How I Found Business Class Flights to New Zealand With Points

Updated: January 31, 2025, 8:30am CST

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Expert Tips for Scoring Award Seats to Australia or New Zealand
From the U.S. to New Zealand
From New Zealand to the U.S.
Final Thoughts

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Securing business class flights to Australia or New Zealand using points and miles can be challenging but not impossible. When my partner and I were invited to a wedding in Queenstown over a year in advance, I immediately started planning our trip — with the ultimate goal of flying business class with points and miles.

However, it wasn’t just about finding the award availability. Over the past year, I focused on building my mileage balance through various travel and airline credit cards. Since 2 premium cabin tickets often require hundreds of thousands of miles, I opened a couple of new credit cards to earn welcome bonus offers and optimized the earning potential of the cards already in my wallet.

Ultimately, I’ve made it work for us, but fair warning: It did require a great deal of flexibility to secure the necessary award space. I also remained open to the possibility of flying economy as a very last resort — though not ideal, it was something I could live with.

Here’s how I managed to pull it off.

Expert Tips for Scoring Award Seats to Australia or New Zealand

Planning your travels around award availability will always give you the best chance of finding tickets bookable with points and miles. However, we didn’t have that luxury for this trip, as our travel dates were fixed for specific dates this February. While we had some leeway to adjust our itineraries by a day or 2, we couldn’t accommodate any major shifts.

Here were the major takeaways from my booking experience.

1. Be Flexible and Creative

The nearest major airport to our final destination, Queenstown, is Auckland International Airport (AKL). Fortunately for us, airlines like American, Delta, and United have significantly increased their nonstop service to New Zealand over the past year.

My partner and I are based in Salt Lake City (SLC), giving us easy access to major gateway airports to Oceania: Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO). However, we didn’t limit our search strictly to flights from the U.S. to Auckland. Instead, we expanded our options to include cities in Australia, which significantly broadened the possibilities.

United Polaris Lounge EWR Image Credit John Gibson Level UP Travel — United offers many flights to Australia and New Zealand. Image Credit: John Gibson via Level UP Travel

This strategy meant we considered flights to Brisbane (BNE), Melbourne (MEL), and Sydney (SYD). Airlines operating these routes include American, Delta, and United, as well as Air New Zealand and Qantas.

Even so, I realized we needed to think even more creatively. While Oceania is a distant destination, we also considered flights to other stopovers along the way. This included routes from the U.S. to Tahiti (PPT) and Fiji (NAN) with carriers like Air France, Air Tahiti Nui, and Fiji Airways.

We set up alerts for all these routes, but the ultimate solution came when we explored another option: flights to Honolulu (HNL). That turned out to be the winner for us.

Hot Tip:

While I normally prefer nonstop flights, I don’t mind flying with a layover when it’s a notably long trip. I’ve found that booking intentional layovers allow you to break up the egregiously long flying time and minimize jet lag.

2. Use an Award Search Tool

We only used 1 award search tool to find us our ideal flights in the end: Seats.aero. I’ve been a Pro subscriber for a couple of years, and I love that I can set text or email alerts when it finds award space on my desired route.

Once we determined all of the possible routings that could get us to New Zealand, we set up award alerts on our desired travel dates. To make your life easier, you can look up “USA” to view flights from major U.S. airports and “ANZ” to find flights from any major airport in Australia or New Zealand on Seats.aero.

Seats Aero search — A sample Seats.aero search. Image Credit: Seats.aero

Another point of consideration: Business class award space tends to open up close in before departure. This could mean a few weeks or even a day before. Of course, there’s no guarantee that we would find business class flights — and thankfully we had backup tickets, as you’ll see below.

It wasn’t until roughly 3 to 4 weeks before our travel dates that we pieced together our ideal itinerary. A month leading up to our trip, I began to use Seats.aero every single morning to see the latest award availability. While I did have the alerts set up, I know that award availability can change very fast — especially in a matter of hours.

2. Book a Backup Flight

One amazing advantage of flights to Australia and New Zealand is that economy tickets are remarkably cheap when using points and miles. So our worst-case scenario was flying economy both ways to New Zealand. Although economy tickets were still over $1,000 in cash, we were able to use points and miles to cover that cost and secure confirmed round-trip flights for our desired travel dates.

Another perk of booking flights with points and miles is the flexibility. With most domestic airline programs, if you cancel a ticket, the miles are typically refunded to your account almost instantly.

With this in mind, we locked in American Airlines’ nonstop flights from Los Angeles to Auckland for 35,000 AAdvantage miles per person plus $40 in taxes and fees. For the return, we booked Delta’s nonstop flights from Auckland to Los Angeles for 26,000 Delta SkyMiles per person and $80 in taxes and fees.

It got even better — thanks to my Delta SkyMiles^® Platinum American Express Card, I receive a 15% discount on award tickets for Delta-operated flights. This brought the cost of the return flights down to just 22,000 miles per person!

Hot Tip:

When booking a backup flight, make it a habit to check if award rates have decreased. If they do, you can rebook the same flights and receive the mileage difference. For my Delta flights, the rates eventually dropped to 22,500 miles per person (before applying the 15% award discount from my credit card), allowing me to pay just 19,000 SkyMiles per person for these 13-hour flights!

From the U.S. to New Zealand

Our travels to Queenstown (ZQN) are spread out over the course of 4 days to break up the trip.

This trip kicks off at the Delta Sky Club in Salt Lake City (SLC). We’re flying nonstop to Honolulu (HNL) for just 27,600 miles and $5.60 in taxes and fees per ticket. Fortunately, we got upgraded to the Delta One cabin, as I redeemed 2 Regional Upgrade Certificates, which is a Choice Benefit of being a Platinum Medallion member. Not a bad deal for lie-flat seats during a 7.5-hour flight!

We’ll arrive in Hawaii that evening and get a 17-hour layover. For our overnight stay, we booked a room at the Hyatt Centric Waikiki Beach for 20,000 World of Hyatt points. Its central location will make it easy to explore the city center, grab an açai bowl, and soak up local vibes before heading back to the airport.

On Day 2, we’ll fly from Honolulu to Auckland on Hawaiian Airlines in the afternoon, a journey of about 9 hours. Though business class was sold out for this flight, I’m excited to experience a wide-body Hawaiian aircraft for the first time. Even better, the A330s are now equipped with free Starlink Wi-Fi, which I can’t wait to try out!

We booked this economy ticket using 44,000 Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles and $40 in taxes and fees per person. While it’s not our best redemption ever, we appreciated the non-red-eye timing and how well it fit into our schedule.

Hawaiian Airlines A330 200 landing LAX — What our sweet ride to Auckland will look like. Image Credit: Alberto Riva

Since we’ll lose nearly a full day flying to New Zealand, we’ll arrive in Auckland at 9 p.m. on Day 3 — just in time to head straight to bed. We booked a room at the Te Arikinui Pullman Auckland Airport hotel, conveniently right next to the international arrivals area, using my partner’s $300 Chase Travel credit from the Chase Sapphire Reserve^®. This ensures we’ll get a good night’s sleep before continuing to Queenstown the next morning.

On Day 4, we’ll take an early morning flight with Air New Zealand from Auckland to Queenstown, which cost us just $62.

Hot Tip:

We’ve racked up a healthy stash of Bilt Points by paying rent on my Bilt World Elite Mastercard^® Credit Card (up to 100,000 points in a calendar year). These points can be transferred instantly at a 1:1 ratio to the Alaska Mileage Plan, one of the most lucrative rewards programs out there!

From New Zealand to the U.S.

The journey home will be more straightforward than the trip there — but for me, it’s about the journey and the destination. We booked Qantas flights from Queenstown to Melbourne for under $200, which felt like a reasonable price for the 3-hour flight.

The flight arrives in Melbourne early, giving us almost a full day to explore and see my partner’s grandparents who live in the city. Then, the next day, we’ll plan to go to airport early to spend a few hours in Qantas’ International Business Lounge before our flight back to the U.S.

Roughly 3 weeks before the actual travel date, we were able to find (and book) Qantas business class award availability from Melbourne to Los Angeles for just 80,000 American Airlines miles and $80 in taxes and fees per person. A lie-flat bed for the 13-hour journey — especially on an Airbus A380 — will be a much-appreciated luxury.

Qantas A380 Business Class — The upper deck of the Airbus A380 is entirely business class in a 2-2-2 layout. Image Credit: Qantas

Finally, we booked our Delta Air Lines flight from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City for just 6,500 SkyMiles and $5.60 in taxes and fees per person. Thanks to the time zone difference, we’ll arrive in Salt Lake City on the same morning we depart from Queenstown — it’s like time traveling!

Final Thoughts

In total, we used more than 300,000 points and miles from various loyalty programs and paid $800 out of pocket for 2 round-trip itineraries. While that’s a significant amount of miles (and cash), I’m thrilled with our game plan — especially since we’re visiting New Zealand during peak summer on the exact dates we had wanted.

Although our final itinerary only came together a few weeks before departure, we have peace of mind knowing we have refundable backup flights in place. I don’t foresee planning another big trip like this for at least a year, but when the time comes, I’ll be ready to tackle the challenge of finding the perfect flights once again.