There is an opportunity with one way fares from Air New Zealand, Hawaiian, Qantas and United to discount the cost of travel to New Zealand and Australia through the use of miles one way and a one way paid ticket or creative ticketing to travel to Australia and New Zealand two times in 2018 for a few hundred dollars less than the average cost of two tickets between California and Australia-New Zealand.
There are many possible combinations for airline discounts with round trip tickets, one way tickets and miles. The basic premise is the price of tickets from Australia and New Zealand to California are lower than the price of tickets from California to Australia and New Zealand.
Right now the price difference is not extreme due to low priced round trip tickets from California to Australia and New Zealand for summer 2018. In past years the price of summer travel tickets tends to be over $1,000 and often in the $1,200 to $1,400 range.
Sample ticket prices for 2018 travel:
Round Trip Tickets between California and New Zealand
- SYD-SFO $644 Fiji Airways round trip (Feb-June)
- SYD-SFO $754 Air New Zealand round trip (Jan-Aug)
- SYD-SFO $1,023 Cathay Pacific round trip (Jan-Oct)
- SFO-SYD $759 China Southern round trip (March-April)
- SFO-SYD $847 Air New Zealand round trip (Jan-June 15)
- SFO-SYD $948 Air New Zealand (July-Aug)
- SFO-SYD $949 American round trip (July-Aug)
- SFO-AKL $845 Air New Zealand round trip (Feb-Oct)
- AKL-SFO $599 Fiji Airways round trip (Jan-May limited dates)
- AKL-SFO $702 Qantas round trip (Jan-Oct)
- AKL-SFO $751 United Airlines round trip (Jan-Sep)
One Way Tickets between California and New Zealand
-
- SFO-AKL $381 Hawaiian one way (Feb-May)
- SFO-SYD $732 Air New Zealand one way (Feb-Sep)
- AKL-SFO $343 Qantas one way (Aug)
- AKL-SFO $364 Qantas one way (Jan-July)
- AKL-SFO $378 United/Air New Zealand one way (Jan-Sep)
One Way tickets between Australia and New Zealand
-
- AKL-SYD $115 LATAM/Qantas one way (Feb-Oct)
- AKL-SYD $136 Jetstar one way (Feb-Oct)
- SYD-AKL $136 Jetstar one way (March-Sep)
Round Trip tickets between Australia and New Zealand
-
- SYD-AKL $255 round trip Air New Zealand/Virgin Australia
(Feb-Sep) -
- AKL-SYD $335 round trip Air New Zealand (Feb-Sep)
- SYD-AKL $255 round trip Air New Zealand/Virgin Australia
These fares interest me after I purchased a 4-night stay for $100 at Marriott Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia a couple weeks ago in an auction. Australia is in my plans for 2018 travel.
I am thinking about flying two times in spring and summer to spend 5 or 6 weeks in Australia and New Zealand and using miles for my wife’s ticket in summer, primarily focused on Australia travel. Kelley adores the wildlife of Australia.
These fares are my baseline for tracking airfare prices through 2018.
Air New Zealand
San Francisco – Sydney / Auckland – San Francisco
$909 open jaw round trip Mon July 16 – Tue July 31
Â
Â
2 Comments
Comments are closed.