dont mean to sound rude

but have you this same level of dialogue with the airline and if so, what was their response?

I don't mind to be rude either, but why vent here? There is a whole department with Air New Zealand who deal with complaints like this.

The company is trying hard to learn how to do things better when things don't go right and I believe is moving in the right direction.

Just venting anonymously here without engaging with Air New Zealand isn't going to make anything better.

But at the end of it, I'm pleased you have another option going to LAX now. Competition is good, it will either show how good or bad the current operator really is.

There is such a department empacher and with the most recent incident I have encountered they do not shine.

A client booked BNE AKL LAX on J class and a Star Alliance Platinum passenger of mine just 2 weeks ago endured the AKL LAX leg with seat mechanism totally U/S.

He had major shoulder surgery about 8 weeks prior and really needed the flat bed to get decent rest which is why he paid premium dollars with NZ rather than other carriers.

Also I had allocated him window on his own and for no apparent reason he had been moved by the airline into the U/S seat.

He was fuming when he finally arrived in LIR Costa Rica and fired off an email to the Airline feedback address. It only took 12 days for a response re compensation and there were no specific details regarding refund. This response came after I emailed my Sales Manager and have still not been acknowledged by her.

This seems to point to an internal "we know best" culture which can be tracked back to practices in the Airline's darkest days but on non operational platforms still seems to be present.

Take the stupid fare groups Trans Tasman where if a premium client wants the "sorta" business class product you can't actually tell from the GDS if it is available until you actually ticket the booking by forcing the fare basis code or calling Reservations. Bloody convenient that and even the staff hate it.

Basically that whole department is sub standard empacher as are a lot of their internal systems.

I will add that the client in question did say that the onboard crew were excellent and very apologetic about something they had no control over.

It would be interesting to know how many segments 02 Juliet was U/S for.

Best regards

EWL

I agree, but it just growed ( like Topsy ) from an initial comment.

Yes, but only to their satisfaction, and Yes, we did enter into dialogue with them and they presented my wife with 50 Airpoints, with an expiry date.

Because there is as yet no competition, we are about to embark on another round trip to the USA with them, can't use the Airpoints awarded because one can't pay for part of a trip with Airpoints, one has to have enough Airpoints to buy the whole ticket, so the 50 awarded will eventually expire.

Yesterday Air NZ told us that they have changed part of the return trip because they have cancelled the Regional flight on Dec. 7th - did we accept this or not ? Our option was to accept or we could cancel the whole trip, which we were tempted to do, until they demanded a cancellation fee of $300 per person. Eventually they allowed us to delay the return trip by 24 hrs., which we can live with but it only reinforces our resolve to give the competition a go asap. Goodbye.

There is no competition????

There is actually in the form of QF via Australia or HA via HNL

My client has been offered a refund of the difference between business and premium economy on the AKL LAX route - at a value of $400.00.

I want these dudes that worked that out to do my business tax next year!!:sad::sad:

My calculation of the fare difference ex BNE is $3550. Even if you take it ex AKL which is totally inappropriate as the fare was purchased from Australia is around $1600.

Are the dudes that calculate these alleged compensations core shareholders?

It would appear so.

When everything works, and even when it doesn't (things do break) the cabin crew shine.

When it doesn't work the alleged customer care department is lack lustre.

Best regards

EWL

Great news. We lost our concessions with NZ a few years back so it will be nice to fly direct from the US and avoid visas for the gang and the extra time in going to SYD and back on ourselves.

That's not competitive in my book, why screw around going backwards to Aus. and/or mucking about with another airport. QF used to fly MEL/AKL/LAX that was competitive on the AKL/LAX route - the only one we are interested in because we need to go to Los Angeles - and we always used it, but not available now. Roll on AA.

Of course, we could also go via Singapore and London, too, but that is hardly competitive either, which is what the thread is all about.

Frankly, with all the useless knee jerk reactions that will be instituted as a result of Paris, I'd just as soon stay at home anyway, and all the airlines can go to Hell.

Today... in conversation with an Air NZ "Customer Service Agent" regarding the upcoming trip we are about to make to LAX, and which they have changed, she "casually" mentioned that they have just totally changed a trip via HNL that we have paid for in June, and once again screwed us. I asked when they might have told us, had we not "accidentally" called them - no idea.

Yes, for that trip we could have used the competition, Hawaiian, but they operated a night flight with inconvenient times, and we preferred Air NZ's day flight with a better itinerary, our choice, except that Air NZ have now changed theirs to a night flight as well, with difficulties now regarding hotels, connections, car hire etc. already booked.

No comment.