Just became APAC sales manager and find myself now rethinking putting all my flying through Qantas. Was previously mainly focused on OZ, now find myself looking at a lot more travel to APAC and based in NZ. Just hit Platinum with Qantas though so feels a bit mad to now try get the same with Air NZ.
So being based in Wellington am I going to be much better off focusing on Air NZ? Also love the idea of building status with Singapore maybe that's a better program and nicer aircraft. Just means obviously connecting in Changi for everything.
Wellington based so will always have to connect via AKL. I obviously have to always connect in SYD for most of my APAC flying now being Oneworld, so this would be a change for the better.
Tough one really. But if I were in your shoes I probably wouldn't stay with QF Platinum despite the benefits. I think you should possibly look at QF gold and VA gold? or NZ Elite.
NZ has I think a reasonable network to Asia, or go via SQ/SIN.
Is work paying for Y PE or J? Mainly on the 789 or 772
Combined with the cc you can work out easily enough if you'll hit Elite as that means upgrades
PE may be the sweet spot though where you get to travel in comfort.
You've probably got a reasonable chance of status matching to NZ Gold also rather than working up to it.
Your domestic flights would count for something at least.
You could fly SQ and credit to NZ still but at reduced amounts - you may not be happy.
QF - well, do you want to fly via Sydney? Will you still be travelling much to Oz?
I like their new J on the A330's. Is work paying for that or will you be using your points for upgrading? You'll be flying their 738's TT still though. Sydney is a bit of a hassle but if you're flying in and out of T1 then may not be so bad as transiting domestic. If you go through often I think the sheen of the F lounge will eventually wear off and you'll just view it as another lounge.
I think you can get Chc-Syd with EK under QF and into BKK? So not sure if that factors into your options. You still need to position WLG-CHC which is not much different from WLG -AKL but I think welly AKL is more frequent.
You could fly Cathay also? I guess look up the earn tables from QF.
SQ you can fly WLG-CBR-SIN in Sept? I think that's an A330 with angled J seats? Or position to CHC for the 777 or AKL for A380 during summer. If you're going to spend I think $25,000 then you'll make PPS. Not sure what KF gold is worth but doesn't get silverkris lounge at SIN. I'm guessing the A380 will have PE but apparently you can't upgrade to J from here.
Now.. you could get VA gold (or ?plat) and credit NZ flights to VA AND SQ AND VA to VA! Best of 3 worlds
There are a few fare classes domestic you can credit to VA but you'll have to look it up, I don't remember the letters. I think they equate to flexi and above fares though. But if you kept VA gold and QF gold that would sure leave you with some flexibility to fly the lot!!
In terms of upgrades with points though that would really be just VA metal. BUT... apparently you can transfer your VA points to KF 1.35 to 1 so you lose some but if you book redemptions online you get a 15% discount? I don't know what the chances are of upgrades if you're at the base level though on SQ. And the points expire after 3yrs, although you could transfer them back to VA but you lose on that transfer also.
They have family pooling so you could get to gold quicker.
Platinum you have to buy a flexi fare to use the upgrades which you can do on shorthaul international also.
VA has also partnered with Hainan? Airlines and so that may open up new routes into Asia. I think the details are still to be worked through.
I'd check out the lounges you have access to as well as it seems you'll be spending some time in them!
I think it depends on if you're still going to be travelling through Oz where either QF or VA would be useful. Although NZ koru and gold and above allows access to VA lounges but you can't earn SP on VA, only a few APD. And
NZs PE is pretty good, so if that's all work will pay for then that would heavily influence my decision because you know you're going to get comfort on all your routes to Asia rather than worrying about upgrades and points on QF because its J etc. (Barring Bali, MNL, Vietnam (but just matter of time before they say goodbye to all the 767s). Not sure if PE will be at better prices than QF J? but you could compare. I like the option of earning on VA but I'm just not sure about redemptions and having SQ limit upgrades from Y to PE and not to J (that's just from my skim reading, so I may be wrong on that but that's what I remember). I guess you can pool from AMEX and SPG to top up SQ also, or VA, NZ, QF (not SPG), EK etc
Time for you to get your calculator out!
