Looking to go to New Zealand later this year, potentially over Thanksgiving. What would be the best time to start looking at flights? Right now, the cheapest is about $1,450 for economy out of IAH. Will they drop a little or should I Book now?

Also, if anyone has any worthy recommendations, happy to take them.

Direct flight in coach... ouch.

Leeman said:

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Direct flight in coach... ouch.

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You offering to pay the difference to bump them to business class?

AgLA06 said:

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Leeman said:

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Direct flight in coach... ouch.

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You offering to pay the difference to bump them to business class?

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Long flight to be a sardine. I'd suggest premium economy.

That Air New Zealand nonstop from Houston to Auckland is nice. Easily the best international flight I've ever taken. Pay a bit more (depending on how much it is) and book in the Sky Couch section of economy. That was a gamechanger with my wife and young son. It may not seem like it's worth it, but it most definitely was.

Heck it's like $650 to get to New Zealand from freaking Sydney, $1450 is a good price.

Air New Zealand is a great airline and the cuddle couch is nice. Stay on the South Island much as possible. Queenstown is beautiful but a tourist trap. Don't underestimate driving times as they don't have freeways. Campervan is awesome way to see NZ. Wife and I did it twice and would love to do it again. It's an Amazing country and one of my favorite places on the planet.

Leeman said:

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AgLA06 said:

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Leeman said:

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Direct flight in coach... ouch.

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You offering to pay the difference to bump them to business class?

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Long flight to be a sardine. I'd suggest premium economy.

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my parents just got back from new zealand in economy on united.

both ways, the plane had lots of empty seats. My mom got the whole row at the bulkhead, lots of room.
Just get up and walk around frequently.

My aunt and uncle on the other hand, he's a million mile member, they got upgraded to the pods.

Not sure if you're a podcast person but Russillo just put out one of his occasional travels pods about his holiday trip to New Zealand:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ryen-russillo-podcast/id1433966613?i=1000646220244

He's a sports guy (used to do TV/radio with Van Pelt) but I really only listen to his travel stuff. It's very much tailored to his style, but there are a lot of in depth reviews both positive and negative. One he talks a lot about is Bob's Island (if memory serves) being incredible. Haven't been there myself as a work trip there was canceled due to Covid but it's on my list.

I was reminded of this thread because I got served an ad yesterday (after watching a Los Angeles car chase on YouTube) advertising a Round Trip ("Return Fare") to Sydney for $991.

That fare is indeed available on the Air New Zealand web site between LAX and SYD. It's several hundred dollars more if you want to go to Auckland (AKL).

But relevant for the OP, in all my years of flying between the US and Australia, I have frequently found fares from LAX or SFO to be much less expensive than flying from IAH or DFW.

So, if you stitch together your own itinerary including LAX or SFO as a stop and change of carrier, you can save a few $$$ sometimes. But you do need to be sure to account for flight delays, etc. If I'm going to do something like this, I usually plan for an overnight stop when making the connection.

tried to book a skycouch a few years ago, but at least at that time they didn't sell them on every flight. seems if they could sell all seats as regular tickets they would. paid a little extra for my wife and i to sit in a skycouch row, but never had the option for buying the whole row of three, and airnz sold the seat next to us to someone else

anyway, loved new zealand, favorite place i've been

here is the south island road trip route i took, would do again in a heartbeat

queenstown -> cromwell -> lindis pass -> mt cook / hooker valley track -> lake tekapo -> rakaia gorge -> springfield -> castle hill -> arthur's pass -> cave stream -> devil's punchbowl -> londonderry rock walk -> glow worm cave -> hokitika -> franz josef glacier -> glacier views/hikes -> haast pass -> thunder creek falls -> fantail falls -> blue pools -> wanaka -> roy's peak -> cardrona pass -> cardrona hotel -> and you're back to queenstown.

figure out a way to get out to milford sound, whether you go in your campervan or hire a tour bus

north island i'm sure is find, hobbiton evening tour and feast was terrific

Just booked our airfare to New Zealand. We are very excited. We have booked a small boat cruise to the sub-Antarctic islands for the first week. Starting to work on what to do and where to go afterwards. Got some good ideas looking at some of the hiking based tour companies offerings, but we plan to do our own pace.

I am a little concerned about driving (especially on the left side of the road). Can anyone with experience offer any advice or feedback about driving in New Zealand?

Thanks in advance.

BTW - we booked a skycouch for each of us from IAH and the cost was a little under the price of premium economy and saved us over $16K over business class. We are going in December-January and the skycouches were almost all gone. Wow!

New Zealand was my first country to drive on the left in. You'll have this sort of cognitive dissonance the whole time, especially at night, but it's not THAT hard. All the kiwis will be able to tell you're a tourist because you'll turn your windshield wipers on every time you come to a turn instead of putting your turn signal on so they'll give you a wide berth.

I drove an RV over 800 miles on the south island, including on the switchbacks up to treblecone and it was not a big deal. Roads are a bit more narrow in the country. No traffic except for a few of the largest cities. Takes some getting used to but probably one of the easiest places to learn.

AgLA06 said:

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Leeman said:

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Direct flight in coach... ouch.

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You offering to pay the difference to bump them to business class?

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For that long of a flight, I would do whatever it took to upgrade to business class.

That totally saved the day for me when I flew to Australia. The downside is that I cutoff the fourth week of the trip (which was gonna be spent in NZ) due to fatigue. I was on a business trip and flew between Syd, Mel, and the Gold Coast.

Was an absolutely fantastic trip, but hate that I gave in to fatigue.

Thanks to bthotu and fire for the responses. Feel a little better about driving now. Everyone I have talked to about NZ including friends and relatives keep saying it was their best trip ever.

bthotugigem05 said:

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New Zealand was my first country to drive on the left in. You'll have this sort of cognitive dissonance the whole time, especially at night, but it's not THAT hard. All the kiwis will be able to tell you're a tourist because you'll turn your windshield wipers on every time you come to a turn instead of putting your turn signal on so they'll give you a wide berth.

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Same way I'd describe it. My first time driving on the left was in downtown Auckland and survived it ok

You'll have to think about what you're doing a lot.

Drove on the left side in England on the way out to Stonehenge...it's not that bad. Echoing the others...it's definitely something you will think about constantly but it's not hard.

The hardest part is turning at an intersection and telling yourself 20 times which side of the road you're supposed to be on. Eventually it "clicks" in your brain.