Air New Zealand Air Points - heavy delays - possible to claim some money back?

I travelled with AIR NZ around the World together with my partner in August 2008. Unfortunately two very bad things happened..

There was a NZ flight Sydney – Auckland on the 12th of August. NZ 704 departing SYD at 11:30 am. We arrived at Sydney Airport at 10:15 am and have been told that our flight was canceled, because the plane did not leave Auckland to get to Sydney.

We’ve been rebooked on NZ708 departing SYD at 7 pm on the same date. I asked for a rebooking on earlier Quantas flights but this was declined. Seven hours of useless time at Sydney Airport.

This was really depressing for us because we had prebooked transfer for the Bay of Islands IN NZ, airport transfer and a hotel in Auckland. There was a 30 NZD meal Voucher offered by the airline but this was really to less for a waiting time of 7, 5 hours at Sydney Airport.

NZ 708 left SYD late and arrived AKL at 1 am – 8, 5 hours later than our estimated arrival time. Airport transfer was gone and we additional had to pay a taxi to reach our hotel in Auckland. We missed the whole evening in Auckland with a reserved table at the Auckland Skytower and also the SPA treatment at our hotel included in our rate. We only slept three hours to reach our transport to Paihia the next morning.

The next really bad thing happened in Rarotonga with NZ14 RAR-LAX on 23rd of August. Schedulded to leave RAR at midnight we had a four hours delay and left RAR at 4 am in the Morning on the 24th of August. So we spent the time from10 pm to 3:30 am sitting on a nice plastic seat at Rarotonga airport.

Instead of reaching LAX a few minutes after noon we arrived by 4.30 pm in the afternoon and fell to bed.

Is it possible to claim some money back?

Toby

I travelled with AIR NZ around the World together with my partner in August 2008. Unfortunately two very bad things happened..

There was a NZ flight Sydney – Auckland on the 12th of August. NZ 704 departing SYD at 11:30 am. We arrived at Sydney Airport at 10:15 am and have been told that our flight was canceled, because the plane did not leave Auckland to get to Sydney.

We’ve been rebooked on NZ708 departing SYD at 7 pm on the same date. I asked for a rebooking on earlier Quantas flights but this was declined. Seven hours of useless time at Sydney Airport.

This was really depressing for us because we had prebooked transfer for the Bay of Islands IN NZ, airport transfer and a hotel in Auckland. There was a 30 NZD meal Voucher offered by the airline but this was really to less for a waiting time of 7, 5 hours at Sydney Airport.

NZ 708 left SYD late and arrived AKL at 1 am – 8, 5 hours later than our estimated arrival time. Airport transfer was gone and we additional had to pay a taxi to reach our hotel in Auckland. We missed the whole evening in Auckland with a reserved table at the Auckland Skytower and also the SPA treatment at our hotel included in our rate. We only slept three hours to reach our transport to Paihia the next morning.

The next really bad thing happened in Rarotonga with NZ14 RAR-LAX on 23rd of August. Schedulded to leave RAR at midnight we had a four hours delay and left RAR at 4 am in the Morning on the 24th of August. So we spent the time from10 pm to 3:30 am sitting on a nice plastic seat at Rarotonga airport.

Instead of reaching LAX a few minutes after noon we arrived by 4.30 pm in the afternoon and fell to bed.

Is it possible to claim some money back?

Toby
You can only ask and if they decline do not feel too bad. Of course I would not give up too easily but I doubt you would get actual dollars back.

They certainly won't give you anything the first time you ask. If you keep pushing and speak with some sort of manager you may find yourself reimbursed for costs at the very most, but I highly doubt they will give you any sort of compensation for loss of dinner reservations, hotel treatment or sleep. They may offer some travel vouchers or airpoints dollars or complimentary upgrades though.

As always, if you want to get compensation, they best time to get it is at the airport when the staff have no choice but to deal with you. If you don't push for compensation/reimbursement at the time then it's far easier for the airline to ignore you and refuse to take any retrospective action.