Shock Qantas, Air New Zealand alliance will take on Virgin Australia

Brilliant news! Very clever move Qantas and great for Frequent Flyers in both prog

I imagine the atmosphere at VA today is really jovial...

I wonder what UA thinks about this? and could we see NZ moving from *A over to OW if the upcoming QF/NZ JV gets approved and deepns?

Wow, it hasn’t even been 24 hrs and QF & NZ have closer ties than most of QF’s OW partners. This is amazing news, especially the reciprocal lounge access & SC’s earnings! That’s definitely a huge bonus.

Wow I didn't see that coming!

Very worried about this re competition. I can't see the ACCC approving it.

Holy crap. This isn't good for Virgin at all. Hello Star Alliance?

Good old fashioned pincer play. checkmate

I hope this gets declined! Not because Qantas is at all a bad airline, but the anti-consumerism model of this alliance. What will happen with JQ domestic routes in NZ now QF have codeshare on NZ? Will they pull out? Will we go back to paying over $600 return to get to a city, less than an hour away (WLG-AKL, CHC-WLG etc). Nothing in this comes out the right way, and at the end of the day, screws the average New Zealand Traveler. If this does proceed, it should only upon the entrance of TigerAir in the NZ domestic market, to hold NZ accountable.

I think Virgin should really ask one of the SkyTeam or Star Alliance for help, or seriously it could really affect its trans-Tasman and international network.

As a Kiwi living in Australia, one of the main reasons for joining Virgin was the reciprocal rights to lounge and other benefits with Air NZ. As a Virgin Gold member I feel like we've been thrown under a bus here. I've called Virgin, but they offer no details on life after the Air NZ split. It's just limbo. Does anyone know if you can cross-credit status/points from Virgin to Qantas?

Wow, that is pretty big news. Sadly, I think VA have been seriously out manoeuvred here. Where too from here for them?

Air NZ has always seemed a better fit to OneWorld than *A, in my opinion. Maybe this is the first tentative step in that direction?

Correct DanV; some people should read more carefully before they shoot off a comment.

I did not see this coming at all. As a loyal Qantas passenger, I love the idea of this. I feel sorry for how this may affect VA though...

How long will VA last with basicly near zero feed from New Zealand?

I was super excited when I read the headline, was hoping for codeshare on the flights between Perth and NZ as QF show us no love on that route.

So even Qantas has given up on Jetstar NZ?

How can a NZ regulator or government approve an airline interline deal which stitches up 100% of NZ domestic market. QF / JQ / ANZ.

Couldn't be happier. Especially allowing reciprocal lounge access. I don't see this is a stitch up though... if NZers want to fly someone else domestically here, they are free to as they always were. For QF flyers in NZ now, life just gets that bit easier. TT remains competitive. I think it's a very smart move.

PS to my knowledge there has been a non codeshare interline QF->NZ for baggage at least for some time on some destinations already.... the basic interline is not new.

Just to break it down for everyone:

Well there you go. Competition is dead and burried.

“ANZ and JQ will be competitors”

It seems to me that this is trying to create a monopolistic supply situation, which has the potential to seriously damage the market (ie NewZealand is now completely tied up by the same groups ANZ and QF via Jetstar). This then leads the international aspect of ANZ and QF between the two countries are relative irrelevant as competition, because they can feed on to their "own" coded networks in both countries.

JPmasters totally agreee.

A lot of assumptions being made here that really have no substance. NZ has no intention of leaving Star Alliance and joining OW. Why would it? Star Alliance (or even) SkyTeam are far superior alliances. It is about to commence direct services to ORD which is a major hub for UA. Also, VA will obviously be knocked about by this decision but has other markets and partnerships it will obviously tap into. The NZ and Trans Tasman are important but not everything. VA will however need to join Star Alliance or SkyTeam if it wants to remain in the game. It can easily join either and still retain individual code share arrangements just the same as the NZ/QF is doing here. Every airline has individual code share agreements regardless of what alliance they are a part of.

This is another story that shows another nail being hammered into Virgin's coffin. They're being killed off very slowly. bit by bit.

As many have said great for QF and AirNZ. VA unfortunately out muscled. With Etihad going through their own issues, the solid partners for VA are SQ and Delta. VA being blown off the market is not a good outcome.

The QF premium desk and Amex Centurion were already booking QF passengers on NZ flights domestically for the last 2 years anyway, I asked QF premium Agent why NZ and not JQ and her comment made perfect sense, "they are just too hard to deal with and we want to make sure our customers arrive at their endpoint or connection on time so we will book pax on NZ unless they have a preference for JQ" I asked her how many people took the the Orange Star option............not many!!!!

What about PER-AKL and ADL-AKL

The codeshare between QF/NZ isn't new, perhaps and extension of current arrangement.

Great news. Now I can fly on QF flight numbers in New Zealand without flying Jetstar. Win win situation.

Look at the history of what has happened with people who sleep with Air New Zealand, just another one for them to try and jump.

I'm a New Zealander with many years flying. I've been Air NZ Gold Elite but now Qantas P. When I started TT flying any airline would do but gaining status meant choosing an airline. At one time it was Air NZ with Ansett but when it went down Qantas was the only choice and I have historically stuck with QF. This meant years of cattle class flying in NZ. I remember QF domestic lounges at main centres in NZ but that was a long time ago. This code sharing is nothing but a joy to me. I lok forward to accessing AIR NZ domestic lounges. Auckland beats any QF domestic club lounge.

Could this be the restart of VA domestic flights in New Zealand?

Air NZ flyers will get to experience the "wonderful" service that QF will give their customers within Oz and QF Flyers will get the much better Air NZ service in NZ. Meaning QF flyers in NZ will be better off but Air NZ flyers in Oz wont get the same service they previously got from VA.

VA have I think 5 ATR72-500’s sitting in Nelson so why not start up some flights with that. I would definitely fly VA over JQ if I couldn’t afford the prices on NZ.

This is good, I can now (after Oct) use my A.NZ dollars on a domestic flight, VA refused to allow and A.NZ would not book on a codeshare domestic.

its stupid Jetstar flies within NZ Qantas & Jetstar NZ codeshare how will this work if Jetstar NZ & Qantas code share on flights within NZ Like AKL to CHC Jetstar Qantas codeshares on it

So there is no international lounge access at all? just domestic?

Any indication of when flights will be able to be booked? Qantas sight redirected me to Jetstar NZ when I gave it a go.

I’m QF Club lifetime, koru paid member, which should I prefer ?

That was unexpected. Borghetti will be under pressure now, that’s a terrible result for VA and surely he’ll be facing some heat on this one.

I have an idea for Borghetti: Virgin New Zealand.

What does the sixth paragraph, "the Jetstar flight will be carry for a QF codeshare" mean, exactly?

I fly to regional NZ from Sydney a fair bit on Qantas tickets. When purchasing tickets on the Qantas website the NZ domestic segments offered up have always included both QF coded NZ JQ flights and also AirNZ coded flight options on the ticket.

I'm looking at CBR > WLG flights early November, and still seeing VA/NZ flights, and no NZ flights on QF...

Any updates on whether it is possible to book these codeshare flights yet? Qantas website just redirects me to Jetstar.

Any further news on the new arrangements. I have called QFF and they have said benefits are ONLY FOR PLATINUM FF.

so i hast had a long chat with Qantas FF office. The Codeshare is simply for connecting international flights, not if you are simply flying from Wellington to Christchurch for example. I already have a cross tasman QF flight and they can't even quote against that ticket. This codeshare looks to be completely useless.