Air New Zealand Airpoints Gold Elite Complimentary Upgrades
 

Below is a quote from Air New Zealands website,

"Gold and Gold Elite members receive two complimentary, one-class, one-sector upgrades. Complimentary upgrades for Gold members may be confirmed by Air New Zealand 72 hours ahead of travel. For Gold Elite members, complimentary upgrades may be confirmed by Air New Zealand up to 355 days before the flight."

Has any Gold Elite member ever been able to confirm a complimentary upgrade prior to check in on the day of travel?

I am Gold and get the two comps each year. I usually call NZ 3 days ahead and the upgrade is always confimred then. Hoever, this very depends on teh loads.

What route you flying and when?

Cheers

Pacific Islands and Hawaii is our usual route and we fly every 2-3 months.
Always fly in Bus Class and only booked economy to use the upgrades.
They would not even confirm at check in despite being 6 empty seats in Bus.
They said it was an Airpoints booking and we were only Koru members despite being assured it was actually an Air NZ Holiday Shop booking and being shown our Gold Elite cards they would not sort it out.
Supervisor was too busy to talk to us and then we noticed we were not even sitting together.
Turns out they had checked in another passenger with a similar name to my wife's seat.
Koru Lounge staff sorted it out and assured us we were upgraded on the return flight as well but we were not.
Had been trying for months to get them confirmed.

Stick with your complaint and push it further up the tree to get a satisfactory reply.

Normally cant fault Air NZ and it does sound initially like a genuine error. Pity about the failure on the return upgrade however

On our one occassion we had an issue with Air NZ, it related to a certain individual at Nelson check-in who couldnt fathom why a couple with baby would take precedence for bassinet seats. It only took one escalation email to get some focus on the issue (and hopefully him demoted for eternity ever after)

Very quickly resolved and they now have a fan for life:ok:

Has been well pushed with Air NZ and we have now lodged a complaint with the Commerce Commission.
I just think the two Statements,
"For Gold Elite members, complimentary upgrades may be confirmed by Air New Zealand up to 355 days before the flight."
and
Air New Zealand's definition below,
"Complimentary Upgrade" is a specified number of upgrades that may be awarded by us to Tier Status Members as part of their Tier Status benefits. Complimentary Upgrades are subject to seat availability at the time of departure at the airport and are not guaranteed."
are mutually exclusive, you can either confirm an upgrade or you cant.
If you cant at any stage confirm the upgrade then I believe it is deceptive to induce people to try and attain Gold Elite status in the belief that they will be able to confirm upgrades when they book a flight.
We did spend over $40 000 in a 12 month period to attain Gold Elite status and if they are only going to give you a seat they cant sell it is not really a benefit and in our case we have been punished for our loyalty rather than rewarded.