Non-stop New Zealand From Just $420 Roundtrip on American Airlines

by Gary Leff

A handful of dates in February and plenty of dates in March – still peak season – have the American Airlines non-stop flights between Los Angeles and Auckland, New Zealand pricing from $420 roundtrip.

Here’s the fare as seen at Momondo.com

Searching more conventional methods, avoiding ‘off brand’ online travel agency sites, brings up pricing of $509 which is broadly available in March.

Here’s details of a trip:

Key information about fare basis OLE08AN1:

  • Outbound travel permitted February 18 through March 28
  • 12 hour minimum stay, 6 month maximum stay
  • Tickets must be issued by December 31 but I can almost assure this fare will not be available until then
  • $200 fee for refunds, $100 fee for changes, but $500 fee if no show


    “Bayswater Marina Auckland New Zealand” by Bayswater marina, Creative Commons

This is an excellent opportunity to visit New Zealand at a bargain fare provided you’re amenable to making the journey in economy.

(HT: Nick Reyes)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. How much more uncomfortable are the American Airlines economy class seats going to be on this route than the seats AA used to have on its double aisle planes 15 years ago?

    The AA economy class discomfort level is at record highs nowadays, and it’s bad enough that people should give second thoughts on whether even to travel for leisure or other personal travel when it comes to flying for very long distance travel on AA planes.

    How much would AA have to pay you to fly on this plane on this route in economy class and do so roundtrip?

  2. “but $500 fee if no show”

    Is this actually enforced? I don’t ever recall seeing that in any fare deal?

  4. At these prices, I’d look for available upgrade award space. AA allows upgrades from just about any fare for 25,000 miles plus $350 one-way to/from NZ. Very reasonable but doesn’t allow regular members to search for space on website.

  5. Sounds like a great miles run to maintain elite status. Hey, wait, American Airlines is revenue based with revenue requirements for elite status. Pass. To be honest, American Airlines would have to pay me $500 (in cash) to get me on the plane. Competing on price alone is great is it not?

    Of course, American Airlines is glad to get rid of customers like me, that spend over $15,000 of my own money flying every year and flies well over 100,000 miles/year.

  7. While I’d love to visit NZ on the cheap I really don’t want a long AA flight to be mistreated on…

Comments are closed.