Air New Zealand Air Points - Air New Zealand Service Issues

Last June I booked a ticket online with Air New Zealand for travel from Sydney to Auckland. I thought I had purchased a ticket that was refundable. When I received my confirmation by e-mail, it stated the ticket was NON-refundable. I contacted customer service and both represenatives I spoke with said that they could not change the ticket or upgrade my ticket to a refundable ticket (Which I would have gladly paid for, of course). I was not able to use the ticket. So I was stuck with the ticket issued and I would have to pay a $100 change fee and difference in fair if I were to use it, which was only good for 12 months.
I filed a complaint with American Express and contested the charge twice without success. AEX attmepted to contact the airline to negotiate on my behalf, without success. AMEX was very kind and provided some membership reward points and a $100 credit to make up for Air New Zealands fee and lack of service. At least AMEX knows how to treat their clients.
I am very dissappointed in the rigid ideology and lack of service from Air New Zealand. I will not fly Air New Zealand. No Kiwi airline for me.

Last June I booked a ticket online with Air New Zealand for travel from Sydney to Auckland. I thought I had purchased a ticket that was refundable. When I received my confirmation by e-mail, it stated the ticket was NON-refundable. .

wow , did that post really take you 10 months to write ? Well , I suppose you have learned the hard way the perils of being too fast with the keyboard ;)

Every time I have booked online on their website I have had very explicit conditions advised eg

AUCKLAND TO WELLINGTON
WELLINGTON TO AUCKLAND DOMESTIC SMART SAVER FARE Airpoints No Airpoints Dollars accrual Cancellation
No refund

shoved in my face before I even got a chance to put in my credit card details .... now , we all makes mistakes sometimes when we are in a hurry , and it certainly would have been nice of them to help you out with your little case of computer keyboard trigger finger ... but I certainly dont see that they were in any way obligated to assist you .... I would also suggest to you that you stay away from booking online altogether with any airline because I have seen many other airlines websites that frankly do not make it anywhere near as obvious as NZ do when buying non-refundable ( or non-airpoints accruing ) fares

I think it is pretty difficult for them to do anything. They cant upgrade the fare, and they cant refund it either. As kiwiandrew says, it is sorta obvious, but yes, we all make mistakes. Ive gotten away with a few date changes for free etc, but nothing like this.

I thought I had purchased a ticket that was refundable. When I received my confirmation by e-mail, it stated the ticket was NON-refundable....

Did you call immediately on receiving the e-mail? Perhaps they could have immediately refunded the ticket. How long after purchase did you decide you wanted to refund the non-refundable ticket?

Its really quite difficult to mistakenly purchase a non-refundable ticket - Using the Air New Zealand website for Australia its very clear which tickets are refundable (the most expensive ones - in the far right column, 'Tasman Flexi' - for Sydney to Auckland these are AU$546 right now) and those which one aren't refundable at all (any of the others...)

American Express gave you some kind of goodwill gesture to stop you contacting them. I note they didn't chargeback the fare to Air New Zealand so clearly they don't really belive there is a problem here.

Ideally, what would you have liked the airline to do for you? I guess I don't really understand the big deal here.

Bummer.. sure.. but I don't understand the big deal either...

Curious as to WHAT exactly made you "think" you'd booked a refundable ticket.... The limitations on the cheaper tickets are not hard to find...

I will not fly Air New Zealand.And you will be sorely missed ... :rolleyes:

P.S. welcome to flyertalk

If you call right away it appears NZ can change the ticket. I wanted to take the 777 flight from CHC to AKL and was told I could upgrade. I booked the ticket on line and then when I called to upgrade was told it couldn't be done.

They cancelled the ticket and I rebooked on a regular flight which was less expensive.

I don't think air new Zealand has got service issues, it looks like you might made a mistake by buying a wrong ticket. As other people said here we all make mistakes. I think the NZ customer service has offered you the solution. I think Amex is trying to keep its customers by offering something. Good luck to your next booking with any other airlines, all the best!

If you call right away it appears NZ can change the ticket. I wanted to take the 777 flight from CHC to AKL and was told I could upgrade. I booked the ticket on line and then when I called to upgrade was told it couldn't be done.

They cancelled the ticket and I rebooked on a regular flight which was less expensive.

I have also been able to cancel or change tickets when calling them immediately.
I was told that they only run the credit card charges once a day (around midnight NZ time), so as long as you call before the credit card charges have been completed, you can change or cancel non-refundable and/or non-changeable tickets.

Were you told that the ticket was refundable by an agent or the website? This isn't clear from your post.

If there was misrepresentation, then yes, it's poor form from Air New Zealand.

However, if you simply thought you'd made a refundable booking and gotten the fare name / T&Cs wrong, then non-refundable means non-refundable, and I don't see why an exception should have been made.

As kiwiandrew said, the Air NZ website shoves the "No points / no upgrades / no refund" in your face a few times before you pay for it.