Book Cheap Flights with Pacific Blue

Pacific Blue, Virgin Blue’s winsome little subsidiary, launched its maiden voyage in January 2004 from its base in Christchurch. Pacific Blue operates cut-rate air service within domestic New Zealand, for hops across the Tasman, and to the Pacific Islands on behalf of sibling airline Polynesian Blue.

Pacific Blue hosts 108 flights per week. Destinations include Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Melbourne, and Sydney within Australia; Auckland, Christchurch, and Wellington within New Zealand; and the Cook Islands, Fiji, Tonga, and Vanuatu amongst the Pacific Islands, all at bargain prices. Pacific Blue also has package deals for the best holidays ever, including accommodation and car hire services.

For a few extra dollars, Pacific Blue passengers can upgrade their seats to the “Blue Zone” and get a bit of additional leg-stretching room for the flight. Blue Zone seats offer 39 inches of leg room, rather than the usual 31 inches. That’s just a few inches more, but right where it counts.

Pacific Blue flights do earn miles for big sister Virgin Blue’s Velocity frequent flyer programme. The joint programme is free, and it takes only minutes to join online. Velocity points can be earned not only through flying your favourite silly airlines, but also through international airlines, hotel accommodations, car hires, and the NAB Velocity American Express credit card. Velocity points redeem just like cash, for any flight, any time, even peak season flights or sale fares; with Pacific Blue, there’s never a blackout date. Points can also be redeemed for hotel accommodation, car hire, event tickets, or even wine and roses for that special date. If you don’t have quite enough points for your desired end, you can make up the remainder with cash.

Pacific Blue also participates in Virgin Blue’s carbon offset purchase programme. Although this scheme has only been in operation for a few months, it’s proven wildly successful, with thousands of New Zealanders pitching in a few extra dollars to fund the search for renewable and alternative energy sources. Perhaps Pacific Blue isn’t all that silly, after all.