Air New Zealand Air Points - Open letter to Gary Bennett, Manager Airport Support

Open letter to Mr. Gary Bennett, Manager Airport Support, Auckland, New Zealand


Dear Mr. Bennett,

Thank you very much for your lovely letter dated July 21 2006 which I received in the NZ business check-in area, but only reading after my dinner on my way to Los Angeles on NZ 6.
This answer will be also published on the website www.flyertalk.com on the Air New Zealand discussion board.

You accuse me in the 2nd sentence of your letter as follows:
“Your verbal abuse of ground staff was the subject of an official report”

I am not aware that I used any abusive language all the times I was in the airport. Maybe you were not fully aware of what happened exactly, so I’d like to give you some information on that:

I arrived the business lounge at AKL Thursday July 20 in desperate need of a cigarette before my long flight to LAX. I asked the lovely lady at the lounge reception if there is a smoking area available:

She: Sorry, no smoking all over the airport.
Me: Smoking on the toilet is possible?
She: Sorry, also no smoking on the toilet
Me: What is the fine when I smoke? 20, 50, 100 Dollars or more?
She: You cannot smoke.
Me: If I do it, what will you do?
She: I will call security and police.
Me: That is fun, please do that. Maybe you have death penalty on it?
She We do not have death penalty in New Zeeland.
Me: Thank you.

I went to the lounge, had a drink and a cigarette on the toilet. ( by the way I strongly suggest you should use more sensitive smoke detectors there)

About 15 minutes later police and/or security came and asked me if I smoked on the toilet. I said yes I did that, because I am aware that smoking on the plane might be much more dangerous, so I did that in the toilet cubicle in the business lounge without harming others.
Following that was a discussion with the lady of the lounge reception, the security people and perhaps others which I could not follow as I needed to stay in a separate area of the lounge.
The outcome was that I could choose to either go to jail or being offloaded from the flight (very interesting choices I guess).

As you surely know my luggage got off-loaded from the flight and some things were written into my PNR which also prevented my from getting any flight later ( there was another flight to LAX some hours later) and I was forced to stay overnight in Auckland.

All the time I never was loud, abusive, rude or anything else. Please feel free to also ask the security/police staff about that.
Actually I was thinking about asking for compensation for my hotel stay and etc. But it turned out that I had a wonderful night in Auckland:
I stayed in the classy, über-trendy Sky Tower Grand hotel, where I was gladly offered a smoking suite. Later I had the chance to check out a nice gay club and partied all night long until 4 am and ended up in an expensive apartment with a georgous Maori guy, instead of using my nice hotel.

So could you please forward my best regards and wishes to the lady of the business-lounge reception. Without her support I could have never had this great experience in Auckland. I was hoping I could meet her again on Friday, but unfortunately she was not there. However, I hope she already got promoted.

Also please be informed that you do not need to worry that I will fly Air New Zealand again in my future. Its not that I felt mistreated or something like that. I really have no reason to complain.
Its only because I prefer First class travel and unfortunately NZ does not offer that.

Yours faithfully

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Ahhh... BRILLIANT... Just brilliant ^ ^ ... Thanks Jimmy67. Hope to see you in Beirut sooner rather than later where smoking is allowed in any part of the airport even when it says that no smoking is allowed :D .

I will try to be the very first tourist back in Lebanon when this war is over...
In the meantime i desperately look for fun with airline staff as you can see.

But isnt that a shizo-world? Bombs and deaths in the middle east, nobody really cares. And i got 2 policemen guarding me out of the airport because i smoked on the toilet?!?

At least i got the recipe of this below 42 kiwi vodka cocktail.
Kiwi vodka, lime juice, chardonnay and cloudy apple juice.

We'll mix and drink that in Beirut soon!




Ahhh... BRILLIANT... Just brilliant ^ ^ ... Thanks Jimmy67. Hope to see you in Beirut sooner rather than later where smoking is allowed in any part of the airport even when it says that no smoking is allowed :D .

I arrived the business lounge at AKL Thursday July 20 in desperate need of a cigarette before my long flight to LAX. I asked the lovely lady at the lounge reception if there is a smoking area available:

She: Sorry, no smoking all over the airport.
Me: Smoking on the toilet is possible?
She: Sorry, also no smoking on the toilet
Me: What is the fine when I smoke? 20, 50, 100 Dollars or more?
She: You cannot smoke.
Me: If I do it, what will you do?
She: I will call security and police.
Me: That is fun, please do that. Maybe you have death penalty on it?
She We do not have death penalty in New Zeeland.
Me: Thank you.


So you were made aware of what the course of action would be if you broke the rules of the aiport.

You my friend have no grounds to complain on. New Zealand has some very harsh anti-smoking laws and culture. This is their choice and it may have escaped your attention but its an attitude that is spreading across the world.

I hope that Garry Bennett does read this so he knows, by the sounds of it, I fully support the lounge employee.

As to your bizarre boasts about your accomadation and your private life.. :rolleyes:

So you were made aware of what the course of action would be if you broke the rules of the aiport.

You my friend have no grounds to complain on. New Zealand has some very harsh anti-smoking laws and culture. This is their choice and it may have escaped your attention but its an attitude that is spreading across the world.

I hope that Garry Bennett does read this so he knows, by the sounds of it, I fully support the lounge employee.

As to your bizarre boasts about your accomadation and your private life.. :rolleyes:

Of course i did not complain or you think it is a letter of complaint, i just made clear that i did not use abusive language.

I also fully support the lounge employee. She is just doing her job and i was just asking what is the fine for it. Up to about 100 Dollars i would have paid the fine. I usually never complain or discuss with people who anyway are not in the position to decide upon.

I just wanted to let them them know that their "punishment" to let me stay a night in AKL turned out to me a nice memorable life-experience.


I never critizise cultures. If you are like that its ok.
It's fine, so I now know where i will spend my holiday money and where i won't ^ ^ :p

Me: Smoking on the toilet is possible?
Me: What is the fine when I smoke? 20, 50, 100 Dollars or more?
Me: If I do it, what will you do?
Me: That is fun, please do that. Maybe you have death penalty on it?
Me: Thank you.

I can only imagine how you sounded when you said all of that, very arrogant, very rude and could be viewed as agressive/abusive, even though you didn't swear or actually abuse the staff member

The rules are NO smoking, pretty simple, if you cannot go that long with out a cigarette, maybe it's time to quit or not fly direct :p

However, glad you had a nice night :D

"So could you please forward my best regards and wishes to the lady of the business-lounge reception. Without her support I could have never had this great experience in Auckland. I was hoping I could meet her again on Friday, but unfortunately she was not there. However, I hope she already got promoted.

Also please be informed that you do not need to worry that I will fly Air New Zealand again in my future. Its not that I felt mistreated or something like that. I really have no reason to complain.
Its only because I prefer First class travel and unfortunately NZ does not offer that."

This sums up your attitude/arrogance quite well I think!

Your making fun of the staff member concerned and if you prefer first class why did you book on Air NZ ?

This sums up your attitude/arrogance quite well I think!

Your making fun of the staff member concerned and if you prefer first class why did you book on Air NZ ?

Of course I was highly arrogant and with an attitude. I like to be like that sometimes and check the reaction of the staff.
And I broke the law ( here smoking on the toilet) with prior announcement. Without this announcement I am sure they wouldn't have found out and even if the had found out, they probably wouldn't have offloaded me if I were apologetic enough.

Airport/Airline staff is friendly to me because I fly premium classes, not because they like me. I had my cattle class experiences in former times.

I was on a STAR RTW in First, and i had to go via pacific from Melbourne. NZ was the best in terms of time and connection to get my beloved Lufthansa F to FRA in LAX later.

But the NZ flight itself was great. I shared my story with all FA's on board and got always extra-vodka in my below 42 cocktail. On that flight I showed my very nice, genuinely friendly, symphathetic side and the staff reacted like i wanted them to.

The letter of Mr. Bennett is now framed and on my office wall.

I'm sure your letter and this thread won't achieve anything.

You need to respect NZ laws when in NZ, the same that visitors to Germany respect German laws.

Open letter to Mr. Jimmy67, cyberspace

Dear Mr. 69,

Thank you very much for your lovely post dated July 24 2006. The entire incident reminds me clearly of an almost exactly similar incident I recently experienced, with a young lady I am familiar with. In that case she had an urgent request but was told it wasn't allowed, a small dispute followed and then she went ahead and did it anyway. The punishment was the prescribed one in our small culture but she then benefitted from the upside of unforeseen circumstances and claimed a better time of her punishment than was intended.

Afterwards she was very happy to share with everyone how it had worked out, but those actions certainly made her seem smug and not too nice to be around. I don't think she knew she was being smug and not too nice to be around, she might have, but she was given the benefit of any doubt because sometimes personal nature just makes that so.

Anyway, because of the parallels between your incident / behaviour and hers I thought I would write and share this with you.

kiwibigdave
Father of a two year old

I'm sure your letter and this thread won't achieve anything.

You need to respect NZ laws when in NZ, the same that visitors to Germany respect German laws.

Ditto to that. Sorry Jimmy, but you give FF a bad name behaving like that - what did you expect?

Well, this has to be one of the most peculiar post I have read. Under the best of times, airline travel now can be stressful and demanding. What most of us don't need or appreciate is some joker acting like he is above the rules. They are there for a reason. I abhor smoking and people who think it is all right to inflict the rest of us with their nasty habit. Maybe 69 would have had more fun spending the night in jail. I hope he grows up soon. I would think NZ would be thankful he doesn't fly with them anymore.

Hey Jimmy 67

You could be sponsored by Snap-On (because you are a tool).

Leave the Air NZ staff alone.

Smoke around me and I will feel free to respond with appropriate force to protect my lungs.

Pleased you had a good time in Auckland, come back anytime (once you learn to behave yourself).

Anyone ever tell you that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, sweetie?

IMO, NZ was being very accommodating to let you fly at all, ever. I'd wager that if it was any US airline, you wouldn't have been so lucky (and your choice of accommodation that night would have been made for you.)

You're right about Skycity Grand being nice. The sooner they follow the lead of Westin & Marriott, and make it 100% nonsmoking, the better. That way I'll have far less chance of encountering you there.

justakiwi

Wow, that is one complaint to the airline that does not warrant a response, and one customer that Air New Zealand can truly do without.

While there are literally hundreds of things which are actual complaints about Air New Zealand, this is not one of them.

Mr Bennett, if you do read this please feel free to contact me, by way of the link below about the installation of premium check-in for Silver airpoints members, aswell as the current functioning of priority luggage handling facilites.

Wow, that must be the strangest post I have read on here. Ever.

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

I'm sure your letter and this thread won't achieve anything.



Of course this thread and this letter gives you guys the feeling to be so much more

smarter, cleverer, healthier, mature, understanding, political correct

than I am.

sorry - it's much simpler than that. i (we) just would never behave the way that you did. Period.

sorry - it's much simpler than that. i (we) just would never behave the way that you did. Period.

I perfectly agree with you!

I am going to lock this to give the moderators a chance to discuss it.

SanDiego1K
Senior Moderator