Air New Zealand Air Points - Non Nz Based Airpoints Members

I am based in Fiji, (Suva actually) and again made Gold Elite recently but am begining to wonder about the wisdom of being loyal to NZ. It seems that all services provided to Gold and Gold Elite FFs presume that the pax is NZ based. Recently I have been trying to access the AKL/LHR fare $NZ1920 offered on the web and keep being bounced between Airpoints and my service centre, neither of whom can help. No one will listen or solve this problem.

A couple of Saturdays (8OCT)ago, I reported in LAX for NZ 21 to NAN/AKL and all business class and gold customers were just told to go to Air Pacific and fend for themselves. Service was cancelled. No initiative that we were NZ customers, no courtesy transfer etc. and no attempt to get us in the lounge or honour the upgrade request, given the prime operator was FJ. The check in staff just said two words, service cancelled and handed out flyers, in the most off hand manner I have encountered in decades.

A special complaint that I have written letters about is this not so new Cafe trans Pacific service being offered in economy between AKL and all Pac destinations. When we travel to SIN, KUL, BKK etc or anywhere in Asia we have to go to AKL to connect and when we travel in economy for the short sector, we pay the economy class fare, but get the cardboard box service of the holiday traffic folk, though our fares differ by a good 400+ NZ$s. This mixed product in economy is not the way to go. No one listens.

And whats with the pick the goodies out of the basket instead of the ammenities kit in Business class these days. Is it really that hard to organise new business class kits? I just feel we are getting the short end of the stick when we stayed loyal to NZ when they were going broke a few years ago and its ironic that they recognise your loyalty with Gold Elite level but do not match it up with the required service delivery level.

Another really bad comparison is the offers and special deals available to us on our website and those of the NZ based website, ours is pathetic.

Having said all that to get it off my chest, just one flight on an American carrier, any carrier I don't care which, reminds me why I love NZ in flight.

And whats with the pick the goodies out of the basket instead of the ammenities kit in Business class these days. Cost cutting, pure and simple.


Is it really that hard to organise new business class kits? No. However there's no real incentive for them to bring back the kits unless/until business class pax complain (enough). If after initial experiments, Air NZ believe they can continue to cut costs by ditching the individual kits and/or cutting back on the sizes of biz class meals and pax will put up with it, well then Air NZ will continue to cut costs that way.

If passengers are upset about the handling during irregular operations, sizes of the business class meals, lack of amenity kits or business class priority luggage handling they must use every opportunity to complain – filling out complaint forms from the Staff onboard and in the lounges. As Quokka said, nothing will change unless enough people complain.

Personally think NZ would be silly to try and cost cut on services for their premium passengers, when it is those passengers that keep them flying. But then again what would I know

I don't mind the removal of the amenity kits. I have a collection of 'em in a box somewhere, in addition to the ones I've emptied of skincare products & refilled with handfuls of plug adapters, network cables and such.

Bring back the collapsible hairbrushes, though. I've lost a couple of mine already :p

Serious though, I'd rather they spent the money on some basic Web site functionality. Not having to reenter your personal info every time you book a domestic flight would be nice :rolleyes:

justakiwi

Serious though, I'd rather they spent the money on some basic Web site functionality. Not having to reenter your personal info every time you book a domestic flight would be nice :rolleyes:

justakiwi

If you log in with your Airpoints number and PIN before beginning the booking, all of the fields except for the credit card details should automatically fill in for you or any other travellers you've got on your giftee register.

Makes it very quick and easy! :)

There are still major faults with the booking engine. I know that if there was a way that many people wanted to give me money through I would ensure it was of the highest quality possible. A new longhaul and BusinessDirect booking engine to complement the stylish new website design is sorely needed.

The site should ideally be able to handle revalidations and cancellations of all bookings made with NZ (so over the phone, and through the BusinessDirect or TravelCentre agents), not just those made over the internet.

I wonder how long before anyone tries to get NZ on not allowing Longhaul, Star Alliance and non-air redemptions over the internet, but still charging a hefty fee for the use of the telephone to redeem ?

If you log in with your Airpoints number and PIN before beginning the booking, all of the fields except for the credit card details should automatically fill in for you or any other travellers you've got on your giftee register.
Just tried a dummy booking via the "Bookings & Rewards" link from the member area & yup you are absolutely right, it does fill the details in. However, I also tried one by clicking on the "Airfares & Offers" button, also after logging in; via that route the form stays blank. So, it appears the behaviour is dependent on how you get to the booking form. At least I know how to make it cooperate now.

I've also struck a problem with int'l bookings in the past; I'm asked to log in, which I do, the login gets accepted ok, and then the site redirects back to the booking & says the user cannot be found :eek:

Here's another bit of functionality I'd like to see: when checking an existing booking, how about a list of all current bookings on the "View Flight Bookings" page rather than having to enter the booking reference & e-mail addy? Cannot be hard to implement.

justakiwi

Here's another bit of functionality I'd like to see: when checking an existing booking, how about a list of all current bookings on the "View Flight Bookings" page rather than having to enter the booking reference & e-mail addy? Cannot be hard to implement.justakiwiThat's what you think :)

Unfortunately NZ's systems are highly antiquated - the call centre staff have their computer screens split into 4 quadrants and one loads up member info and upcoming flights unless the screen has been set to show something else - problem is it's always very out of date. Can you imagine them trying to fit that to the website ?

The website is run by several different systems - and yes when you enter the reference and addy it gets sent to another system to retrieve the booking.

If passengers are upset about the handling during irregular operations, sizes of the business class meals, lack of amenity kits or business class priority luggage handling they must use every opportunity to complain – filling out complaint forms from the Staff onboard and in the lounges. As Quokka said, nothing will change unless enough people complain.

Personally think NZ would be silly to try and cost cut on services for their premium passengers, when it is those passengers that keep them flying. But then again what would I know

I agree with you. Cutting the costs can be very self defeating. If the cost cutting is taken too far it is very counterproductive.

I did report a while back on a recent TransTasman flight on QF.

In my younger years, I was a very FF, flying up front doing both Oz and New Zealand to Japan, Korea and the States using UA, QF and JL, and flying every second month.

These days, I am a domestic FF, a TransTasman FF, and a semi annual long haul customer. TransTasman is Y, and long haul is J

While I growl at some things about NZ, the key issue that keeps me flying with them is the personal service (even speaking as an Oz).

So I can say that Ben at a certain NZ Travel Centre has been great over a some years looking after my company, even when I book on the Internet, the Koru Club staff in Wellington are old friends, the same can be said of Dunedin including some old friends on the ground staff, and also for Christchurch , and the Trans Tasman cabin crew based in Wellington are terrific.

The real secret in extending that, particularly for the incoming NZ CEO is to maintain the personal service that a smaller airline can give, use the flight printouts to extend the same service to other destinations that FF might not always undertake and to look after them, and not to drive the cost cutting to the extent that drives the FF to other airlines.

With computer systems the way they are now, it really comes down to staff training and commitment, rather than further cost cutting that will maintain NZ's position.

Just some thoughts - I hate to keep complaining.

I agree with you. Cutting the costs can be very self defeating. If the cost cutting is taken too far it is very counterproductive.

I did report a while back on a recent TransTasman flight on QF.

In my younger years, I was a very FF, flying up front doing both Oz and New Zealand to Japan, Korea and the States using UA, QF and JL, and flying every second month.

These days, I am a domestic FF, a TransTasman FF, and a semi annual long haul customer. TransTasman is Y, and long haul is J

While I growl at some things about NZ, the key issue that keeps me flying with them is the personal service (even speaking as an Oz).

So I can say that Ben at a certain NZ Travel Centre has been great over a some years looking after my company, even when I book on the Internet, the Koru Club staff in Wellington are old friends, the same can be said of Dunedin including some old friends on the ground staff, and also for Christchurch , and the Trans Tasman cabin crew based in Wellington are terrific.

The real secret in extending that, particularly for the incoming NZ CEO is to maintain the personal service that a smaller airline can give, use the flight printouts to extend the same service to other destinations that FF might not always undertake and to look after them, and not to drive the cost cutting to the extent that drives the FF to other airlines.

With computer systems the way they are now, it really comes down to staff training and commitment, rather than further cost cutting that will maintain NZ's position.

Just some thoughts - I hate to keep complaining.

To add to the above, I have to admit one of my pet hates is about the lack of handling of priority baggage - on a recent flight from WLG - DUN I swear that my bag was the last cab off the rank.