fly to New Zealand with who ? & where to stop over

[holidayqueen]

Hi My daughter went to aus last year and now her year is up in oct she is going to go to New Zealand for 1 more year. We are thinking of visiting her around Christmas time or the other plan would be to help her to pay for a return flight over the hoilday period. I have a few questions there would be 3 adults traveling is it best to go to a travel agent or can I do it online ? What air line is best priced for this trip? Where would you stopover or could you do the whole trip in 1 go ? Would it be cheaper to wait till say st stephen's day to travel. I could pay for half her ticket as her christmas gift and of course this would be the cheapest option but I think it would be an opportunity for us to see NZ and Christmas would be a good time to travel . She is hoping to get work in Auchland and we would have to consider that if she had found work she may not have much time off to travel round to see the place with us.

 

[Gervan]

Christmas is an expensive time to travel. KLM will cost about €1500 each. You can get tickets for about €800 in November. You can book it yourself online.
From Ireland you will have 2 changes. KLM will take you Cork / Amsterdam / Hong Kong / Auckland. The whole trip will be about 31 hours. My two in NZ prefer New Zealand Airlines, through UK. The cheapest route that offers is usually changing in LA, or you can change in Tokyo.

 

[Sumatra]

I travelled to NZ over Christmas with family and like Gervan says I was quoted telephone numbers but I booked a round the world ticket with Star Alliance (online) and it worked out much cheaper. Out we went DUB - LHR then Air New Zealand (great legroom) to LA. Stayed in LA for 4 nights then Air New Zealand to Auckland and onward connection to Christchurch (missed New Year as we crossed the international date line!). Coming back we flew Singapore Airlines Christchurch to Singapore (again a few days in Singapore) then Singapore to LHR and BMI to DUB. Getting a bit late to book for Christmas now though. I think we booked in early Feb for a Dec departure.