Flight Numbers for earning 100% Alaska Airlines frequent flyer miles.

1 – 199

400 – 1343

1400 – 1625

1640 – 1659

1700 – 1949

2000 – 2293

2300 – 2554

2557 – 2580

2600 – 2669

2800 – 2899

2921 – 2931

2980 – 2999

3739 – 3789

4104 – 4169

7000 – 7189

7800 – 7999

I’ll add more to this post as I find more information.

My total ticket price was for SFO-AKL for $240.47 including trip insurance and my flights are all eligible Qantas operated flights for 100% Alaska Mileage Plan miles.

Originally I paid $62.95 for seat selections, then called back and canceled my CheapoAir seat selections for a $62.95 refund after I realized I could book my seats at no charge on Qantas website.

I booked my flight for November 2016, since I have been to Auckland in August and I want to visit South Island during their warmer months.

CheapoAir.com  Los Angeles LAX – Auckland AKL New Zealand

$225.26  Wednesday July 6 – Wednesday July 20

Note these flights are AA operated flights marketed as Qantas codeshare flights 32xx and possibly ineligible for Alaska Mileage Plan miles. I booked my $225 round trip SFO-AKL ticket flying via Sydney on all Qantas operated and marketed flights with flight numbers in the 1-199 flight number range.

Fare Alert: United SEA-MEL/SYD-LAX $391 round trip (4-10-16)

Fare Alert: Delta $580 SFO to Sydney round trip April to October (4-10-16)

Loyalty Traveler curated Airfare Deals and Google Flights and Kayak Explore tutorials.