Flighthacker

Don't be sheepish, flock to New Zealand. Photo Credit: vtveen

Hot on the heels of Air New Zealand’s sale, Qantas is offering fares from Australian cities to Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland from $199 one way, $362 return including tax. Sale is on until midnight, Thursday, 20th July, for travel during 08 August to 25 September 2009, 12 October to 15 December 2009 & 27 January to 31 March 2010.

This is awesome value as Qantas’ fares are roughly the same as Jetstar’s on the Sydney to Christchurch route, for a full-service flight (including a minimum earn of 1,000 Qantas Frequent Flyer points). Please note that this sale originated in New Zealand, so you will have to switch the “From:” and “To:” locations to depart from Australia.

Visit Qantas’ sale page for details and to book.

Photo Credit: Justin Henry

Reading the recent press regarding Jetstar’s embattled launch into New Zealand is very much reminiscent of the press that came in the days following Jetstar’s Australian debut in 2004. The truth is, they have made some mistakes, as they did in Sydney, with reports of extensive flight delays and heaven forbid, passengers missing out on an All Blacks game due to a flight being overbooked. In fact, even I should have a reason to be disgruntled – soon after purchasing Qantas tickets at full rate for Christchurch to Queenstown return, the handover of Qantas services to Jetstar took place, meaning that I paid over 30% more than the Jetstar regular fare for, well, not much. But I digress. [...]