You guys are giving yourselves (and the NZ Twitter team) a lot of unnecessary heartburn over this “pending” charge thing. This is the way EVERY transaction with credit cards works. Charge pending, 2-3 days charge posted. It may even disappear, though it is still reflected in your available credit IME. If they want to cancel the tickets they’ll cancel them not let pending charges roll off.

Everytime you walk out of a store the charge on your card is pending. No reasonable person would say that the merchant hasn’t recieved payment for what you bought. (They wouldn’t let you leave!)