Air New Zealand Air Points - Usually tedious issues with Air NZ?

Having just finished a bracket of 8 tedious domestic flights I have some questions.

1. Why has the AKL Koru parking been relocated to the furtherest possible position from the departure arrival gates?

2. Why does the wireless login change each month and have more security (upper and lower case and numbers) than my bank requires?

3. Why have my last 8 domestic flights on NZ all been late (up to 40 mins)despite no wx issues?

4. Why when flights are late are no announcements generally made until after departure time often preventing changing to a flight that will get me where I want to go on time?

5. Why do res staff so often lie about delys and give misleading information, ie its operating on time when arrival at the airport makes it blatently obvious the flight is not?

6. Why are pax allowed to book the center forward seats when they are supposedly kept clear for Golds etc (even when flights are lightly loaded)?

7. Why is there no flexibility in changing to an earlier flight when its likely the booked one will be delayed, even budget carriers allow this

8. Why are staff leaving a full fare airline to earn more at a low cost one (Virgin Oz)? Is this good for morale?

9. Why is the food in the lounges so unhealthy, pies, hot dogs for gods sake!

10. Why is a gate at AKL now permanently walk across the tarmac, back to the 1960’s?

11. Why aren't carry on baggage rules usually enforced?

12. Why do elite pax who pay more have to board after discount pax have grabbed the overhead lockers on the way past?

13. Why keep the seat-belt sign on in the cruise in still air?

14. Why renew so many Gold Elites last year that didn't travel enough to exceed Jade? Who is kidding who and who is living in denial?

15. Why claim there has been no reduction in Gold Elties due to shabby service in the past year when disingenuously its because they are all being comped?

16. Why allow reward inventory to be booked in advance by people who get airpoints from their mortgages and are not loyal customers.

17. Why was Gold and elite priority access to award inventory dropped?

18. Why does F class fare on a *A carrier earn less than AirNZ J class, even when AirNZ don't fly the route, e.g. AKL-SIN?

19. Why do I need to fly less than 5 round trips AKL to LHR on other *A to get a family member companion one and over 10 on AirNZ?
20. Does anyone in managment at NZ there ever think about the customer?

Why don’t I fly Air NZ when I have a choice, let me see…….. Anyone else have the same general experiences and get tired of all the tedium? If so maybe an open letter to Rob Fyfe?

Welcome to Flyer Talk Aeroflot :)

3) What do you consider to be late? 2 minutes or 20 minutes or ... ? I haven't noticed an unusual amount of delays on my flights. Of course wx (etc) delays could arise earlier in the day elsewhere and not catch up - will not always be obvious.

4) If flight delayed less than 40 minutes then alternative flights are unlikely to be departing (much) sooner.

5) If they are unaware of delay it is not a lie - rather misinformed, IMHO.

6) A gripe for me too. If load is light enough I'll ask to switch seats onboard.

7) I have been able to do this (in certain circumstances). Perhaps you don't have enough status?

9) Other than regional lounges there is always a healthy option also. No one is forced to eat unhealthy food.

10) Blame AIAL - domestic terminal is too small, even with the redevelopment last year. I assume you are talking about jet flights. Props always have a walk across the tarmac.

11) My test is can I find room in the overhead bins, by my seat, for my (small) carryon? I'm yet to find that I can't - at least on jet flights.

12) This not a problem in my experience on NZ. It is on some US-based airlines, but not here.

13) Not my experience.

14) I don't recall seeing reports of GEs being comped renewal, and Jade has no qualification so I'm unsure what your point is.

16) What FFPs don't have this as an issue? NZ is better than average, IMHO, due to relatively low non-flying earning rates and the expiry rules.

17) Still exists AFAIK.

18) Because airpoints is geared towards rewarding revenue/profitability for NZ. They make more money on their own flights than on other airlines' flights. If you don't like it switch to a more traditional FFP (although that goes against your issue #16).


A lot of gripes but very few seem to be warranted, IMHO. If you are this unhappy I'd suggest switching airline and FFP.

Number 6 I definitely agree with. Your other questions make me wonder if you're employed by Pacific blue???... :D

Hi Aeroflot, and welcome to FT. Here's my observations:

3. Sounds like you've been unlucky. Weather delays involving Wellington are fairly common though.

4. I'm surprised if there's much choice with only a 40 min delay.

6. My experience of seat blocking as a Gold is inconstent. But I'm not too bothered, it's one of those perks that's nice when it happens, but no big deal when it doesn't.

7. I've found staff are often proactive about getting me onto another flight when they know mine is going to be delayed.

8. They aren't relocating at the same time are they? Nothing to do with standard Oz pay vs standard Kiwi pay?

9. I don't think much of the hot dogs dogs either. Good for kids, but not really aimed at the business travel market.

11,12 Haven't noticed this as any worse on NZ than elsewhere. Unless you're used to US or European domestic when I imagine security is such a pain people just check it all in.

13. I've not had that happen.

14,15 I've not heard of this before. I'm not in the NZ FFP though. But I don't think airbucks is a very generous scheme, maybe people are flying just the same but crediting elsewhere.

16. They are loyal customers. But of the FFP, not the airline.

18,19 It's not a very generous scheme. Why not credit elsewhere? Of course, if you are flying paid SQ F (*A AKL-SIN), then maybe you don't need to worry too much about points.

Why don’t I fly Air NZ when I have a choice, let me see……..
Most of your issues are either just bad luck, or they are fairly minor, or they are about the FFP, not the airline.

Aeroflot,

Welcome to FT, as per Kiwi Flyer if you don't like it, move Airline or FFP.

I have found Air NZ service to be very good in general, and I have flown allot in Europe the US as a point of comparison. After a trip back in September, I now favour NZ over SQ for my trips back to LHR!!

My FFP is BMI, I am a :-:g, and NZ look after me well as such, seat up the front, blocking seats where they can etc. And once you hit gold, you only need a couple of AKL-LHR RTN flights in Y to keep it. No upgrades, but cash and miles flights will get you up the front.

My last LAX-AKL the FA came and gave me eye shades and ear plugs etc.

The way I look at it, they are a business, while I agree with you on some points, it really comes down to if they can make money or not, if they start to lose money I am sure they will fix stuff, but if loads are good......

tht

I'm a gold elite (have been for 10 years) but dont expect to be much longer and dont work for Pacific Blue or any other airline. I'm an airline customer.

I have changed FPP for overseas flights (*A) and do find the alternative much better, but there are still circumstances when there is not much choice eg AKL-DUD and NZ is the only option.

However the central point I was trying to make in the hope it stimulated some discussion and that maybe the site is monitored by nz managment is that thre are a lot of things that could easily be done far better if management had a more customer (as opposed to cost reduction and revenue maximisation exclusively) focused attitude. Its gone way out of balance imho and whilst short term profitability is up long term I see a huge number of my industry peers voting with their feet and NZ managemnt living in denial about it happening.

I do also believe overseas based pax experiences is often better than locals because nz crew (like most kiwis) like to help (but hate to serve!).

Thanks for your thoughts and comments - as I live about half-time in NZ and the other half in the USA, I often go through uncertainty as to which *A carrier to credit my flights to, and searching through all the Forums here has been a big help in steering me away from some tragic choices!

Having just flown QF domestic AKL to ZQN and parking in a remote lot (no valet for me this time!), I guess I don't feel the Koru parking is that far away at the AKL domestic, or do you mean international?

I do know what you mean about the wi-fi login. For heaven's sake, do they think that people will be sneaking into the airport and onto the tarmac just to use their connection?! :rolleyes:

Being an American, I'm used to delays and all sorts of explanations for why they occur, and must admit I still feel that NZ is not as bad as say US "Scare-ways"! Locally, I've had worse luck with domestic QF to be honest, but may not travel as frequently as you do.

That is odd that they are not allowing pax to standby to earlier flights - it happens pretty easily for me in the US, all with no fuss and no penalty.

As for walking on the tarmac, I would agree that it's not too pleasant in bad weather. Some of the US carriers like AA and UA are reportedly going back more to that older method of boarding small regional planes, to free up gate space for the bigger planes.

That's disappointing to hear that priority access to award inventory has been dropped, and I've noticed it seems harder to get confirmed/complimentary upgrades these days. That being said, I abandoned AA's Aadvantage program a while back when it suddenly became impossible to book any award seats/upgrades that I used to routinely get (and I'm talking usually just once a year, so am not a heavy demand on them!).

The thing that still annoys the heck out of me, despite understanding the reasoning behind it, is the discrepancy in APD award charts for NZ and *A. I guess the advantage of a miles-based program is that one mile is one mile, regardless of which metal you flew it on. And to top it off, whenever I have flown a separately booked and paid for itin on UA out of LAX, for example, I then get an automatic reduction in my NZ APD earned and have to email or call them to reverse it! :mad:

That being said, I'm still pretty satisfied with NZ overall and plan to stick with them for now. I'd be curious to know who you switched to for your long-haul *A though? I read comments from other travel websites that talk about switching from the days of loyalty to one program/airline, and that FTers should instead be flexible for whomever has the best deal at the moment.