PUCK-

I've been to both NZ and OZ. I had to buy a ticket to NZ as my former regional didn't participate in the ZED system. I had non-rev privileges with UAL but ANZ would not honor a UA ID90, even though they are part of the same global alliance team, or whatever.

OZ is quite a bit easier to get to as UA flies direct. I was able to buy a ZED fare the second time around and flew QA. They left the biz class section empty so they wouldn't over gross (I thought this was odd for 74-400 but they could have had a lot of cargo in the belly). This is really the easiest way to go UNLESS, call Atlas, Polar, FedEx, and UPS and ask about jumping with them. The freight haulers love have jumpers to break up the routine of the long flight. There may be issues with int'l jumpseat policies, but it never hurts to ask.

Hope this is useful to you. Fall on the south island is absolutely spectacular. Travel priveledges or not, I'd almost consider applying to ANZ just to live there. Too bad they're not accepting expats (yet? they should hire all the hire the locals they can get their hands on first though).