Find the Cheapest Flights in New Zealand & Abroad
Updated 3rd July 2010
Other pages of interest:
Round the World Flight Advice
Flying within Europe? Find the Cheapest way to fly
How to Save on Duty Free Shopping in NZ
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Booking Flights in New Zealand
High Street Travel Agents
There are a number of travel agents to choose from in New Zealand:
FlightCentre 0800 243544
Best only due to their "LOW PRICE PROMISE: if you find a cheaper price we'll will beat it!"
Their website is poor as doesn't display prices for specific dates.
If you visit them in store make sure you ask for the cheapest flight price if that is what you want.
Some people prefer to search online first.
The best online sites:
Mixandmatch Flight Booking service from House of Travel
MixandMatch allows you to book flights with one airline flying out but return with another airline.
We have advised for some time that this can be the cheapest way to travel as one airline may not be the cheapest airline in both directions on a return flight.
This site allows you to compare flight prices to see which are the cheapest flights overall for a return flight. This makes it much easier to compare prices rather than you having to do it yourself.
They do obviously charge you for this service which is where House of Travel make their money
Charges are
$4.95 per person for domestic NZ booking
$9.95 per person for international book for Australia & South Pacific Bookings
$24.95 per person for all other international bookings.
You can always get round these charges by using this service to find the cheapest deals and then going to the airlines and book it yourself.
Best to find deals online:
Webjet.co.nz
This site is great if you're heading off to OZ, NZ or Pacific Islands as you can check best prices for each day of the month all listed on one page rather than having to check each individual date.
This makes it much quicker to check the best deal.
NOTE: they only offer flights to OZ with a limited number of airlines: Air New Zealand, Jetstar, Pacific Blue, Emirates & Qantas.
ALWAYS check out expedia link below to find other airlines flying the same route that aren't listed on webjet.
How to find the best deals on Webjet:
1. Hover the cursor over Australia Specials then a drop down menu appears.
2. Click on the city you want to travel to or Map View to show all the main cities in Australia.
3. Select the month you want to travel
4. It will display the all airlines they search with the best prices.
You can also do this for NZ Domestic Specials & Pacific Island flight specials.
Other worthy sites:
Have great deals on Flights, exclusive deals on Hotels & Special Car rental rates
Cheap Domestic flights in New Zealand
There are 3 airlines now flying domestically in New Zealand.
Air New Zealand, Pacific Blue & Jetstar.
Air New Zealand
Includes free 25kg baggage limit within New Zealand
Jetstar
BASIC FARE ONLY CARRY ON LUGGAGE, ADD $10 for 20kg baggage allowance.
Flies to Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington & Queenstown.
Pacific Blue BASIC FARE ONLY CARRY ON LUGGAGE, ADD $10 for 23kg baggage allowance.
Flies to Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Queenstown & Dunedin. They also fly out of Hamilton to Brisbane.
Jetstar & Pacific Blue have brought some needed competition to the market and are aggressively competing with Air New Zealand on price.
Jetstar launched with $5 flights and then Air New Zealand's grabaseat competing at $3!! Only when they see competition do they lower their prices.
Jetstar is continuing to offer specials in its Jetstar Friday frenzy, Air New Zealand with its Grabaseat daily special offer site & Pacific Blue is offering Happy Hour each day.
Domestic Specials in NZ (very limited specials, can last minutes!)
Air New Zealand Grabaseat
Grabaseat is an excellent site for very limited special deals updated daily for flights within NZ & occasionally internationally. They have offered $13 one way specials to Oz, Fiji & Cook Islands in the past!
Pacific Blue Happy Hour
Less well known than GrabaSeat but still offers NZ domestic specials every day between 12-1pm NZ time
Jetstar's Friday Frenzy
Flights are reduced on some routes on Fridays after 4pm.
Air New Zealand's Special pages:
Air New Zealand Specials Page Current specials to international destinations
Air New Zealand: How far can you go
if you have a set budget it can tell you where you can go for that amount of money.
International flights from New Zealand
The easiest way to book an international flight is to go to your local travel agent. However this may not be the cheapest way. Searching online can reassure you sometimes that you can't find a better deals there.
So here are lots of tips & numerous sites to check out prices & the competition!
- It's usually cheaper to buy direct from the airline (If it's a Direct return eg Auckland- London - Auckland with no stopovers you can often find better deals online).
- If you have lots of stopovers or a complicated itinerary go to a travel agent. Most online sites don't have the facilities to book complicated stopovers (except Air New Zealand's excellent site).
The following sites compare flight prices in one place to make it easier for you. You can then avoid the booking fee by booking direct with the airline should you want to do this.
MixandMatch.co.nz
Often have good deals on flights, hotels & car rental!
TIPS:
A Two one-way fares maybe cheaper than a return. eg Fly out on Air NZ but fly back with Emirates.
House of Travel is particularly good at this as they can allow you to fly back on a different airline if it is cheaper.
I would usually compare at least 2-3 sites before booking to check their aren't any cheaper deals.
ie It maybe cheaper to fly out Air New Zealand and fly back Emirates.
It may work out cheaper than booking return with Air New Zealand.
Jetabroad is a site which showing supposedly recently booked deals. It may show some offers you may not have heard about. You can then take this to your travel agent to see if they can get this offer.
Jetabroad allow you to put in departure & destination & find what they think is the best deal recently been booked.
Note: Not all travel agents have the same flight deals, so always check around.
For Example:
House of Travel may not have the Korean Airlines earlybird special but may have the Royal Brunei special. They recommend Royal Brunei as its the cheapest they have. You book this thinking this is the cheapest only to find the Korean Air offer in the window at another travel agent!
Moral of the story: Always get quotes from a few different travel agents/companies before you finally book!
Flights to Australia from NZ
There are a few airlines you may not realise fly to Australia as they fly on to further countries. Ie Royal Brunei, Lan Chile, Aerolineas Argentinas all fly to Australia.
Remember you must search the low cost budget airlines as well, as they are often excluded by the big travel agents sites or at their stores! Mix and Match seems to be the best at find both the Budget Airlines eg Pacific Blue & Jetstar but also Lan Chile etc as above.
The main budget airlines flying from New Zealand to Australia:
Pacific Blue Flies Auckland Direct to Brisbane, Gold Coast. Melbourne & Sydney. It also flies direct to Pacific Islands: Rarotonga, Samoa & Tonga
Christchurch: Direct to Brisbane & Melbourne & Sydney
Hamilton: Direct to Brisbane & Sydney
Wellington: Direct to Brisbane & Sydney
Dunedin: Direct to Brisbane
Queenstown: Direct to Sydney
It has just announce direct flights from Auckland to Cairns from 23rd March 2010
Jetstar
Flying to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast.
Bases in Auckland & Christchurch.
Cheap Domestic flights deals within Australia
Flying domestically within Australia, flights prices can be compared at:
(remember they often charge a booking fee!)
Only WebJet currently compares Tiger Airlines (which is often the cheapest) but they charge a hefty booking fee unlike Expedia, which doesn't charge any booking fees.
Cheapest domestic airlines in OZ:
Tiger Airlines
Often the cheapest in OZ & usually not shown on main travel websites. Competes strongly as its a new airline in OZ (budget division of Singapore Airlines) Operates to & from Melbourne to most major destinations.
Flown by a member of KiwiMoneySavers, with good service.
Virgin Blue
Daily specials Happy hour( 2-3pm NZ time) & frequent OZ based specials
Jetstar
They have frequent OZ Based specials on their site.
Note their "Double the difference" guarantee only applies if booking through call centre not internet based!
Cheaper flights from Australia to New Zealand (note prices in AU$)
TIP:
A little known fact is it can be cheaper to book a one way flight from New Zealand to Australia and then buying a One Way flight from an Australian site than booking a return to & from New Zealand. This is particularly the case when some airlines have a special on one ways to eg Sydney, but what they don't tell you is that it is the full price back!
For example say Air NZ has a special one way Auckland to Sydney but no special returning. Air New Zealand's or Qantas' Australian site may have an offer to come back from Sydney to Auckland.
You can see if there is a One Way Special from Australia to New Zealand by looking at:
Webjet.com.au Specials to compare all flights from Australia.
Also offer domestic OZ flights & flight deals from OZ to NZ.
Travelzoo Australia
Offers to send a weekly email of the best Australian Travel Deals for hotels & flight deals.
For the Current exchange check out: BNZ FX Calculator
International Flight Tips
You can fly into one place and out of another. eg Into London but out of Rome. It saves alot of time and means you don't have to fly back from London if you're going round Europe.
If flying to Europe check out Round the World Fares. They are often similar in price to a straight return to Europe and means you can often get free stopovers on the way there or back. Or just recover a little from jetlag by having a stopover on the way!
If you are going overseas such as UK or Europe and are making a domestic transfer, it can sometimes be worth looking at local airline sites (ie British Airways in UK or BMI in UK) as they are often cheaper than booking all the way through with Air New Zealand or Qantas.
Eg Fly Auckland to Manchester in the UK. Air NZ can be up to NZ$350 extra return to fly to Manchester rather than London. Then check flights on British Airways Or BMI UK website and can be from as little as $180 return, a saving of $170!
However it does means having to check in again in London with bags which you often have to do anyway when flying with Air NZ or Qantas as you fly a different airline once at destination country for domestic transfer.
NOTE: Remember to check your baggage allowance as this can vary depending on who you fly with.
The Air NZ flight to UK via USA- 46kg baggage allowance. But only 20kg on UK domestic flight London to Manchester, ouch!) Still it was still over 200 NZ dollars cheaper so was worth doing as I was only carrying 20kg allowance anyway.
Remember flying via USA & South America from NZ often gives you much larger baggage allowance than flying via Asia to Europe, but always check with the airline first that this is still the case, so you don't get charged that huge excess baggage charges!
Tell us about any flight deals you have seen on our forum here