Need help with your baggage?

If you need to carry more than you can fit in your baggage allowance, the best option is to use Prepaid Extra Bags.

They apply to extra bags, or large items like sports gear or musical instruments.

You can buy a Prepaid Extra Bag:

• Up to 90 minutes before your international flight.
• Up to 30 minutes before a domestic flight.

It's cheaper than waiting until you get to the airport and paying for your extra bags.

Add and extra bag to your booking.

No matter what type of seat you have on Air New Zealand, you can bring at least two bags on board with you:

• One carry-on bag which can weigh up to 7kg (15lbs). It needs to be able to fit in the overhead locker or under the seat in front of you, and its length, width and height must add up to 118cm (46.5") or less.
• Plus one small personal item such as a handbag, duty-free bag or a slim laptop sleeve, which must be able to fit under the seat in front of you. A large laptop bag counts as a carry-on bag.

Naturally, there are some things you can't pack for your flight.

You may be allowed more bags, depending on your booking and frequent flyer tier status

You can bring a second item on board if you're flying Business Class, Premium Economy, Air New Zealand Elite, Gold or Star Alliance Gold.

• Your two items can weigh up to 14kg (30lb) in total
• One of your items can weigh up to 10kg (22lb)
• Both items need to meet our size criteria

Connecting to other flights?

If you're flying Premium Economy or Air New Zealand Elite and you'll be switching to codeshare flights or flights on other airlines, you will be limited to the standard allowance: one bag and one small personal item.

Special and oversize items

Sporting goods, musical instruments or other fragile or awkward items that don't meet our size and weight criteria (above) need to fly as checked-in baggage. Unfortunately there just isn't room in the cabin for skis, surfboards, bikes, guitars and tubas. Find out more about oversized and fragile bags. 

We carry checked-in baggage in the aircraft's hold. There's limited space, so to be fair to everyone there's a limit to how much you can bring on board.

Your baggage allowance depends on your ticket, your destination and your Air New Zealand memberships.

Standard checked-in items

A standard item - usually a bag - weighs up to 23kg (50lb), and its length, width and height must add up to 158cm (62") or less.

Flights within New Zealand

• seat only ticket: you can only bring your carry-on items, even if you're a Gold, Elite or Koru member. If you have more baggage than you expected, you may be able to upgrade your ticket to seat+bag.
• seat+bag and flexichange tickets: you can check in one standard item. Gold, Elite and Koru members can bring two standard items.
• flexirefund ticket: you can check in two standard items. Gold, Elite and Koru members can bring two standard items.

See more about checked in baggage allowances when you fly within New Zealand.

Flights to and from Australia, Bali and the Pacific islands

Pacific island flights include Honolulu, the Cook Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia, Niue, Samoa, Tahiti and Tonga.

• seat only: you can only bring your carry-on items, even if you're a Gold, Elite or Koru member. If you have more baggage than you expected, you may be able to upgrade your ticket to seat+bag.
• seat+bag and theworks: you can check in one standard item. If you're flying to Honolulu, or if you're a Gold, Elite or Koru member, you can bring two standard items.
• worksdeluxe and premiumeconomy: you can check in two standard items. If you're a Gold, Elite or Koru member, you can bring three standard items.
• Business: you can check in three standard items.

See more about checked-in baggage allowances for Australia, Pacific Islands and Bali flights.

Other international flights

On most other international flights you can check in one standard item, with extra bags when you fly Premium Economy, Business Class, or are a member of the Koru Club or our Gold or Elite programme.

Find out your check-in allowance with our online calculator.

More information

• Find out more about baggage
• Children and infants allowance
• Connecting travel
• Prohibited items

Yes, if you purchase your fare on our New Zealand or Australian websites or from our contact centre (service fees apply). But please note, you can only do this at the time you book your flight.

If you've already made a booking, you won't be able to pay for another bag with your Airpoints Dollars™, but you can pay with a credit card or a POLi payment*.

If you want to add a bag to your booking, you can manage your booking here.

We're working on our mobile booking capability, but at the moment you cannot use Airpoints Dollars for seat select.

*POLi payments are only available in New Zealand

If there is a flight disruption, your Prepaid Extra Bags will be treated the same as your checked bag allowance.

If we are unable to carry your Prepaid Extra Bags due to a flight disruption, you will be eligible to claim a refund of your Prepaid Extra Bags fee.

For international travel that starts in Brazil, local regulations require all passengers to be given an allowance of two pieces of luggage up to 32kg (70lb) each for the entire ticketed journey, regardless of stopovers.

Normal baggage allowance is one bag weighing up to 23kg. Please double-check with your travel agent or airline that your allowance definitely applies to all legs of your journey. For example, if you have more than one flight reference number, those different flights must be considered as a separate journey. 

Learn more about checked-in baggage. 

If a carry-on bag just isn't enough, you can change your booking to a seat+bag fare. Then you can check in a bigger bag when you arrive at the airport.

You can upgrade your ticket up to 90 minutes before an international flight, or 30 minutes before a domestic flight.

With a seat+bag ticket, you can also buy one or more prepaid extra bags. You can have up to three checked-in bags.

If you're an Elite or Gold tier member, your seat only fare allows two carry-on bags of up to 7kg each.