Good news – I’m a huge fan of value based flights, which increase volume of travel and thus reduce the dependance of the airline on the wealthier segments of business and society. It’s not for nothing that the two biggest discounters (Jetblue and Southwest) in the USA are the two most profitable (and liked) airlines here.
When the cost of flying is approaches that of the alternatives (cars, buses, boats and trains) then those who have a lower value of their own time will fbegin to fly. For example, if it costs $120 to fly to Auckland from Wellington, and $40 (and 8 hours) to drive, then those who value their time at less than $10 per hour would drive.
Dropping the prices also boosts domestic (and international) tourism revenue, and has a tremendous flow-on effect to the New Zeland economy.
Lance Wiggs 
I dont understand why AirNZ doesnt point the domain grabaseat.co.nz (They currently have the domian) at their Grab a Seat promotion, or at least their homepage, but currently it just doesn’t resolve.
For me looking for a domestic flight on AirNZ my first stop is always Grab a Seat, and it makes sense for grabaseat.co.nz to take me directly there.
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it works now…..
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Yeah I look for value. I always look at airnz and qantas and take the cheapest flight at the time I want. About a month ago I got a qantas Wellington to Auckland flight for $89. This was 2 days before I was to leave. Awesome.
AirNZ was about $200 for the same flight. It amazes me the amount of games that go into the constant price fluctuation. Is it REALLY cheaper to have all that infrastructure, analysis and effort into daily price changes and variable seating prices over a simple set fee? You don’t see the Interislander change their prices every second as though its a sharemarket; instead you go to to their website and see a table of prices that let you calculate your christmas holiday months in advance.
Besides, I find the flight (time in the air) the one tolerated aspect of travel; I don’t really expect or demand it become much cheaper, more comfortable, or varied. (Ok, having net accsess for email, browsing and skype would be nice.) For me, the pain point is late flights, the security nonsense, tedious and expensive travel from a city to the airport et al. (In a single day auckland trip from Wellington, the cheapest aspect is the flight itself)
Airport and airline companies would do themselves a great service to focus on improving those (admittedly difficult) spots, which they probably are too vain to think they are responsible for.
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I found a site called http://www.dealspotter.co.nz and it emails you the grabaseat details every morning. Saves you forgetting to visit the site each day. Its really handy for me. :)
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