We just added cabin class to our search, so the first thing I did was run every New Zealand airport against every Australian one in business class. The result surprised me: trans-Tasman business is sitting at a bit under twice what Qantas charges for economy on the very same flight, and it barely moves across November.
Everything below is a live Kiwi.com price in NZD, checked tonight, all direct:
Auckland → Melbourne, Tue 3 Nov: NZ$733, Qantas, direct, 4h10
Auckland → Brisbane, Tue 3 Nov: NZ$744, Qantas, direct, 3h40
Auckland → Sydney, Tue 10 Nov: NZ$756, Qantas, direct, 3h35
Christchurch → Sydney, Tue 24 Nov: NZ$782, Qantas, direct, 3h35
Also under NZ$810 in the same scan, though I have not click-verified these on Kiwi: Christchurch → Brisbane NZ$767, Auckland → Gold Coast NZ$777, Christchurch → Melbourne NZ$787, Wellington → Melbourne NZ$804.
The part worth knowing. On the same date and the same airline, Qantas economy Auckland to Melbourne was NZ$361. Business was NZ$691 in our search. That is 1.9x for the pointy end, on a route where the cheapest economy seat of any airline is about NZ$290. You are roughly doubling the fare, not tripling it.
And it does not appear to be a sale. Auckland → Melbourne came back at exactly the same price on all six dates I sampled between 27 October and 1 December. Christchurch → Brisbane and Auckland → Gold Coast did the same. That is a fare bucket sitting open rather than a flash drop, so you can pick a day that suits instead of chasing one.
A few routes do swing hard, though. Christchurch → Melbourne is NZ$787 on 3 November and NZ$2,165 on the 10th. Auckland → Brisbane is NZ$702 on the 3rd and NZ$1,569 on 27 October. Worth checking the days either side before you commit.
Worth knowing before you book:
Business trans-Tasman means lounge access, checked bags, priority boarding and a proper meal. Seat type depends on the aircraft, so check what is flying your route if a lie-flat matters to you.
These are one-way fares.
Queenstown is the outlier and not in a good way. ZQN → Sydney was NZ$1,127 and ZQN → Melbourne NZ$1,701, so fly out of Christchurch or Auckland if you can get there.
Prices at this level move, and one of the Christchurch fares already showed "1 seat left at this price" when I checked.
I found these with skyspy.deals, which now searches by cabin class and compares every airport at once rather than one city at a time. It is how the Christchurch fares turned up cheaper than Wellington on three of these routes. Free, no signup. Disclosure: it is my site and it earns a commission if you book through a partner link. All of these are bookable direct with Qantas too, same flights.
