My son is planning to visit New Zealand in the summer and I want to help him get his ticket.
Do you have any recommendations of route, departure airport, where is the most ok to have stopover( max 1 stopover)?
I see that most routes, from what I've searched on the Zurich- Auckland route are 24-30 hours....
How to buy a ticket with flexible return date?
There are all sorts of tips on when to buy the cheapest flight ticket... does it work or is it pointless to try?
yes, it's that far...
buy the ticket as soon as the price is acceptable for you and never look back
Use booking.com to see who flies there and then book direct with the airline, do not book through a third party website, because if something goes wrong you will struggle to get help.
Go for a connection time of around 2 hours or a little more, less than 2 hours is really tight if you get a delay or for baggage transfer.
Flexible return date is not really a thing, better to just buy the return when you know (assuming NZ does not require you to have a return ticket on entry).
There no non-stop flights between NZ and Europe. And since Air New Zealand stopped their London flights there are no direct flights either. So connecting somewhere is necessary.
NZ is close to our antipodal point so travelling via North America is about the same duration as travelling via the mideast/asia.
Have a look at airlines that fly to both CH and NZ. Via N. America that would be Air Canada, United and American. Via Middle East: Emirates, Etihad, Qatar. Via Asia: Singapore, Thai, Air China, Japan Air Lines. These are the ones that come to mind.
Then there are the airline alliances that ‘code share’. They put their airline code on partners flights. Swiss for example, doest fly there but if you do you see they offer a connecting flight via Singapore both flights with LX flight numbers, but the second flight Singapore to Auckland.
I like to start here: https://matrix.itasoftware.com/search to narrow down the choices. You can’t book there, but it helps find the options. It’s a bit complicated but anyone can use it.
Also Passport is important. You need to check admissibility on both the destination and the connecting point.
And all the fun parts !!!
Price was good, a bit more expensive than mixed airlines with 3 or 4 stopovers, but not much.
We used skyscanner for the price / route / date searches.
Make sure your son has ETA for USA and NZ, even if you don't need visa's. Cannot board plane without. Get these online well before travveling.
Agree with Island Monkey, book direct with airline ( for us it was Swiss !! )
You will enter USA landside, and will need to reclain and then re-checkin your luggage. Allow 4 .. 5 hours to be safe.
Had to rebook ZRK-JFK, no problem as we had Swiss direct booking.
ZRH..JFK, flight fairly busy but JFK..AKL the plane was 1/2 empty, so had 3 seats to stretch and sleep.
Air NZ is a very good carrier.
Enjoy your trip.
Use https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/# to check document requirements for NZ and intermediate points. Health requirements can also be found there
IATA is the airline’s trade association and their data is used by all airlines. It is updated frequently and can be trusted.
The return ticket must be from New Zealand to a country they can enter.”
With many airlines you can buy a ticket, say economy plus or such like, which allows changes for free + the fare difference. But they are more expensive than a standard economy fare.
I flew to NZ the other year via Doha, 8 hours plus 17 hours. It will be similar via any other stop.
If you want an open return you have to book a flexible ticket. Some allow changes without a fee and others charge a fee. There's almost always a flight price difference to pay. I recently booked a fully flexible fair and a few weeks after could cancel and rebook at a cheaper price but that's a rarity.
We have flown to Hawaii with a stopover in the mainland USA. We've also flown to Australia with a stopover in Singapore. It is nice to see a bit of the city, stretch our legs, sleep in a proper bed, etc. We felt so much more refreshed upon arrival at the final destination by splitting it up that way. But you usually end up with more total hours in transit, so if speed is your goal then stopovers aren't the way to go.
What you describe as a layover is known in airline lingo as a connection. These are almost always limited to 24 hours and would include situation’s where the passenger choses, or is required, to clear customs and immigration. Any stay of 24 hours or more is a stopover. Note this is not an obligatory rule and airlines may make exceptions in specific cases.
Many fare types preclude or limit stopovers, few limit connections.