Brainlessness rules at Air NZ
Thread Starter
Brainlessness rules at Air NZ
You fly Business Class on LH and TG to AKL and transfer to NZ (all Star Alliance carriers) at AKL onto a domestic service that only offers Economy and Air New Zealand charges you excess baggage on anything over 20kg.
I couldn't believe it either (In fact, I was so pi$$ed off I blogged it - pprune manges the hyperlink - google "you must be from away catch 22 reloaded") so I followed up to point out the sheer lack of logic, given that when you fly from a domestic leg onto an international leg via North America they'll grant you the full allowance.
It turns out (so saith the Domestic Airport Manager) that if THE SYSTEM doesn't recognise the leg as part of a continuous journey (which it won't in my case, because it's an ID ticket with separate booking/listing PNRs) , THE SYSTEM will charge me excess baggage.
The fact that I have a continuous ticket appears to be irrelevant. THE SYSTEM can't see the physical ticket and THE SYSTEM won't listen to the check-in people, even if they'd care to tell THE SYSTEM.
And this despite the fact that their website declares:
Sometimes I seriously wonder whether the inmates really are running the asylum....
I couldn't believe it either (In fact, I was so pi$$ed off I blogged it - pprune manges the hyperlink - google "you must be from away catch 22 reloaded") so I followed up to point out the sheer lack of logic, given that when you fly from a domestic leg onto an international leg via North America they'll grant you the full allowance.
It turns out (so saith the Domestic Airport Manager) that if THE SYSTEM doesn't recognise the leg as part of a continuous journey (which it won't in my case, because it's an ID ticket with separate booking/listing PNRs) , THE SYSTEM will charge me excess baggage.
The fact that I have a continuous ticket appears to be irrelevant. THE SYSTEM can't see the physical ticket and THE SYSTEM won't listen to the check-in people, even if they'd care to tell THE SYSTEM.
And this despite the fact that their website declares:
For all flights:
Please note that if part of your itinerary involves travel under the piece system, then the piece system will apply to your whole Air New Zealand journey
Please note that if part of your itinerary involves travel under the piece system, then the piece system will apply to your whole Air New Zealand journey
Last edited by RevMan2; 12th May 2008 at 12:09.
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???
Can you help us to understand the problem further please?
Apologies if I'm being a bit slow here - just trying to understand better.
- An ID ticket sometimes means a staff ticket (Industry Discount) - were you travelling on this, or some other kind of fare?
- Was the domestic leg booked separately (i.e. different PNR's) to the other sectors and ticketed separately (i.e. separate tickets)?
- Was the piece system applied (i.e. ticketed) on the LH/TG sectors, as opposed to a weight/kgs system?
Apologies if I'm being a bit slow here - just trying to understand better.
Lady Lexxington
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Hang on, you can't have a continuous/through ticket if your booking is on seprate PNR's. If that is the case then NZ were correct to charge you the excess.
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The system is correct. Two different PNRs means two different tickets, even if your travel agent has done it as a continuous ticket. If it was done online with NZ, then you should have one PNR for the entire journey.
But one would expect the system to be somewhat flexible to understand that it is being overridden.
S.
But one would expect the system to be somewhat flexible to understand that it is being overridden.
S.
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It may be different for ID tickets, but for normal tickets PNRs and ticketing can of course be totally separate. I have often had tickets with 17 segments on them (OneWorld RTW tickets) with all but the first one or two segments issued simply as open-dated. when I want to use the segment I make a reservation (which generates a PNR) for that segment. There may be 5 or more unlinked PNRs in existence at any one time for journeys for which I will use coupons from that ticket. Depending on the airline policy there may or may not ever be a ticket number associated with the PNR.
But this doesn't matter, because the baggage allowance is defined on the ticket coupon, and if it passes through North America then all coupons on the ticket have the piece-based baggage allowance.
But this doesn't matter, because the baggage allowance is defined on the ticket coupon, and if it passes through North America then all coupons on the ticket have the piece-based baggage allowance.
Paxing All Over The World
and if it passes through North America then all coupons on the ticket have the piece-based baggage allowance.
Thanks.
Thread Starter
Again
My understanding of 'itinerary' is the entire routing from departure airport to arrival airport.
My single ticket -FRA-BKK-AKL-NSN-AKL-LAX-FRA - contains to/from/via elements, thus per definition the piece system must apply to the AKL-NSN leg. (It did on the NSN-AKL leg)
@ Tightslot
ID90R2
Single ticket as above
Separate PNRs but as christep correctly points out, PNRs aren't of relevance here.
UPDATE
Air NZ online help confirms that the piece count should have applied on all NZ sectors
Left hand, right hand....?
Please note that if part of your itinerary involves travel under the piece system, then the piece system will apply to your whole Air New Zealand journey
My single ticket -FRA-BKK-AKL-NSN-AKL-LAX-FRA - contains to/from/via elements, thus per definition the piece system must apply to the AKL-NSN leg. (It did on the NSN-AKL leg)
@ Tightslot
ID90R2
Single ticket as above
Separate PNRs but as christep correctly points out, PNRs aren't of relevance here.
UPDATE
Air NZ online help confirms that the piece count should have applied on all NZ sectors
Left hand, right hand....?
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I'm sure that this must be frustrating. On the information provided, it is hard to understand why this problem has arisen. I imagine that you'll boycott ANZ when it comes to accepting concessionary tickets from now on?
Thread Starter
@ TS
Nicely snide comment there, mate...
They're the only game in town on a lot of routes and I'm fully aware that "it's a privilege, not a right", so yes, I'm pleased to use their services if they've got space and I'll take some extra cash along to pay for excess baggage if someone decides not to apply their published rules.
What rankles is the difficulty in a) getting them to accept that they MIGHT have made a mistake and b) having to deal with people who don't know their company's policy, secure in the knowledge that they'd do EXACTLY the same to a full-fare passenger.
Who would then proceed to boycott Air NZ's services....
Nicely snide comment there, mate...
They're the only game in town on a lot of routes and I'm fully aware that "it's a privilege, not a right", so yes, I'm pleased to use their services if they've got space and I'll take some extra cash along to pay for excess baggage if someone decides not to apply their published rules.
What rankles is the difficulty in a) getting them to accept that they MIGHT have made a mistake and b) having to deal with people who don't know their company's policy, secure in the knowledge that they'd do EXACTLY the same to a full-fare passenger.
Who would then proceed to boycott Air NZ's services....
Last edited by RevMan2; 17th May 2008 at 12:19.
