I have been reading these with interest and feel it is time to make a comment.
As a shareholder I cannot understand this move to a complex system of extra payments for pre-allocated seats. It makes sense in a LCC such as Jetstar, but makes no sense at all in Air NZ. In particular it makes no financial sense. You have to sell a massive number of these seat allocations to cover the loss of a single HVC from an international flight, and there is no doubt that this will drive away HVC's from Air NZ. This has been poorly conceived, poorly planned and poorly executed, and the communication has been abysmal. This is made even worse by the computer system obviously being unable to cope with the change.
As a GE Air NZ customer for a number of years this move is very bad. There has been a steady decrease in benefits to GE customers over the years, particularly the last 2 years as Air NZ tries to move to a LCC model. The staff are great, but so many other aspects of the service have gone downhill.
Regardless of how this has been portrayed there is a definite decrease in benefits to HVC's from this move, we have not been told the truth in this. We can no longer select the seats we want, they are not available to us. Whilst this doesn't matter to most customers, it matters to people who fly a lot. HVC's are generally clever people, high up in whatever business they are in, and can quickly understand when something is taken away from them, regardless of any amount of obfuscatory language.
The attempt to charge for seat allocations on turboprop aircraft is very poorly conceived and executed. I have to pay for my favoured seat, 16B, but I can request the seat across the aisle 16C!!!! That is a 50% reduction in allocation of my favoured seats. Who in their right mind would pay any extra for a seat on an ATR? They are all equally bad. Who would pay extra for no-window 2F on a (often cancelled, usually late) Beechcraft?
The answers are 1. An apology to the HVC's. 2. Scrap this new system, or if not make large changes to it. Sell only exit row seats on jets. Give GE customers (only) the right to ANY seat in their class on all aircraft at no extra cost. Forget about any charges for seats on turboprop aircraft.