If time permits, I would wait and phone them in a couple of days........
fyi, I had a remarkably similar experience on a different itin:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-n...e-yow-akl.html
I ended up having a couple of fascinating conversations with the NZ scheduling department (NB my on line booking was not accepted by the other Star Alliance partner i.e. AC). My preferred flights were not accepted by the partner, so I was asked to call the toll free number! Here is what I learned:
- NZ has lots of issues with AC cnx. (which is why he proposed WS, which is not SA! The agent also advised that NZ has similar issues with Asiana;
- NZ online customer service is useless. In my case, I sent them two messages about my experience and the replies were canned and not helpful.
My flights are seven months out, so I have a related question. How does NZ deal with schedule changes? In the SA, I am used to getting the cnx. I want when one or more of the partners has a schedule change. Does NZ accommodate reasonable requests? Or, will they obfuscate like UA? e.g. change must be more than 2 hours, otherwise UA policy considers the change minor!