Air New Zealand Airpoints Program Guide: Everything You Need to Know

When it comes to frequent-flyer programs, Air New Zealand Airpoints is rather unique.

For one, all Airpoints Dollars (the program’s rewards currency) earned are tied directly to the amount of money that you spent on your flight, whether with Air New Zealand or a Star Alliance partner airline.

Then, the rate at which you can redeem those Airpoints Dollars for Air New Zealand flights is also completely revenue-based, meaning that the award price of an Air New Zealand award flight is directly tied to its cash price. This means that it’s impossible to get outsized value when booking Air New Zealand-operated flight awards through the Airpoints program.

However, the one place in the program where it is possible to get outsized value is when redeeming your Airpoints Dollars for Star Alliance partner award flights. All Star Alliance partner awards are priced according to a single distance-based award chart, meaning that it’s possible to find good value, particularly on premium cabin awards and on airlines with reputations for luxury.

One major aspect of the Air New Zealand Airpoints program that may take some getting used to for travel miles enthusiasts is the fact that Airpoints Dollars are tied to the value of one New Zealand dollar (which is equal to about $0.60 U.S. dollar at the current conversion rate) whereas most frequent-flyer miles are worth around 1 cent. This means that Airpoints Dollars are worth around 60 times as much as other frequent-flyer miles, such as United MileagePlus miles or Air Canada Aeroplan points.

If this is slightly confusing to you at the moment, don’t worry. We’re going to cover everything you need to know about the Air New Zealand Airpoints program, including Air New Zealand elite status, how to earn and redeem Airpoints Dollars and which of those redemption methods offer the best value.

Air New Zealand Airpoints Program Overview

Originally known as Tasman Empire Airways, which was founded in 1940 when a treaty was signed by the governments of the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, the airline rebranded as Air New Zealand in 1965. In this same year, the airline started flying Douglas DC-8 jetliners, which allowed Air New Zealand to operate longer flights.

Today, Air New Zealand’s fleet consists of some of the largest commercial airplanes in the world, including Boeing 777-300ERs and Boeing 787. The airline operates routes to Australia, the Pacific and even North America. You can fly Air New Zealand from the airline’s hub in Auckland to Chicago, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.

Additionally, with Air New Zealand’s network of Star Alliance partners, you can fly almost anywhere in the world. Plus, as a member of the Air New Zealand Airpoints program, you can both earn and redeem Airpoints Dollars on any Star Alliance airline.

Here’s a list of all 26 Star Alliance member airlines:

You also can earn and redeem Air New Zealand Airpoints Dollars on certain flights with certain other airline partners, including the following:

• Cathay Pacific
• Aerolíneas Argentinas
• Etihad Airways
• Qantas
• SilkAir
• Virgin Atlantic

To view the specific rules for for earning or redeeming Airpoints Dollars on partner airlines, visit the “Co-operation partners” page.

Some of these airline partners also allow you to earn Status Points, which are the metric used to track your status in the Air New Zealand Airpoints program. Members with elite status are entitled to complimentary benefits such as lounge access, upgrades, extra baggage and more.

Air New Zealand Airpoints Elite Status

You can accumulate Status Points by flying with Air New Zealand or its partners and by making purchases on Air New Zealand co-branded credit cards.

When you earn a certain number of Status Points, you can achieve elite status within the Air New Zealand Airpoints program, which entitles you to certain benefits such as lounge access, cabin class upgrades, extra baggage allowances, preferential treatment at the airport and more.

There are four elite status tiers in the Air New Zealand Airpoints program: Silver, Gold, Elite and Elite Partner. Silver, Gold and Elite statuses must be earned by accumulating a certain number of Status Points in a 12-month period.

Here’s how many Status Points you need to accumulate to earn each elite status tier:

However, once you’ve already reached a status tier, you need to earn fewer Status Points within the subsequent 12-month period to retain that tier.

Here’s how many Status Points you need to earn to retain a each elite status tier:

To achieve or retain Silver and Gold status, at least 50% of the Status Points required to retain your status time must be earned on Air New Zealand travel, eligible Star Alliance travel, qualifying partner airline travel or Frequent Flyer Status Boosts. Up to 50% of the required Status Points can be earned on Air New Zealand co-branded credit card spending.

To achieve or retain Elite status, at least 60% of the Status Points required to retain your status time must be earned on Air New Zealand travel, eligible Star Alliance travel, qualifying partner airline travel or Frequent Flyer Status Boosts. Up to 40% of the required Status Points can be earned on Air New Zealand co-branded credit card spending.

For example, to achieve Elite status for the first time, you need to earn 1,500 Status Points in any 12-month period. Then, from the day that you upgrade to Elite status, you have 12 months to earn 1,350 Status Points to retain Elite status. Whether you’re upgrading or retaining Elite status, at least 60% of the required Status Points be earned on Air New Zealand travel, eligible Star Alliance travel, qualifying partner airline travel or Frequent Flyer Status Boosts.

However, Air New Zealand co-branded credit cards aren’t available outside of New Zealand. Unless you live in New Zealand, you’ll need to earn 100% of your Status Points on Air New Zealand travel, eligible Star Alliance travel, qualifying partner airline travel or Frequent Flyer Status Boosts.

Any Elite status member has the option to nominate a friend or family member for Elite Partner status. Elite Partner status members enjoy some of the same privileges as Elite members. However, certain privileges that are available to Elite members aren’t available to Elite Partner members.

The number of Status Points that you’ll earn per flight depends on the airline that you’re flying with, your origin and destination, and the fare class that you’re traveling. The easiest way to find out how many Status Points (as well as Airpoints Dollars) that you’ll earn on a specific flight is to use the Airpoints Calculator tool on the Air New Zealand website.

In general, you’ll earn significantly more Status Points by flying in business class or first class both on Air New Zealand and on partner flights. So, if you want to earn elite status in the Air New Zealand Airpoints program, you’ll do so much faster by taking premium-cabin flights.

It’s also worth noting that flights booked on Air New Zealand in fare classes N, X, I and R are not eligible to earn Status Points (or Airpoints Dollars).

Now, let’s take a look at the benefits that you’ll receive with each elite status tier.

As you can see, the majority of these perks apply only when you fly with Air New Zealand. So, if you don’t live in New Zealand or Australia and you don’t fly with Air New Zealand often, then it’s probably not worth trying to earn Airpoints elite status.

How to Earn Air New Zealand Airpoints Dollars

Of course, the most straightforward way to accumulate Airpoints Dollars is to book flights with Air New Zealand. Beyond that, you also can earn Airpoints Dollars in several other ways, including booking flights with airline partners, booking hotels, renting cars, transferring from other loyalty programs, spending on an Air New Zealand co-branded credit card and more.

Let’s discuss all of the different ways to earn Airpoints Dollars to help you start saving up for that next redemption.

Flying with Air New Zealand

The most obvious way to earn Airpoints Dollars is by taking flights operated by Air New Zealand. The amount of Airpoints Dollars that you’ll earn per flight depends on whether you’re flying domestic or international, your cabin class and the distance of your flight.

It’s difficult to determine Air New Zealand’s methodology for calculating exactly how many Airpoints Dollars you’ll earn on a specific flight because the airline doesn’t publish an earnings table on their website. The best way to determine how many Airpoints Dollars you’ll earn on your next flight is to use the Airpoints Calculator tool on the Air New Zealand website.

With this tool, you can enter the origin and destination of your flight and learn how many Airpoints Dollars (as well as Status Points) you could earn in each cabin class. Unfortunately, though, even within each cabin class, the Airpoints Calculator tool provides you with only a range of how many Airpoints Dollars you’ll earn for that flight.

As you can see from the example above, these ranges can be rather large. So, it’s hard to know how many Airpoints Dollars you’ll earn for flights on Air New Zealand. However, you’ll always earn more Airpoints Dollars for flying in higher cabin classes.

If you’re wondering what the “Domestic Add-on” is, it’s an extra sum of Airpoints Dollars that’s tacked onto your earnings if your itinerary includes both a domestic and an international sector.

For instance, if you booked an itinerary from Christchurch, New Zealand, to Sydney with a layover in Auckland, New Zealand, you’d earn a certain number of Airpoints Dollars for the international sector of your itinerary (from Auckland to Sydney) as well as a “Domestic Add-on” for the domestic sector (from Christchurch to Auckland).

It’s worth noting that flights booked on Air New Zealand in fare classes F, N, X, I and R are not eligible to earn Airpoints Dollars.

Flying with Partner Airlines

In addition to earning Airpoints Dollars on Air New Zealand flights, you can rack up Airpoints Dollars by flying with airline partners, most of which are Star Alliance members. The number of Airpoints Dollars that you earn on partner flights depends on the specific partner airline that you’re flying with, the origin and destination of your flight, and your cabin class.

Similar to Air New Zealand, the methodology for calculating Airpoints Dollars earnings on partner flights is a bit mysterious. The best way to find out how many Airpoints Dollars you’ll earn for flying with partners is to use the Airpoints Calculator tool on the Air New Zealand website. To do so, you’ll need to select the “Partner Airline” option and then select the airline you’ll be flying with.

For instance, the example above shows the earnings for an Air India-operated flight from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to Mumbai, India. As you can see, the Airpoints Calculator tool gives you exact Airpoints Dollars earnings for this flight (unlike with Air New Zealand-operated flights). So, while this tool won’t tell you exactly how many Airpoints Dollars you’ll earn for flights with Air New Zealand, it will tell you your exact earnings for partner-operated flights.

To earn Airpoints Dollars on partner flights, you’ll need to add your Airpoints membership number to the reservation when making your booking.

Transfer Partners

Another way to boost your balance of Airpoints Dollars is to transfer points from other rewards programs. Air New Zealand’s two most notable transfer partners are American Express Membership Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy.

Here are the transfer ratios for these programs:

• American Express Membership Rewards – 150:1
• Marriott Bonvoy – 200:1

For example, if you were to transfer 2,000 Marriott Bonvoy points to your Airpoints account, you’d receive 10 Airpoints.

In general, making transfers isn’t a good way to maximize the value of your Amex points or Marriott points. In both cases, you’re better off spending those points in other ways than transferring them to Air New Zealand Airpoints.

Spending on Co-Branded Credit Cards and Debit Cards

Air New Zealand offers two co-branded credit cards, both of which are issued by Kiwibank. Both the Air New Zealand Airpoints Platinum Visa and the Air New Zealand Airpoints Low Fee Visa allow you to earn Airpoints for making everyday purchases. Unfortunately, these cards are available only to New Zealand citizens or Permanent Resident Visa holders. So, unless you live in New Zealand, you won’t qualify for these credit cards.

However, if you’re a New Zealand resident and you tend to fly with Air New Zealand often, it may be worth looking into one of these credit cards.

It’s also worth noting that Air New Zealand also offers a co-branded prepaid travel money card (issued by OneSmart) and a co-branded debit card (issued by Westpac), both of which allow you to earn Airpoints Dollars for loading money or making purchases.

You can learn more about Airpoints debit and credit card partners here.

Hotel Stays

Air New Zealand allows you to earn Airpoints for booking stays with certain hotel partners at more than 10,000 properties all around the world. To earn Airpoints on stays with hotel partners, you’ll need to add your Airpoints membership number to your reservation.

The following chart includes all of Air New Zealand’s hotel partners and how many Airpoints you could earn by staying with them.

Booking stays with Air New Zealand’s hotel partners is a great way to rack up some extra Airpoints Dollars. However, some of these hotel chains also have partnerships with many other loyalty programs. So, you may want to consider whether you’d rather earn another type of airline miles before you elect to earn Airpoints Dollars.

Air New Zealand also has its own hotel booking engine (powered by Expedia) that offers 1 Airpoint for every 75 New Zealand dollars that you spend on hotel stays. As you can see from the rates in the table above, you’ll earn more Airpoints Dollars by booking directly with the hotel chain and crediting it to your Airpoints account. However, if that’s not an option, booking your hotel stay through Air New Zealand’s booking engine can help you earn some Airpoints Dollars.

Car Rentals

Air New Zealand has partnerships with rental car brands Avis, Apex and Budget that allow you to earn 3 Airpoints Dollars for every day that you rent from one of these companies. To earn 3 Airpoints Dollars per rental day, you need to make your reservation through the Air New Zealand’s rental car portal.

You can also earn Airpoints Dollars for making your reservation directly through either Avis, Apex or Budget. However, if you do so, you’ll earn just 2.5 Airpoints Dollars per rental day. So, if you’re going to rent a car from one of those three companies and you want to earn Airpoints Dollars, you’re better off booking through Air New Zealand’s rental car portal than directly through the company.

Online Shopping with Airpoints Mall

You also can rack up Airpoints Dollars by making purchases online through Airpoints Mall, Air New Zealand’s online shopping portal. With Airpoints Mall, you can shop with more than 100 online retailers including popular brands such as Banana Republic, True Religion, Ann Taylor, eBay, Dell, Etsy, Converse, Nike and many others. Plus, you’ll earn Airpoints Dollars every time you make a purchase from one of these retailers through Airpoints Mall.

The number of Airpoints Dollars depends on the specific merchant that you’re shopping with. However, you’ll always earn at least 1 Airpoint Dollar per 200 New Zealand dollars spent and a maximum of 5 Airpoint Dollars per 100 New Zealand dollars spent.

To start earning Airpoints Dollars while shopping, you need to sign in to your Airpoints account. Then, you can find the retailer that you want to shop with and click the “Shop Now” button. From there, you’ll be redirected to that merchant’s website where you can shop and checkout just like normal.

Then, you should receive an email within five working days of your purchase that your purchase has been recorded by the Airpoints program. Your Airpoints Dollars should arrive in your account within 37 days of the purchase date.

Airpoints for Business

The Airpoints for Business program is another program within the Air New Zealand Airpoints program that rewards small business owners for their expenses and incentivizes them to book their business travel with Air New Zealand. The program is free to join. However, you do have to be a business owner and be able to provide information about your business.

Once you join the program, you’ll earn 20% bonus Airpoints Dollars every time you book flights through Air New Zealand for your business.

For instance, if you book a flight that normally earns 100 Airpoints Dollars using your Airpoints for Business account, you’ll earn an additional 20 Airpoints Dollars (for a total of 120 Airpoints Dollars). You also can have your employees book flights using your Airpoints for Business account, greatly increasing your ability to earn Airpoints Dollars.

Airpoints for Business members can also rack up Airpoints Dollars in a wide variety of other ways, including buying cars from Audi, purchasing fuel from Z Energy, spending on certain business credit cards and more.

Once you’ve earned some Airpoints Dollars through the Airpoints for Business program, you can either transfer them to your own personal account or you can reward an employee by transferring them to their account.

To learn more, visit the Airpoints for Business page on the Air New Zealand website.

How to Redeem Air New Zealand Airpoints Dollars

As previously mentioned, Airpoints Dollars are worth significantly more than any other frequent-flyer currency.

Whereas most airline miles are worth about 1 cent apiece, Airpoints Dollars are worth 1 New Zealand dollar each when redeemed. For this reason, you can expect to earn far fewer Airpoints Dollars on a flight than you might expect to earn in another loyalty currency.

For instance, you might earn thousands of Aerpolan points for a single flight on Air Canada, but you’ll earn just 5 or 6 Airpoints Dollars on an Air New Zealand flight in some cabin classes.

Nonetheless, Air New Zealand Airpoints Dollars are still valuable, particularly when redeemed for Star Alliance partner award flights. As previously mentioned, when redeeming Airpoints Dollars for Air New Zealand-operated flights, each Airpoints Dollar will be worth exactly 1 New Zealand dollar. So, if you’re looking to get outsized value out of your Airpoints Dollars, it’s better to book flights with Star Alliance partners than with Air New Zealand itself.

In this section of the article, we’ll cover all of these redemption methods and more as well as how you can get the most value out of your Airpoints Dollars.

Flying with Air New Zealand

You can redeem your Airpoints Dollars for flights with Air New Zealand. However, doing so is usually not the best way to maximize the value of your Airpoints Dollars.

When redeeming Airpoints Dollars for Air New Zealand flights, they’re worth exactly 1 New Zealand dollar apiece. So, at the current conversion rate, each Airpoints Dollar would be worth about 61 U.S. dollar cents when redeemed this way. You can get far more value than that by redeeming your Airpoints Dollars in other ways.

To book Air New Zealand flights with Airpoints Dollars, simply sign in to your Airpoints account and then search for flights as you would with cash flights. Then, when you get to the payment stage of the booking, you can elect to cover the cost of the flight with Airpoints Dollars.

You also can pay for a portion of the price with Airpoints Dollars and the rest with cash using the Flexipay feature. Regardless of whether you pay for the entire flight with Airpoints Dollars or you use the Flexipay feature, each Airpoints Dollar will always be worth exactly 1 New Zealand dollar.

Flying with Partner Airlines.

Unlike Air New Zealand award flight redemptions, partner airline award flight redemptions are priced according to a distance-based award chart. That means that the value of your Airpoints Dollars can vary widely when redeeming them for partner award flights.

Unfortunately, also unlike Air New Zealand award flights, partner award flights can’t currently be booked online. If you wish to make a partner award flight redemption, you’ll need to call Air New Zealand Airpoints customer service and request to book an award flight. Unfortunately, this makes it difficult to find award flight availability.

Still, if you’re able to find partner award availability, the Airpoints partner award chart offers some pretty favorable rates, making it possible to find outsized value for certain award flights.

Below is Air New Zealand’s partner award chart.

The chart above applies to all Star Alliance airlines. While you can earn Airpoints Dollars by flying with some of Air New Zealand’s non-Star Alliance partners, you can redeem Airpoints Dollars for award flights on Star Alliance airlines only.

By redeeming your Airpoints Dollars for partner award flights, it’s possible to get value far exceeding 1 New Zealand dollar per Airpoints Dollar. To calculate the value of a redemption, you can divide the cash price of the same flight by the cost in Airpoints Dollars.

If you want to predict how much a specific award flight may cost, you can search the distance of that flight using tools such as the Great Circle Mapper. Then, you can use the distance of the flight and your cabin class to find the price of that flight using the chart above.

Once again, you can only book partner award flights over the phone by calling Air New Zealand Airpoints customer service. So, you may want to search for Star Alliance award availability through another Star Alliance program’s website, such as United Airlines MileagePlus or Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer.

Then, once you find an available award and find its price through the Airpoints program using the award chart above, you can call Airpoints customer service and request to book that award.

Obviously, this is a fairly arduous process that takes considerably more time than booking awards through other Star Alliance programs. So, if you don’t already have a large balance of Airpoints Dollars, you’re probably better off using another Star Alliance program to book your award flights.

Still, it’s possible to get solid value from redemptions through Air New Zealand Airpoints. In general, short-haul flights with high cash prices tend to offer high value. Premium-cabin flight redemptions also tend to offer more value per Airpoints Dollar than economy-class redemptions.

To help you out, let’s identify some sweet spots in the Air New Zealand Airpoints program that offer good value for your Airpoints Dollars.

Book First Class Flights on Lufthansa

German airline Lufthansa has one of the best first-class products in the entire airline industry, offering valet parking at the airport, access to First Class Lounges, a limousine to chauffeur you straight to the aircraft, world-class cuisine on-board, lie-flat beds and more.

Unfortunately, first-class flights on Lufthansa tend to carry high cash prices regardless of the route you’re flying. However, one of the most accessible ways to experience Lufthansa first class is by booking it with airline miles.

While award space in Lufthansa first class can be extremely difficult to find, you’re almost guaranteed to get outstanding value if you can find it.

For instance, we found that first-class flights marketed on Lufthansa’s website from Munich (MUC) to Chicago (ORD) cost about $7,800 in cash consistently.

German airline Lufthansa has one of the best first-class products in the entire airline industry, offering valet parking at the airport, access to First Class Lounges, a limousine to chauffeur you straight to the aircraft, world-class cuisine on-board, lie-flat beds and more.

Unfortunately, first-class flights on Lufthansa tend to carry high cash prices regardless of the route you’re flying. However, one of the most accessible ways to experience Lufthansa first class is by booking it with airline miles.

While award space in Lufthansa first class can be extremely difficult to find, you’re almost guaranteed to get outstanding value if you can find it.

For instance, we found that first-class flights marketed on Lufthansa’s website from Munich (MUC) to Chicago (ORD) cost about $7,800 in cash consistently.

If you were able to book one of these flights through the Airpoints program, according to Air New Zealand’s award chart, you’d have to pay just 1,250 Airpoints Dollars (since the distance between these two airports is 4,530 miles, according to Great Circle Mapper). That means that you’d be getting a value of over $6.25 by redeeming your Airpoints Dollars this way.

When you compare that value to the fixed value of $0.61 per Airpoints Dollar that you get when redeeming for Air New Zealand flights, it’s clear that redeeming your Airpoints Dollars for Star Alliance partner flights can help you get a lot more bang for your buck.

Unfortunately, finding Lufthansa first class award availability through any frequent-flyer program can be difficult. So, you’ll probably have to do a lot of searching to get this kind of value.

Additionally, if you do find Lufthansa first class award space, you’ll have to call Airpoints customer service to confirm your award booking, which can be a hassle. Still, if you’re willing to do the work, this is one of the best ways to maximize the value of your Airpoints Dollars.

Book Short-Haul and Medium-Haul Flights in the United States on United Airlines

For U.S.-based travelers, one of the best ways to maximize the value of your Airpoints Dollars is to book short-haul and medium-haul flights within the United States on United Airlines. This is because flights around the U.S. tend to have high cash prices. And, considering you can book economy-class Star Alliance partner flights under 999 miles for just 125 Airpoints Dollars, it’s easy to find outsized value by booking these types of award flights. You can typically find even better value by booking flights in premium cabins.

For instance, we searched for cash flights from San Francisco to Minneapolis and found that the lowest fares in economy class were $294.

If you were to book this flight through the Airpoints program, you’d pay 150 Airpoints Dollars (because the distance between these two cities is 1,589 miles, according to the Great Circle Mapper). That means that this redemption would yield a value of about $1.96 per Airpoint Dollar, which is solid value for an economy-class redemption.

As you can see above, a full-fare first-class ticket on the same flight would cost you $1,119. However, if you were to book this flight through the Airpoints program, you’d have to pay 400 Airpoints Dollars, according to the award chart. So, this redemption would yield a value of about $2.80 per Airpoint Dollar, which is great.

In general, since Air New Zealand prices its Star Alliance partner award flights according to a distance-based award chart, you’ll get the best value on flights that are short in distance but high in price.

Upgrade Awards

In addition to purchasing your airfare with Airpoints Dollars, you can redeem Airpoints Dollars for upgrades on flights that you’ve already booked. There are several kinds of upgrades that you can book with Airpoints Dollars, one of which is available only to Airpoint Elite status members.

Here are those types of upgrades:

• OneUp upgrades
• Elite Airpoints Dollar upgrades
• Star Alliance upgrades

It’s worth noting that there is another type of upgrade available known as a Recognition Upgrade. However, these upgrades can only be earned by achieving Silver, Gold or Elite status in the Airpoints program.

OneUp upgrades must be requested at least three days prior to travel and are available only on international flights that are ticketed and operated by Air New Zealand. You can either use these upgrades to move up one cabin or to move to Economy Skycouch.

In either case, you need to submit a request through the Air New Zealand website with your booking reference, your family name and how much you’re willing to pay for the upgrade (just like a bid). Then, your request will either be approved or denied.

Having a bidding system for upgrades is a bit strange. However, if you bid low, you may be able to purchase an upgrade for cheap. You can choose to pay for OneUp upgrades with credit card, debit card or Airpoints Dollars (which are worth 1 New Zealand dollar apiece in this case).

Airpoints Elite status members have the ability to purchase Elite Airpoints Dollar upgrades. This benefit allows Elite members to request upgrades to the next highest cabin class and pay with Airpoints Dollars at a fixed rate of 1 New Zealand dollar per 1 Airpoints Dollar.

Once you make a request for an Elite Airpoints Dollar upgrade, the required Airpoints Dollars will be deducted from your account. However, if your upgrade is unsuccessful, those Airpoints Dollars will be refunded to your account.

All Airpoints members can also use their Airpoints Dollars to book Star Alliance upgrades, which can be used alongside tickets in eligible booking classes on some Star Alliance flights.

To see which Star Alliance booking classes are eligible for upgrades and how many Airpoints Dollars you’ll need for each upgrade, you can view the Star Alliance upgrade award chart on the Air New Zealand website. To request a Star Alliance upgrade, you’ll need to fill out the Star Alliance upgrade request form and submit it online.

When requesting upgrades on Air New Zealand flights, you’ll always get a value of 1 New Zealand dollar per Airpoints Dollar or about $0.61 per Airpoints Dollar, which is fairly low compared to other redemption options. However, if you redeem your Airpoints Dollars for Star Alliance upgrades, it’s possible to get higher value (depending on what each Star Alliance airline charges for its own upgrades).

In general, though, you’re still likely to get better value by redeeming your Airpoints Dollars for award flights on certain Star Alliance partners than redeeming for upgrades (whether on Air New Zealand or Star Alliance partner flights).

Booking Rental Cars

Air New Zealand recently added the option for Airpoints members to pay for car rentals within New Zealand made with Avis, Apex and Budget with Airpoints Dollars when booking through the Air New Zealand rental car booking portal. To do so, you simply need to have the required number of Airpoints Dollars to cover the rental in your account and then enter your Airpoints membership number when checking out.

Then, you can select the “Pay with Airpoints Dollars” option to use your Airpoints Dollars to cover the cost of the rental. Note that bookings made with Airpoints Dollars don’t earn Airpoints Dollars.

When redeemed this way, Airpoints Dollars are worth 1 New Zealand dollar per 1 Airpoints Dollar, which is the same value you’ll get with any redemption outside of Star Alliance partner award flights and upgrades. So, if you don’t want to bother with booking partner awards over the phone, then booking rental cars with Airpoints Dollars is a solid option.

Koru Memberships

Another option for redeeming your Airpoints Dollars is to redeem them for a Koru membership. Koru members enjoy a range of benefits, including lounge and guest access privileges, additional baggage allowances, priority check-in, priority boarding and other exclusive benefits. The privileges you receive depend on which type of Koru membership you purchase.

The following table includes the different Koru membership tiers and their respective prices.

Any of the membership fees above can be paid in full with Airpoints Dollars. However, you can’t pay for a Koru membership partially with Airpoints Dollars and partially with cash.

Just like most other redemption methods in the Airpoints program, Airpoints Dollars are worth 1 New Zealand dollar apiece when redeemed this way.

In terms of whether a Koru membership itself is worth it, it may be a good idea if you fly on Air New Zealand often (10 or more times per year) and you plan to continue flying with the carrier for years into the future. However, if you fly with Air New Zealand fewer than eight or so times per year, then paying for a Koru membership is almost definitely not worth it.

The Bottom Line

The Air New Zealand Airpoints program differs from other frequent-flyer programs, mostly because its currency is based on the value of 1 New Zealand dollar (whereas the value of most other loyalty currencies is based on the value of 1 cent.

Considering that the New Zealand Dollar is worth about 61 U.S. cents at the current exchange rate, Airpoints Dollars are of fairly low value when spent on fixed-price redemptions (which include Air New Zealand flights and upgrades, car rentals and Koru memberships).

However, it’s possible to find outsized value redemptions for Star Alliance partner flights. Unfortunately, redeeming your Airpoints Dollars this way may be more of a hassle than it’s worth due to the fact that you can book Star Alliance partner award flights only over the phone.

That means that you’ll have to search for award space on other Star Alliance program websites (such as United Airlines MileagePlus or Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer) and then call Air New Zealand customer service and request to book an award.

However, if you’re willing to go through all that effort, you can definitely find solid value on Star Alliance partner award flights through the Air New Zealand Airpoints program. In particular, short-haul flights with high cash prices and premium cabin tickets tend to offer the best value.

Having said that, unless you live in New Zealand or happen to fly with Air New Zealand often, there’s no reason to make Air New Zealand Airpoints your frequent-flyer program of choice. There are other Star Alliance programs with easier-to-earn miles that offer better redemption rates for award flights and allow you to book award flights online (which is a whole lot easier than booking over the phone).

So, if you already have a large balance of Airpoints Dollars, then you can usually find outsized value by redeeming for Star Alliance partner award flights over the phone. However, if you’ve yet to join the Air New Zealand Airpoints program, then you may want to consider using another loyalty program with a more valuable currency and an award booking system that’s easier to use.