Air New Zealand Air Points - NZ119 Disrupt - Not handled too well....

Hi all,

so I had a nice trip up to AKL from CHC in the 777 on NZ98, went to the AKL lounge for a polite (and hopeful) enquiry, and joy!! Got my AP upg to BP, and just the seat I had hoped for, 4K, in the nose of the 747 heading across to Sydney on NZ119!! Ah, but the flight was delayed 2 hours, so not leaving until 3pm. OK, no worries, into the lounge....... love the AKL lounge, but such a pity that the view is mostly gone now...

2.30pm - Announcement comes that the flight is delayed until 4pm now, no other explanation given.

3.20pm. I think about heading down to get some DF wine and be one of the first ones to board, quick check with the lounge lady.... Ah no sorry flight is now delayed until 5pm. "Well you better make that announcement to the lunge, as everyone is confused and wondering what is going on" I say. She agrees.

3.50pm. Half an hour later, and after tons of enquiries by pax to her, she finally decides to make said announcement, needless to say many pax are getting grumpy now, demanding transfers to other flights/airlines/refunds etc etc.....

4.30 Announcement made in the lounge that flight is boarding.
4.40 Get to gate, there is no aircraft at the gate! The 747 is way out on the tarmac with the number 1 engine being worked on.
LONG WAIT. Many people unhappy with misinformed lounge call. Grumpy Mutterings....
5.20 Plane finally arrives at gate, engine 1 is then reopened in front of us and more work is done.
5.40 We start boarding!!

I get a glass of bubbly, enjoying being up the front of the 747 at last. I had been upstairs in both PE and BP, and had been in the other lower deck 747 BP cabin, but being up the front was indeed nice. Personally I think I'd prefer the increased sense of privacy in row 6 or even 7 as I found 4K to be a little 'exposed'? I had previously sat in 15K and found that very good for privacy as well. Of course for a couple 1A and 1K would be nice, but possibly a little stuffy or cramped?? If I had to pick my best seats for a couple on the 747 in BP, I'd personally say 14K and 15K (or 14A/15A). YMMV of course. They do say these seats may have a little more galley noise, but I doubt it'd be too much of a problem. Anyway, back to the drama.

6.10 We head out onto the tarmac.... We stop. We wait.
6.20 Captain announces embarrassingly that the 'engine gremlin' has returned. But hopefully we can get it fixed quickly. We head back to the gate. Nice glass of pinot arrives (my post takeoff drink).
6.40 Captain announces that it can't be fixed quickly, and sorry, but you'll all be put up in hotels for the night. We're waiting for gate staff etc..
7.10pm!!!!!! We finally get to disembark. We are told that we are free to take our duty free with us through customs or we can leave it at the duty free counter. I confirm this with the flight service manager as I leave. We go through customs again as we had left the country....

7.40 (at least) - after a LONG WAIT, and an announcement that due to 'mechanical problems our baggage will be delayed', our bags finally arrive. Quarantine etc... Head to desks 26-30 as instructed - I was one of the first to get there.

I'm told that Biz pax are off to the 'Langham' and am given a taxi chit each way. It's five star she says... Nice. Oh hang on, other lady has said, not the Langham, BP is going to the Centra. So myself and a few other Biz pax who were there by now are all changed to the Centra. Hmm.... Centra rooms are nice, but we're not allowed room service, not allowed to order from the menu in the dodgy restaurant (horrible flouro lighting), have to have the buffet, and drinks are extra. Ok the buffet is decent enough, but now feeling the effect of AirNZ cost cuts. Other fellow revenue BP pax are joining me, so it's not that I was an upg customer either. Feeling such a downer after being in 4K looking forward to the venison main, then seeing my wife again that evening. Now by myself in an ugly flouro-lit restaurant eating curry and rice with an overpriced and very average wine. SIGH.

I call res, and basically no business available the next day at all, on either the 7am,9am,1pm or 4pm. another SIGH. I list on the 9am, and they put on my res to 'please try and upg if possible, valued customer, lost his BP upg due to disrupt'. They won't give me a confirmed upg, even though there is still a couple of seats still available. I sort of understand, and so I'm being very calm, friendly and nice about it, but quietly seething about missing out on my 4K!!

I can't sleep. I call res at 1am with two questions. Any change in biz status? And are they sure that I can take my duty free back through security, even though it's bottles of wine??? I am told that there has been an extra 767 flight at 8am put on the cater for this disrupt, but sorry all biz has been allocated. I'm not very happy to hear this, but hey I was still an upg customer, hopefully they did the right thing and assigned on order of priority, not order of grumpiness!!! Maybe....

And yes, 'they will definitely make an exception for the duty free given the special circumstances.'

Get no sleep at all. Head to airport at 6am, at least the Centra is close!! I go straight to Premium check in after seeing the HUGE lines at economy checkin, and I'm not in the mood to be waiting for an hour. No upg for me, but nice lady did try. I ask about my duty free, and she goes to see security about it..... Well WHAT A SURPRISE.... there is NO WAY that security will allow these liquids through. She does agree to let me put it in my suitcase and not charge any extra fees, so that's fine, but it is so annoying that I had been told twice that the duty free would not be a problem. Get it together AirNZ.

Anyway, I go back to the lounge, show the man my 4K pass from previous day, and my econ class from today, and he kindly lets me into the lounge. Nice breakfast and coffee, and uneventful flight back to Sydney.

But the final straw is the (economy booking) pax next to me saying that he stayed the night at the Langham, and ordered a very nice meal from their normal menu. ARRGGHH.

Sorry to be so longwinded, and many won't care (happens all the time they'll say), but it's just so frustrating to have this many inconsistencies in the handling of disrupts like this.

I hope AirNZ get some stronger, more definitive (and more generous) actions for these situations in the future. I know that many paying FQTV customers from BP who won't be flying AirNZ again after this if they have a choice.

Not me though, still a devoted AirNZ fan, but this was a sour incident.

Cheers
TiggerK

NZ seem to be two 747 down last week.
It looks as if the same one appears to be playing up again.
Sorry that things did not turn out for you but regarding duty free I would have been very surprised if the security facists would have let you through with them. That is why the DF desk offer was made, while other AKL based flyers probably took them home to enjoy.
I will not tell you about the Langham, but I have stayed there twice....

Yikes, and I'm due to fly on the 747 AKL-LAX on this coming Monday! Fingers crossed here...:eek:

You've found my favourite seat - 4k on the 747! I actually like the space it has, compared to 6 and 7, and seems to be a good balance of keeping furthest apart and not being too close to the galley.

If any disrupt for me, would rather pay for a room at the Westin or Hyatt, lol! :p

Yes, fair enough that some AKL'ers might have taken the duty free home, but reservations specifically stated to me that my wine would be allowed through security given the special circumstances. Of course we FT'ers know better!! Annoying though to be told something, only for them to be totally wrong. I wonder if I was the only one??

The 1st officer actually came to the front cabin and chatted with us about the issue. Apparently engine 1 had been hit by lightning 3 days earlier, but had been working fine ever since, but now there was an issue with fuel flow readings, probably due to a wiring fault somewhere (not easy to fix quickly!)). The plane name was Dunedin, not sure of it's designation.

Yes 4K was certainly a good seat, I just felt a bit 'exposed' upon first sitting down with some people opposite me that I felt a bit uncomfortable with.

Cheers
TiggerK

P.S And yes, there was another 747 out of service the same day as well, NZ5 or 6 I think it was.

Wow. I've never had anything like that happen. Closest would be when stuck overnight in PER due to our 767 being something like 12 hours late. That time (as paid biz pax) we got NO food vouchers - just a room at the Sheraton to sleep in until our OMG o'clock wake up call (which Air NZ moved forward half an hour grrr), cab to the hotel and bus back (except the bus wasn't big enough so some of us had to cab back anyway).

As for duty free - really how can Air NZ dictate what security will do? If it was me I would have left it airside for collection next day.

I've never flown NZ but experienced and heard all kinds of flight cancel/delay stories during my recent trip (Mar 4-17). Had a wonderful trip, no problems, until departure time, Sun. Mar 16. Arrived at Christchurch for my CHC-AKL-LAX return home and told by the check-in agent "bad news", AKL-LAX is cancelled. Referred to another person at a different desk; went to that person who said you need to call on the wall phone, nothing I can do.

Waited on hold 15 minutes. First was told all flights the next day were sold-out, we're looking at 2 days from now. Then, luckily, agent discovered someone had already put us on NZ6 the following day. Flew to AKL, told to go to customer service desk for hotel voucher--long line, not moving, lots of angry passengers. Someone else got a voucher at another location, no wait. So off I went and did the same. We were all taken to the Centra (coach ticket) with the buffet dinner & breakfast. No one was charged for all the wine consumed after the ordeal either.

Heard lots of horror stories--flight after ours (don't know which one) was also cancelled. No calls or e-mails from NZ re:flight cancellation. People I sat next to on the return flight had the same experience getting to AKL from LAX weeks earlier. Don't know--is this the norm for NZ???

Bright side was we got to spend a day in AKL although a bit of a hassle getting from the airport into town, storing luggage, retrieving it, etc. Also, was very pleased that at the last minute they kindly changed my ticket to SFO instead of LAX, which saved me 4 hours travel time and $150 full fare WN ticket.

Don't know--is this the norm for NZ???

No. In hundreds of international flights on NZ I have not had a cancellation yet.

It seems NZ is short an a/c at the moment (maintenance checks, charter, something) and with such a small fleet any problem with another a/c then creates scheduling problems.

NZ were actually four aircraft down last week. Lots of delayed and cancelled flights.

Although I tend to be pragmatic about such things (it's the nature of air travel), NZ are not good at handling disruptions .. but not many airlines are.