My Kids Points are expiring

[andyperth]

Hi All.

I have two Kids (15 and 17yrs)...both have 13,434 points that are due to expire in November along with their Krisflyer accounts.
We live in Perth and I have around 120,000 points in my account.
As I understand it, 25,000 points will buy a return direct flight to Auckland NZ with Air New Zealand through Star Alliance partnership.
Is there anyway using Redemption nominees for example that I can pool our points(please detail steps to take)? Can flights be booked online or do I need to phone Krisflyer?(ie can I save 15%)
If we want to go around Easter 2017, should I be looking now or is it already too late? How can I easily determine if Award flights are available on Air NZ for given dates?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

 

[dajop]

A few points re booking flight to AKL with NZ:
- You can't pool points, you can however book one ways (at half the cost of return), so could book one way for each from their account and return sectors from your account
- You can't book star alliance awards online, need to call, so no 15% online booking discount applies
- Easter is always difficult ... good luck

Another option for preserving (and combining) the points is to open a Velocity account in your children's names and transfer them to Velocity. 13,434 will transfer to give 9951 velocity points. You can do family transfer to combine them, these don't expire but you do need activity on the account every 2 years IIRC to keep the points alive.

 

[andyperth]

A few points re booking flight to AKL with NZ:
- You can't pool points, you can however book one ways (at half the cost of return), so could book one way for each from their account and return sectors from your account
- You can't book star alliance awards online, need to call, so no 15% online booking discount applies
- Easter is always difficult ... good luck

Another option for preserving (and combining) the points is to open a Velocity account in your children's names and transfer them to Velocity. 13,434 will transfer to give 9951 velocity points. You can do family transfer to combine them, these don't expire but you do need activity on the account every 2 years IIRC to keep the points alive.

Thanks for the superfast response. That's the trouble with kids... difficult to find seats in hols...schools frown on holidays taken in school time! Whats a good way to find award seats ahead of making the call pls? Nice tip re: Velocity.:idea:

 

[dajop]

Whats a good way to find award seats ahead of making the call pls?

Try United (don't need to be a member, can look up award availablity online), but not sure how accurate they reflect availablity on NZ, other options are (requiring you to join up - although for free) either ANA Mileage Club, Air Canada Aeroplan or Avianca life miles.

 

[JohnK]

Another option is to transfer Amex MR points to your kids' accounts. It is quite possible to do if the surnames match but comes with a little bit of risk.

 

[andyperth]

One more question on this thread.... Other than PER-AKL on NZ... can anyone tell me what other flights I could book EX- PER with 13,434 points? ( ie Any other Star Alliance flight options- one leg with potential availability)

 

[Mattg]

Try United (don't need to be a member, can look up award availablity online), but not sure how accurate they reflect availablity on NZ, other options are (requiring you to join up - although for free) either ANA Mileage Club, Air Canada Aeroplan or Avianca life miles.

In my experience, the United website shows accurate NZ availability. The trouble is that there's barely any of it.

 

[andye]

A few points re booking flight to AKL with NZ:
- You can't pool points, you can however book one ways (at half the cost of return), so could book one way for each from their account and return sectors from your account
- You can't book star alliance awards online, need to call, so no 15% online booking discount applies
- Easter is always difficult ... good luck

Another option for preserving (and combining) the points is to open a Velocity account in your children's names and transfer them to Velocity. 13,434 will transfer to give 9951 velocity points. You can do family transfer to combine them, these don't expire but you do need activity on the account every 2 years IIRC to keep the points alive.

If you do decide to transfer to Velocity, you could set up family pooling in advance so that they all end up in one account without the need to do family transfers (though not a big issue given the points balance is a reasonable amount)

 

[andyperth]

If you do decide to transfer to Velocity, you could set up family pooling in advance so that they all end up in one account without the need to do family transfers (though not a big issue given the points balance is a reasonable amount)

Thanks Andye- this is the path I took in the end. I will save my Krisflyer points for upgrades and use these transfers towards an Aussie trip with VA. Its a shame that Star Alliance is so limited within Australia.