That is actually an awesome ID90 price of only $550 roundtrip to AKL. I had $550 ID90 quotes for domestic tickets when I was still at the airlines. ID90 is almost pure crap. ZED is very nice for international like dojetdriver said. I used to do ZED fares to Asia all the time for less than $250 roundtrip (haven't done it for about a year and a half). I would suggest finding destinations that are served multiple times per day by the same airline from the same place like LAX, SFO, or JFK and then call their reservations line and ask for flight load info. If you can't get multiple flights from the same carrier to where you want, then get ZED fares on other airlines that do the same flight from the same place also and then get a refund on the unused fares when you come back. This worked great for me. I would also suggest doing the majority of your ZED travels off-season if possible to help ensure you will get on since they are still standby seats.