New Flights from New Zealand to Argentina… with China Eastern?!

Direct flights between New Zealand and Argentina will return in December 2025, with a surprising airline launching an Auckland-Buenos Aires route.

China Eastern is poised to launch flights from Shanghai to Buenos Aires via Auckland. It intends to operate this as a fifth-freedom flight, with tickets available for sale between Auckland and Buenos Aires.

Air New Zealand had served the Auckland-Buenos Aires route with Boeing 777s from 2015 until 2020. Before that, Aerolíneas Argentinas had operated it using Airbus A340s. (That flight even continued from Auckland to Sydney.)

About China Eastern’s Auckland-Buenos Aires flights

China Eastern plans to launch this route in December 2025. We don’t yet know the exact schedule, and tickets aren’t yet available for sale.

We do know already that China Eastern intends to use a Boeing 777-300ER for this flight. This aircraft has First, Business and Economy Class seating. It will run twice per week.

Shanghai and Buenos Aires are almost antipodes, meaning they are on almost exact opposite sides of the world from each other. The most direct route between the two cities would be right over the South Pole, but the Auckland stopover is still a very efficient way to make the journey. It’s slightly shorter than a route via South Africa or the United States.

The New Zealand government recently made it easier for Chinese citizens to transit internationally in New Zealand. This may have helped sway China Eastern to consider Auckland as its stopover point for this flight.

This will be China Eastern’s second fifth-freedom route out of Auckland. It already flies between Sydney and Auckland twice weekly with Airbus A330s. This is a popular route for its cheap tickets in both Economy and Business, as well as its convenient schedule.

More competition between Oceania and South America

Currently, partner airlines Qantas and LATAM are the only operators between Australia, New Zealand and South America. Airfares are typically quite high, reflecting the strong demand and limited supply on this route.

LATAM and Qantas are adding extra flights over the upcoming peak summer period. But they’ve effectively had a duopoly on direct services ever since Air New Zealand abandoned its Buenos Aires route.

Will you be able to redeem Qantas Points for this flight?

Qantas and China Eastern are partner airlines, so you can earn Qantas Points for China Eastern flights.

Technically, you should also be able to redeem Qantas Points on China Eastern. But China Eastern Classic Reward seats disappeared from the Qantas website last year, and still haven’t come back yet.

In theory, you can still book Classic Rewards on China Eastern by calling Qantas. But in our members’ experience, that’s easier said than done.

Even if you can’t use Qantas Points to book a seat on this route, China Eastern often has quite competitive airfares.

As it’s a SkyTeam member airline, you could also redeem points with a program such as Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, Delta SkyMiles or Air France/KLM Flying Blue. China Eastern also now partners with Etihad. You can redeem Etihad Guest miles with the Chinese carrier.

Both Virgin Atlantic and Etihad and transfer partners of American Express Membership Rewards.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to more than 100 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.