Air New Zealand’s new frequent flyer partners and alliance with Cathay

Air New Zealand has added new partners to its Airpoints frequent flyer programme. Ranstad, MoleMap, The Economist and Exeed Limited are the latest partners to join the airline’s network of businesses giving members more ways to earn air miles. There are 59 companies now offering Airpoints miles (known as ‘Dollars’).

Under the new partnership, the Economist will reward readers with Airpoints Dollars on annual digital or print subscriptions while melanoma detection service MoleMap becomes the first health provider in the Airpoints network, offering Airpoints Dollars on skin checks.

Global human resources provider Ranstad joins the Airpoints for Business programme, rewarding its business customers with Airpoints Dollars on their temporary and permanent staff recruitment in New Zealand.

Kiwi IT distributer Exeed Limited also joins Airpoints for Business and will offer commercial resellers Airpoints Dollars on purchases of hardware and software solutions.

The full list of 59 partners:

Air New Zealand has also announced that it has extended its alliance with Cathay Pacific on services between New Zealand (Mount Cook pictured above) and Hong Kong for a further five years until 2022.

The alliance offers reciprocal frequent flyer benefits. Air New Zealand is a member of the Star Alliance network while Cathay is a member of Oneworld network. This means when you earn miles with the airline you can use them to buy flights on other airlines in their network. This alliance means you can earn and spend frequent flyer air miles between Cathay and Air New Zealand, something that would not otherwise be possible.

Cathay Pacific currently operates seasonal double daily services between Auckland and Hong Kong while Air New Zealand operates a daily service on the route. From December 2017, a new seasonal service between Hong Kong and Christchurch will also be introduced under the alliance, operated by Cathay Pacific.

Subject to regulatory approvals, the non-stop service will operate three times per week from 1 December 2017 – 28 February 2018, departing Hong Kong on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays using Airbus A350 aircraft.

Air New Zealand and Cathay Pacific’s schedule on services between New Zealand and Hong Kong is as follows (all times local):