Continental / Air New Zealand to Codeshare

[kiwial]

NZPA | Friday April 9, 2010 - 01:55pm

Air New Zealand and Continental Airlines have started a reciprocal code share agreement, providing Air NZ access to parts of the United States not previously available with current partners.

Under code sharing agreements airlines can sell tickets on flights operated by other airlines.
Air NZ will code share on more than 540 flights per week to and from Continental Airlines' main hubs serving Houston, New York and Cleveland.

The code share will complement existing arrangements with fellow Star Alliance partners United Airlines and US Airways.

Continental Airlines will code share on Air NZ's trans-Pacific services, trans-Tasman, domestic and Auckland to Hong Kong service.

"This presents exciting inbound tourism opportunities for New Zealand, especially when you consider Continental is the world's fifth largest airline," said Air New Zealand group general manager Ed Sims.

"The new code share also provides excellent options for Kiwis wanting to travel to the East Coast of the US, with very convenient connection times to a range of Continental Airlines flights."

 

[clifford]

NZPA | Friday April 9, 2010 - 01:55pm

Air New Zealand and Continental Airlines have started a reciprocal code share agreement, providing Air NZ access to parts of the United States not previously available with current partners.

Not sure what parts of the US aren't served by UA and US. Just marketing speak...

 

[kiwial]

Not sure what parts of the US aren't served by UA and US. Just marketing speak...

One would suspect that there would be more direct flights from LAX and SFO to the CO hubs and some other destinations, rather than hubbing with UA and US to get to these locations.

Of more importance is the inbound traffic NZ will pickup from CO passengers, plus some outbound to HKG to connect with CO flights.

 

[trooper]

I'm sitting in the Presidents club at IAH right now.... on my first CO flights since they joined *A..

(My first flights with them at all were 2 weeks before the joining date....)

...and if all the President clubs are like this one then I'll be quite keen to fly on CO where possible, rather than on UA/US....only domestic lounge I've ever been in in the US where the booze is complimentary.... Not a deal breaker of course but a nice touch.

More opportunities to have ONE ticket are welcome too of course... and with friends in Ohio CO is a logical choice! Pretty impressed with them so far....

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I wonder what kind of fare structure you would get on an NZ codeshare flight though?

You may be better off booking your internal flights directly on the CO website so that way you'd be able to access the seat map for seat selection etc plus save dollars & just purchase the NZ fare to the West Coast only.

Wonder if you do book under the NZ flight number if you would still get a free baggage allowance of 2 pieces vs paying US20.00 approx per bag.

I note that if you are *A Gold member you get priority boarding on CO flights.

FWIW I rated CO & DL f/a's the best out of the 6 airlines I flew on last year in the US.

Cheers

Oz