Bargain Airline Tickets From Santa
Airline tickets – getting bargains requires perseverence.
Airline tickets: if you’re like me, shopping around for the best airfares is not your favorite thing to do. I mean, could it be more confusing? You have to research a zillion carriers, times of day, days of the week, seasons of the year, and – now – even specific seats within the plane. Seriously, if I didn’t love overseas travel so much, I’d be tempted to write about road trips instead of authentic luxury travel.
Air New Zealand Business Premier…
Airline tickets and perseverance
But I do (love overseas travel), so I persevere. I get frustrated; I pull my hair out; I compromise where I can – and then – voilà – I find a deal on airline tickets that I can live with.
Case in point: If you’ve been following this site for a while, you know that New Zealand is my home-away-from-home. I’ve lived there, written about it a lot, and count Kiwis as some of my best friends. And now I want to go “home” for the holidays. I also want to experience and write about some of the new lodging, dining and activity options that I’ve heard about from fellow travelers.
Summer downunder
Since New Zealand is in the Southern Hemisphere, Christmas and New Year are summer holidays. That’s the good news. The bad news is that summer is when the price of airline tickets is the highest. The other wrinkle is that I have econophobia – fear of flying in coach for flights longer than about five hours. (Ok, not really a pathological fear, but I will go to great lengths to avoid it.)
Air New Zealand’s Business Class beds almost guarantee a good night’s sleep.
Holding out for Air New Zealand
So I want Business Class airline tickets at the most expensive time of the year and I only want to fly the national carrier. Why? Because Air New Zealand has the most flights and the best schedules. They also provide award-winning in-flight service and have some of the friendliest flight attendants in the sky. Oh, and the lie-flat beds in Business Class almost guarantee a good night’s sleep.
So, I started out looking at Air New Zealand Los Angeles – Auckland flights that would get my husband and me to New Zealand by Christmas Eve. Because this route crosses the International Dateline, passengers lose a day on the way there and pick it up on the way back.
Sticker shock
I had in mind an amount we could spend on the Business Class airline tickets without breaking the bank, but it soon became apparent that it wasn’t nearly enough for high season travel. Then I happened to notice that for one day in December, the fares dropped nearly by half. That date: December 24.
Could we do it? Spend Christmas Eve flying through the night sky like Santa, but without the reindeer. You bet! Air New Zealand will serve a beautiful meal, and I fully intend to hang my stocking on the seatback in front of us. Then I’ll watch a movie and sleep the rest of the way across the Pacific.
When I wake up in Auckland it will be December 26…not because the Grinch stole our Christmas, but because we lost it crossing the dateline.
Can Santa help you find airline tickets to your dream destination? Credit: Fairmont Kea Lani Maui.
And what about you?
Is there a destination on your bucket list that you’d like to visit in late December? If so, you might want to see if you can get a deal on December 24, 25, or 31 airline tickets. On these days and others, ticket prices in all classes of service on various airlines may be reduced by as much as 50%.
Cheers and happy holidays,
Category: Air Travel, New Zealand
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Hi lizabeth, thanks for sharing a good post. This Christmas I will try to travel in Air New Zealand’s Business Class