Air NZ flight query Perth to Los Angelas via Auckland

[Dawn1004]

Hi there

I have been checking regularly the availability and pricing of an Air New Zealand flight Perth to Los Angelas (with the stopover in Auckland).

My dates I key in are always 15 April 2015 and returning 19 May 2015, travelling Prem Econ on the two flights and for three adults.

Originally I was getting good pricing and flight information - why haven't I booked yet you may ask.. just waiting on hubby's holidays being approved before I purchase the tickets.

So yesterday I pop onto the Air NZ website and now I have an issue getting information for the above dates, tried again last night and also this morning, and all times getting strange info. Screen pops up to say no availability on any week day flight, and only flights on Saturday, and that includes a stopover at the Cook Islands and that shows only economy available for the Perth leg, and prem econ kicking in on the longer LA flight.

However, if I change my flight details to Perth to San Francisco and return - same dates, I get the choice of two flights - and you guess it they have a flight from Perth to Auckland, with stopover, and then a flight Auckland to Los Angelas (all Air NZ) and then either a direct flight on ANZ or United Los Angelas to San Fran) - with prem econ available for all legs (bar the LA to SFO leg).

Why would this be happening? If the flights are leaving Perth to Auckland and then to LA for a San Francisco trip, why are the options not available for Perth to Auckland to LA?

If I try for individual flights - I can get a Prem Econ Perth to Auckland on the 15th April and I can also get Prem Econ flights Auk to LA (on 16th). But this works out to be more expensive than booking the flights together.

I'm hoping it's just a quirk in the system at the moment. Just wondering if anyone knows the reason for this.. or if they have had issues too?

Thanking you in advance.

 

[serfty]

Have you checked fare bucket availability using flight stats or expert flyer?

Maybe there is different availability for PER-LAX when compared with PER-AKL and AKL-LAX and the the buckets for PER-LAX have sold out.

 

[Jurahn]

That's really peculiar - I just had a look on the Air NZ website and tried putting in those dates in Economy, PE and Business PER-LAX return, and sure enough, it only shows outbound flights on a Saturday and no availability in ANY class on any other day of the week. As you said, if you change the destination to SFO, it then shows the flights you mentioned. Or at least it did - I went back into the website to have another look, and the second time selected PER-SFO and it showed a message saying there were NO flights available the week including 15 April!

I would assume it's a glitch on the website, they're possibly in the process of loading new schedules or maybe new sale fares and the website's having a bit of a hissy in the meantime? I'd try it again tomorrow and if the same thing happens, give Air NZ a call and see if they can tell you what's going on!

ETA - it currently shows the same thing on the flight timetables - i.e. that there's only outbound PER-LAX flights on Saturdays - not only for that date in April, but also when checking dates back to late October this year, so something's not right somewhere ...