Earning Elite miles with Air NZ

[NoChanceToDance]

Dear all,

Planning a flight from Perth the NZ next month and was wondering if (being an elite gold member with SQ) I'd earn elite miles when travelling on ANZ in economy?

The other option is Virgin Australia.


Any help would be much appreciated.

[sushiinSYD]

Hope you would not mind my asking, as I am just curious to know, when you have earned elite miles flying in economy with SQ?

[ycp81]

Refer to Krisflyer's accrual chart on *Alliance airlines. The number of elite miles depends on the fare class. I had 100% elite miles accrued on Krisflyer when I flew on Turkish economy class.

[SQflyergirl]

In economy be aware that with Air New Zealand Trans-tasman - when you book, the service level and flexibility are sold separately.

To explain:

There are 4 "service levels" in Y - Seat, Bag+Seat, Works and Works Deluxe, each of them going up in price, but having more benefits.

Seat is just a seat, no meal, no IFE.
Works deluxe on the other hand includes bags, meals, on A320's, a seat with a blocked middle, on 772/773 - a seat in the premium economy zone.

This paradigm is known "seats to suit".

At the same time, there are two levels of flexibility: Flexi and Saver, (Flexi being refundable)

This means in total there are 8 possible combinations (4 seats to suit X 2 levels of flex) you can choose from.

From my observation:

All the booking codes within the saver group are the same (whichever code is available at the time), regardless of which of the 4 seats to suit you choose, and these saver fares are generally NOT earning on most Star alliance FFP's except NZ's own*

Same goes for the flexi group - all 4 levels of "seats to suit" carry the same booking code and ARE generally earning across most Star Alliance programs, including Krisflyer.

This means that a seat only fare (lowest of the 4 service levels) BUT booked in flexi , will earn on Krisflyer

whereas

A Works Deluxe ticket (Highest of the 4 seats to suit) BUT booked in Saver, will NOT earn.

I've found the price difference between flex and saver generally too great to bother with the miles I'd earn, and prefer to keep the money instead

[sushiinSYD]

My apologies. I totally mixed up with PPS for some reason, and I do not know why... So sorry.

[KeithMEL]

Just to clarify, you're wanting to earn KrisFlyer Elite Miles?

If so you will only be able to earn KF Elite Miles on VA metal when purchased as a codeshare flight marketed with a SQ flight number. For all intents and purposes, this means your VA flight needs to form part of a SQ long haul itinerary as I don't believe you can purchase a standalone SQ*VA sector on VA's domestic or international short haul network.

Verbiage on the SQ website:

(1) For Virgin Australia: Only applicable for Singapore Airlines codeshare flights operated by Virgin Australia within Australia, Trans-Tasman and between Australia and the Pacific Islands.

If you travel on the VA prime flight number you'll only be able to earn redeemable miles. You'll still receive your KF Gold status benefits though.

[NoChanceToDance]

Thanks for the response, guys.

It really does seem to be very confusing with ANZ with the shorter trans-tasman routes. I used them flying to LAX last year and earned KF Elite Miles, and thought the same would apply here but everything I've read suggests not.

I'll keep looking.

[SQ228]

Thanks for the response, guys.

It really does seem to be very confusing with ANZ with the shorter trans-tasman routes. I used them flying to LAX last year and earned KF Elite Miles, and thought the same would apply here but everything I've read suggests not.

I'll keep looking.

I'll be very interested to know what eventually happens. If ever I fly to the US, I have always thought I would use NZ from the point of view of KF accrual.