This is an interesting question, especially as kkiwi states:

So why did he chose to fly with his family on a "damaged" plane?

I wonder if kkiwi got a knock back from AirNZ:{

Kkiwi, out of curiosity, what level pilot were you - ATPL/CPL?

Just to clarify - I'm not CPL just long expired PPL and I wasn't sure about it being a crack, I just wanted to point out a possible crack. I know I did wrong calling him an idiot in front of other passengers, I had been standing in line waiting to be "processed" for over an hour, and that was after a ten hour flight from NZ. If only he had been a bit more professional (& customer focused) he wouldn't have been called an idiot in the first place! By the way the name calling was fairly quiet, but unfortunately he heard it.