Options to Queenstown, NZ?

[MatF]

The Mrs and I are contemplating a couple of weeks in Queenstown and surrounds in January.

I'd probably like to fly on QF or a OneWorld partner, either to use some points or pay and earn some. I'm hoping for something more interesting than a QF B738 for the flight though. Would probably fly Y if we did go on a B738, but would consider going J on something with more J value.

Any other options? I don't really mind if it's direct to Queenstown or not (direct looks to limit choices), but don't really want to spend too many extra points or $$ than we need to.


Cheers,
Mat.

 

[rechoboam]

Why bother with J? It's not far. I don't know which planes but QF had no inflight IFE and NZ did, and was more comfortable and far more friendly. Queenstown is well below my own cutoff for J. Unless you need the SCs.

 

[samh004]

The JetConnect planes servicing NZ are the first to have IFE in every seat, so you might be lucky there, by January, but ZQN can only be serviced by A320's and 737's. You're not going to get bigger.

You could fly to AKL and then down, but you'd be effectively doubling your travel time.

 

[richie9x]

Normally are only two flights a day by QF and OW airlines from the east coast of Australia to New Zealand on planes bigger than 737s. They are QF114 and LAN800, both fly SYD to AKL. As far as Qantas/OW connection only Jetstar fly AKL to ZQN, however their flights leave early, so given the time difference you have no chance of making them. You would have to overnight in Auckland to do that. Although there are some Air NZ flights from AKL to ZQN that you could make the connection on.

Only recently ZQN got runway lights. And all airlines still seem to only fly there in daylight hours. So with the 2 hour time difference from the East cast of Australia making a international to domestic connection to ZQN can be difficult to achieve in a day.

I would just go with the SYD to ZQN direct flight on a 738. Keep things simple.

 

[docjames]

@richie9x it's the surrounding terrain that the issue, not runway lights.

@MatF - how about for something different fly into either of CHC or DUD and then drive up to queenstown. I drove DUD-ZQN one december and the scenery is amazing, and it's only a few hours.

Agree with others - if you're not interested in flying 737s or 320s, NZ isnt the place to go!

Another alternative would be ANZ on (iirc an ATR) from CHC (or other) so you could fly QF to CHC then AirNZ to ZQN. mrsdoc did this to meet me in ZQN (she was flying in from Aus, I was driving up from DUD after a two week stay there).

 

[FSM-2024]

If you decide to fly QF from ZQN back to AUS make sure you book it via QF's NZ booking engine (admittedly you can't book AUS - ZQN through Qantas NZ). The currency exchange and the overall price is a lot better through qantas.co.nz

 

[Princess Fiona]

Hi MatF, we have done all of the options suggested above and have now settled on the QF afternoon flight SYD-AKL, as Sam says the Jet Connect 73H is reasonable especially row 4 ( can pre-select as WP). We overnight in AKL, near airport as Taxi fare into CBD is outrageous, and use FF points to go on JQ to ZQN next morning.
The flight back to SYD can be done easily in one day with a few hours to spend in the AKL F Lounge.
Our last trip home made even better by an op-up at the gate

 

[lsmi4126]

For something more interesting - i've done SYD - CHC on EK A340 (now a B777 I believe) and then JetConnect (B734) to ZQN - it's been a few years though. The EK flight was offensively early, but the layover in CHC wasn't too long. Not sure if the connection will work with the JQ schedule to ZQN though.