Budget not necessarily a bargain

I prefer Pacific Blue at the moment. I fly Wgtn-Akl every week on all three airlines. Pacific Blue has more legroom than JetStar and more than the cattle class on Airnz. Even with Silver airpoints membership on AirNZ it's luck of the draw to get in the front half of the plane where there is acceptable legroom.

Because I know when I'll need to fly well in advance (same days each week) I can book well ahead which means I hardly ever pay more than $50 per flight at the moment on any airline. But because I get cramped up in the back of an AirNZ plane and collect nothing worthwhile in terms of loyalty points I tend to go with Pacific Blue. JetStar service is still very, very poor.

Booked a last minute trip to Wellington over last weekend to go to the Elaine Page concert (excellent BTW!). Booked Thursday evening for a Sunday morning AKL-WLG and a Monday morning WLG-AKL. Hand luggage only both ways.

Interesting Air NZ was only $8 more expensive on Monday morning and was cheaper than Jetstar on Sunday morning by about $20. So tried both o/way to compare. On balance, nothing wrong with Jetstar inflight for a 1 hour journey but would stick to Air NZ in future because having to be at airport the recommended 60 minutes before a JQ flight (to meet 30 minute cut-off) is just a waste of my time - plus if I'd have bags to check, then Jetstar would've been quite a bit more expensive as it turns out.

JQ timetable is not so comprehensive with only three flights per day AKL-WLG. With headline stories like this you can argue almost any point of view : "Stats! Stats! and damn lies."

It only depends on the budget airlines but i guess if you avail the full-service airline, at least the cost will be lessen.
Regards

I completely agree Duncan. Looks as though they are just trying to have a dig at Jetstar.

The article refers to a rather long flight in Australia. Not New Zealand. If they compared NZ airlines they would find that Pacific Blue and Jetstar are far, far cheaper than Air New Zealand.

Yes you have to buy a coffee and a muffin if you want them but what is that? $6-$7? Still beats paying an extra $100+ to fly on Air New Zealand and get a small bag of lollies.

In July I flew LHR to Madrid return. When I had a look at airfares I checked out Ryanair and EasyJet. The return price was around 160 pounds return. I took a hunch and checked out British Airways. Price? 106 pounds return. And I got airpoints.

Lesson learnt? Always check full-price airlines - they may be competing on the same route and may undercut the budget airlines.