Air New Zealand: Status match qualification period extended

Back in April 2021, Air New Zealand offered a status match deal with Qantas and Virgin Australia frequent flyers, titled ‘Touch of Gold’. As you might expect it was to give you Airpoints Gold for 4 months, and if you earned 100 Status Points on Air NZ flights, you could push that out to 12 months.

Problem is, that trans-Tasman travel bubble got suspended a few times, and is now non-operational until at least September.

Extension to December

Well, now via email, those enrolled in the match (that’s me!) have got a few more months – until 8 December 2021 to complete the match and win their 12 months of gold.

Upside, Downside

The upside is that we have more time to get the match, and that includes attaining Star Alliance Gold for a year until December 2022. The downside is the bubble being suspended until mid-September, and possibly longer.

However, if you play your cards right and we can still fly to NZ, it will only take one Premium Economy or Business class airfare (depending on price) to gain those 100 status credits. Remember that Airpoints is basically a revenue drive scheme.

2PAXfly Takeout

This is another timely reminder to wear your seatbelt when seated. Holding you close to your seat will protect you from the sort of injuries sustained on this flight, when unsecured passengers flew to the ceiling of the aircraft, and then came crashing down once the ‘drop’ ceased.

The hope will be that this is an anomaly – a ‘freak accident’ in casual parlance. If it is a systemic error either mechanical or electronic, then this is a larger concern for the airlines that fly Boeing Dreamliner 787 aircraft. Let’s hope it isn’t. If it is, it will pile on the woes to Boeing’s existing stack.

NSW recorded a record number of COVID-19 cases today, and now people, and by people, I mean epidemiologists and my household are talking about lockdown until Christmas! If that is true, and extension of the qualification period until 8 December will not help at all.

And just to rub salt into the wounds, we have only just rebooked our winter break in New Zealand for early December.