Cheapest way to fly to New Zealand?

[TheCrackedJack]

So I've been wanting to go there for a long time now. I've been checking fares though and Air New Zealand is showing the cheapest fare to be 1,200 and that's just from LA. These would be dates between Nov. 06 and May 07. I'm not too picky on the dates. Figure at least 300 to LA from NY and your talking 1,500 just to get there. I'd really only like to spend 1k. Is this asking to much?

Any suggestions on maybe a package or something. Maybe something similar to what Icelandair does or something. I've got some great deals from them in particular. To bad they don't fly to NZ:laugh:

 

[DAGTA]

I am curious to see the responses to this, too.

 

[Mill]

If you could get it for less than 1000 I'd be shocked.

 

[Cristatus]

The best thing to do would be to do it over a couple of flights.

Direct flights are going to be more expensive.

Why not just ask a travel agent for quotes, and tell them that you don't neccesarily need to fly directly. Take the route they give you, and then see if you can get it for cheaper, otherwise buy it from them.

Less than 1000 would be a bit more difficult from the US, but from here to Austria, and then to Italy (I think) and then on to Australia is ~1300 EUR (which is ~1700 USD).

 

[oDii]

Why do you want to come to New Zealand? The natives are going to be even more grumpy and surly than normal as their queen just died...

I'd avoid coming until they have something else slightly less signifcant than that to be generally nasty about (maybe another debate about land rights)?

 

[chowderhead]

use something like kayak.com which metasearches all the airlines, travelsites, etc. You can get a 1-stop ticket for about $1200 going from JFK to LAX to AKL using early Nov 2006 and coming back in early May 2007 going on Delta and Qantas. If you aren't picky, you could try priceline and enter a $750-800 bid and see if you get any nibbles. If you are a student, try one of the student travel sites like STA or that other one.
Trips to Australia or NZ are usually pretty pricey given the distance and the target customer (tourists). Good luck.

 

[SOSTrooper]

2nd day yourself thru FedEx. Make sure you watch Cast Away beforehand just in case.

 

[TheCrackedJack]

Originally posted by: chowderhead
use something like kayak.com which metasearches all the airlines, travelsites, etc. You can get a 1-stop ticket for about $1200 going from JFK to LAX to AKL using early Nov 2006 and coming back in early May 2007 going on Delta and Qantas. If you aren't picky, you could try priceline and enter a $750-800 bid and see if you get any nibbles. If you are a student, try one of the student travel sites like STA or that other one.
Trips to Australia or NZ are usually pretty pricey given the distance and the target customer (tourists). Good luck.

thanks, I actually didn't know about kayak.com
It's just frustrating, because I was seeing fares from JKF to Tokyo for only 750 RT. It's such a comparable distance, yet NZ is almost twice the expense. Maybe its trying to tell me to go to Japan.

 

[Cattlegod]

check landing in sydney first, then to nz

 

[Firebot]

Originally posted by: TheCrackedJack

Originally posted by: chowderhead
use something like kayak.com which metasearches all the airlines, travelsites, etc. You can get a 1-stop ticket for about $1200 going from JFK to LAX to AKL using early Nov 2006 and coming back in early May 2007 going on Delta and Qantas. If you aren't picky, you could try priceline and enter a $750-800 bid and see if you get any nibbles. If you are a student, try one of the student travel sites like STA or that other one.
Trips to Australia or NZ are usually pretty pricey given the distance and the target customer (tourists). Good luck.

thanks, I actually didn't know about kayak.com
It's just frustrating, because I was seeing fares from JKF to Tokyo for only 750 RT. It's such a comparable distance, yet NZ is almost twice the expense. Maybe its trying to tell me to go to Japan.

It's not comparable at all actually. Japan is in the northern hemisphere while New Zealand is in the southern hemisphere. It's a good 1/3 longer.

 

[Whitecloak]

wax wings.

 

[fbrdphreak]

I really don't think you'll be able to. The only money you're going to save is in getting to LA. You pretty much have to fly from LA into NZ and where you can maybe save some money depending where in NZ you land, but doubtful. My gf's Mom lives there, they've flown back and forth several times. I think $1200 is a pretty good price for that

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: Whitecloak
wax wings.

That would probably be the most cost effective... just not particularly fast.
Oh, and don't fly too close to the sun!