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Air New Zealand Is Offering Mystery Breaks to Boost Domestic Travel

News Airports + Flying
by Eben Diskin Oct 20, 2020

Instead of pretending everything is normal in the world of travel, Air New Zealand is creatively capitalizing on some of the uncertainty. The airline is bringing back its Mystery Breaks program, which allows travelers to pay a flat fee to book a whole vacation package with Air New Zealand, but there’s a catch — they won’t know their destination until two days before departure. Normally that might sound too stressful to be worth it, but right now, when people are eager for any vacation at all, it might just be crazy enough to work.

According to the promotion’s website, “Take an Air New Zealand Mystery Break and who knows where you’ll end up. It could be any one of the popular destinations on the Air New Zealand domestic network. The mystery won’t be revealed until two days prior to travel. You’ll fly Air New Zealand to your mystery destination, pick up your Avis rental car or transfer, then check in to your Accor hotel. Then it’s up to you. Go exploring, or just kick back and relax.”

Passengers can choose from three tiers — Great, Deluxe, or Luxury — which determine the quality of hotel and rental car, and select the dates they want to travel and one destination they’re definitely not interested in going. The packages start at 599 New Zealand dollars per person for two nights, but increase based on the option you choose. The 20 possible destinations are all domestic.

Since New Zealand’s borders are closed to most due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and travel out of the country is also severely restricted, the Mystery Breaks program gives travelers a way to go on an adventure.

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