Air New Zealand Airpoints Award Booking Instructions

Airpoints is the frequent flyer program of Air New Zealand, the country’s flag carrier and the largest airline headquartered in New Zealand. This program operates a little differently than most other frequent flyer programs in that it rewards members with Airpoints Dollars, which are worth exactly 1 New Zealand Dollar (which is worth about 57 cents at the current conversion rate) when redeemed for award flights on Air New Zealand (whereas most other frequent flyer programs issue points that are worth about 1 cent apiece).

Nonetheless, you can sometimes find outsized-value redemptions when spending Airpoints Dollars on partner award flights, so this program is worth paying attention to for savvy award travelers.

Air New Zealand is a member of Star Alliance, which means that members can both earn and redeem Airpoints Dollars (the currency of the Airpoints program) with any other Star Alliance airline, including Air Canada, United Airlines and many more. Air New Zealand is also a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards in Australia. So, if you happen to live in Australia, then you have the option to convert Amex points and instantly boost your Airpoints Dollars balance.

Then, once you accumulate some Airpoints Dollars, you’ll want to know how to spend them on flights with Air New Zealand and its partner airlines. So, in this article, we’re going to explain the step-by-step process of booking award flights through the Airpoints program. We’ll also cover how to join the program and how to quickly earn Airpoints Dollars.

Joining Air New Zealand Airpoints

Before you can start earning or redeeming Airpoints Dollars, you’ll need to be a member of the Air New Zealand Airpoints program. To enroll in the program, visit the Air New Zealand website and click the “Sign up” button in the top-right corner of the homepage.

Once you do so, you’ll be asked to enter some personal information to create your account, including your title, name, date of birth, country of residence, home address and phone number. After you’ve correctly entered that information, click the “Continue” button at the bottom of the page.

Next, you’ll be asked to verify your phone number by entering a verification code, which can be sent to you via SMS or WhatsApp. You’ll then need to accept the program terms and conditions and confirm your enrollment.

Finally, you’ll receive an activation email and you’ll need to click on the “Activate account” button to complete your account activation.

We also recommend writing down your account number somewhere so you won’t forget it, as you’ll need it to log in and to earn Airpoints Dollars in the future.

How to Earn Air New Zealand Airpoints Dollars

Before you can start purchasing award flights through the Airpoints program, you’ll first need to have some Airpoints Dollars in your account. The minimum price for a partner-operated award flight through this program (according to the Airpoints partner award chart) is 125 Airpoints Dollars, which is enough for an economy-class flight with a distance of up to 999 miles on any Star Alliance airline. So, if you want to purchase a partner award flight, you’ll need to have at least 125 Airpoints Dollars in your account first.

There are many different ways to earn Airpoints Dollars through this program. However, not all of these earning methods are as effective as others. So, in the following sections, we’re going to highlight some of the most effective ways to earn Airpoints Dollars.

Flying with Air New Zealand and Airline Partners

Of course, you can earn Airpoints Dollars by taking paid flights on Air New Zealand. However, it’s difficult to understand Air New Zealand’s methodology for determining how many Airpoints Dollars you’ll earn on a specific flight. Luckily, if you want to know your potential earnings on any Air New Zealand-operated flight, you can use the Airpoints calculator tool on the Air New Zealand website.

With this tool, you can simply click on the “Air New Zealand” tab, enter the origin and destination of your flight, and you’ll be shown a range of potential Airpoints earnings in each fare class for your route. Your actual earnings will always fall somewhere in that range.

And, since Air New Zealand is a member of Star Alliance, you can also earn Airpoints Dollars on paid flights with any other member of Star Alliance. Here’s the current list of Star Alliance airlines:

Much like when flying with Air New Zealand, it’s difficult to understand exactly how the number of Airpoints Dollars you’ll earn on Star Alliance partner flights is calculated. So, the best way to find out what you could earn on a partner flight is to go to the Airpoints calculator tool on the Air New Zealand website, click on the “Partner Airline” tab, select the airline that you’ll be flying with and enter your flight information. This tool will tell you how many Airpoints Dollars you’ll earn in each booking class on that route.

Booking Hotel Stays

Another effective way to earn Airpoints Dollars is to book paid hotel stays with certain hotel partners. However, you should be aware that, by choosing to earn Airpoints Dollars on stays with certain hotel chains, you may be forfeiting the opportunity to earn that hotel’s own rewards currency. So, before you choose to credit a hotel stay to Air New Zealand Airpoints, you’ll first want to consider whether or not you would rather earn hotel points.

The following table includes all of the hotel chains with which you can earn Airpoints Dollars for paid stays and each hotel chain’s respective earning rate:

Accor Live Limitless, Langham Hospitality and IHG One Reward have their own rewards programs. And, by electing to earn Airpoints Dollars on stays with these hotel chains, you may be forfeiting the opportunity to earn ALL points, Langham points or IHG points.

However, with most of these other hotel chains, there isn’t any downside to earning Airpoints Dollars on stays. And, if you stay with any of these hotel chains frequently, it can help you rack up a lot of Airpoints Dollars.

Other Ways to Earn

As mentioned above, there are several ways to earn Airpoints Dollars aside from booking paid flights and hotel stays. These include spending on co-branded credit cards (which are only available in New Zealand), transferring points from Marriott Bonvoy, transferring points from Amex Membership Rewards (if you live in Australia), renting cars and more.

Unfortunately, these earning methods are either unavailable in the United States or they’re not very effective. Nonetheless, if you live in Oceania or you use the Air New Zealand Airpoints program as your primary frequent flyer program, you should pay attention to these other earning methods. They can help you rack up Airpoint Dollars even more quickly.

How to Book Award Flights Through Air New Zealand Airpoints

Once you’ve joined the Air New Zealand Airpoints program and racked up enough points to afford an award flight, you can begin the process of booking that award flight by visiting the Air New Zealand website, clicking the “Sign in” button in the top-right corner of the homepage and entering your account credentials.

After you’ve signed in, return to the homepage and click the “Airpoints” tab. Then, in the “Spend Airpoints Dollars” column on the drop-down menu that appears, click the “Start spending” button.

When you do so, you’ll be redirected to a new page that lists all of the ways you can spend Airpoints Dollars. On this bulleted list, you can click on the “Flights” hyperlink. You’ll then be brought to a new page that explains the process of booking award flights both on Air New Zealand and on partner airlines.

If you wish to book a flight on Air New Zealand, click the “Book now” button next to the “Book a flight with Airpoints Dollars” header. This will lead you to the booking portal only for Air New Zealand-operated flights. If you want to book an award flight with a Star Alliance partner, scroll down to the “Booking partner airline flights” section and click the “partner airlines online portal” hyperlink.

At this point, it’s worth noting that Airpoints Dollars are always worth exactly 1 New Zealand Dollar when redeemed for flights on Air New Zealand. However, when redeemed for Star Alliance partner flights, Airpoints Dollars can be worth considerably more than that. For this reason, we recommend saving your Airpoints Dollars for Star Alliance award flight redemptions only.

So, once you click on the “partner airlines online portal” hyperlink, you’ll be redirected to a flight booking portal (which works pretty much the same way as a booking portal for cash flights). You can start by entering your flight information, including your type of flight (one-way or round-trip), departure airport, arrival airport, travel dates and number of travelers. Once that information is correct, click the green “Search” button near the bottom of the page.

You’ll then be shown a list of flight results that match your search query, including flights operated by any applicable Star Alliance partner airline. If you want to see if there’s an award flight available for two days before and after your selected dates, you can click the “Show dates” button near the top of the page. This is a good option for those who are willing to be flexible with their travel dates in order to save some Airpoints Dollars.

You can also see important information about each flight result, including departure time, arrival time, flight duration, number of stops and operating airline (which you can tell by the logos included in each listing). Of course, you can also see the price of each flight in Airpoints Dollars and the cash taxes and fees for each available cabin class.

To add a flight to your itinerary, simply click on the “Select” button beneath the price for the cabin class you wish to book. You’ll then have to click another “Select flight” button that appears to confirm your selection. Once you’ve selected all of your flights, you’ll be able to see a total price breakdown, which will show you the total Airpoints Dollars required as well as the total taxes and fees. If this looks good to you, click the “Continue” button.

On the next page, you’ll need to enter some personal details about anyone traveling on the itinerary, including title, name, date of birth, frequent flyer program of choice, phone number and email address. You should also submit any special meal requests or special assistance requests on this page if you need them.

Finally, you’ll need to enter a payment method (such as a credit or debit card) to cover any applicable taxes and fees. Once you do so, you can confirm your award flight booking and receive your confirmation number. You should also receive a confirmation email containing this number. We recommend writing this number down somewhere so you won’t forget it, as you’ll need it to check in to your flight.

The Bottom Line

Due to the fact that Airpoints Dollars are worth around 1 New Zealand Dollar apiece (which is equal to about 57 cents at the current conversion rate), the Air New Zealand Airpoints program functions a little differently than most other frequent flyer programs. Nonetheless, this program can offer solid value if you redeem Airpoints Dollars for award flights on Star Alliance partner airlines (including Air Canada, United Airlines and many more).

However, unless you live in Australia or New Zealand (where you can convert Amex Membership Rewards points to Airpoints Dollars), it’s fairly difficult to earn Airpoints Dollars compared to other frequent flyer currencies. So, in general, most U.S.-based travelers are better off using other Star Alliance frequent flyer programs instead of Air New Zealand Airpoints.

Nonetheless, if you already have a balance of Airpoints Dollars or you’re reading this from a country in Oceania, you can use the instructions in this article to seamlessly book an award flight through the Air New Zealand Airpoints program.