Qantas has a Companion Fare sale from New Zealand to the USA with fares as low as NZD $999 ($665 USD) per person round trip flying economy class for two passengers Auckland to Los Angeles. This sale runs through February 14, 2016 (Auckland time is 21 hours ahead of Los Angeles; 18 hours ahead of New York).
This post shows how these low fares can be used for good deals for USA-based flyers who want to travel a couple times to New Zealand this year.
One U.S. Dollar is currently $1.50 New Zealand Dollars making quick mental currency conversions easy.
Economy Fares:
- Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch to Los Angeles LAX = $666 USD
- Auckland or Wellington to San Francisco SFO = $666 USD
- Auckland or Wellington to Dallas DFW = $900 USD
- Auckland or Wellington to New York JFK = $1,000 USD
*Prices are based on payment at qantas.com by POLi. For card payments add $30 per passenger per booking.
Economy travel dates:
Los Angeles: From Auckland or Wellington 18 – 27 Apr & 10 Oct – 30 Nov 2016. From Christchurch 10 Oct – 30 Nov 2016.
San Francisco: From Auckland or Wellington 1 Mar – 10 Jun, 13 Jul – 25 Aug & 4 Oct – 30 Nov 2016.
Dallas/Fort Worth: From Auckland or Wellington 1 Aug – 8 Sep 2016.
New York (JFK): From Auckland 13 Apr – 10 Jun, 13 Jul – 31 Aug & 4 Oct – 30 Nov 2016. From Wellington 13 Jul – 31 Aug & 4 Oct – 30 Nov 2016.
Qantas Auckland AKL – Los Angeles LAX
1,992 NZD = $1,330 USD
- Tuesday, March 15 AKL-LAX
- Tuesday, November 15 LAX-AKL
- Eight months between leaving Auckland on Qantas and return flight on Qantas and an opportunity for U.S. flyers to experience two different seasons in New Zealand as I explain below for travelers wanting two trips to New Zealand this year.
How you can play this as a U.S. based traveler
In my searches for New Zealand to Auckland flights, the economy travel dates listed above were not that restrictive. I found several NZD $999 low fare AKL-LAX ticket options in March and September. Some of these deals included flights on American Airlines nonstop service.
My readers are 90% US-based, so this might not be too helpful a post for many people. The deal I see here for Americans is the opportunity to use frequent flyer miles to book an award ticket to New Zealand and travel March to April and return after one or two weeks or more in New Zealand on the outbound segments of the $666USD Qantas ticket to LAX. Then, return to New Zealand in September-November on the return portion of the Qantas $666 ticket, hang out in New Zealand a week or more again on your second trip. Then, return to LAX using frequent flyer miles. You buy two extreme discount paid tickets from New Zealand to USA and fly using miles to initially get to New Zealand and eventually back to USA on award travel, in any cabin class you desire and can afford.
This is a strategy I am using this year for frequent travel to Europe with four trips in 2016 flying on airline tickets originating in Europe. I have long windows in the USA before my return flights and short one-to-two week stays in Europe. My round trip tickets in the past six months have averaged about $400 to $425 to fly Bergen, Norway to San Francisco round trip in September 2015 twice, Stockholm to San Francisco at Thanksgiving 2015 (return segments to Stockholm are July 2016) and Amsterdam to Las Vegas twice this winter. I am racking up 25,000 AAdvantage miles too with each trip.
This Qantas Companion Sale AKL-LAX $666 USD per person tickets provides a benchmark to me for how low round trip airfare between Australia/New Zealand and the USA can be for cheap tickets. Tickets originating from LAX to Auckland are over $1,100+ USD round trip.
A couple can use miles for the one-way trip from the USA to New Zealand. Then, return from New Zealand to Los Angeles on Qantas paid $666 USD round trip tickets. Six to eight months later fly the Qantas ticket return portion to New Zealand. Fly back to the USA on miles.
The Qantas Companion Sale the next few days allows two people to travel to New Zealand for two trips in 2016 while spending only the miles for one round trip and paying a very low fare for the other round trip.
Loyalty Traveler curated Airfare Deals and Google Flights and Kayak Explore tutorials.
