Air New Zealand Announces First Boeing 787 Routes

Looks like the first long-haul destinations will be Shanghai and Tokyo. Mid-haul routes are slated to be Perth, Honolulu, and Papeete.

Although it’s typically quite hard to find business class award space from North America to New Zealand nonstop on Air New Zealand, award availability is usually pretty good from Asia, if you’re willing to spend the extra time routing through there. As an example, LAX to AKL nonstop is roughly 13 hours in flight; LAX to NRT, 2 hour connection, and then NRT to AKL puts you around 24 hours already.

Hopefully award availability will stay good as I’d love to fly one of these birds in their Business Premier seats!