Originally Posted by
Oakshadow
One Mile At A Time did an article on this.
https://onemileatatime.com/news/air-...ht-to-nowhere/
But the most interesting part of the article was a comment by someone who was on the flight who gave their account ....
.
"Hi, I was on NZ2 and I don’t believe for a moment that another terminal or east coast airport was not an option. We received absolutely no communication aboard (we found out by looking at flight tracker when most people began to realize the plane had turned around.) About 45 min before landing the pilot, who sounded annoyed with this decision told passengers that we would be landing in Auckland. I later spoke with the pilot and he acknowledged that he was hoping to land somewhere on the east coast. I read your post and although I appreciate that there may have been on the ground scheduling problems say if we landed in EWR, consider this… - it was total chaos in Auckland and the customer service was dismal… so not sure if the customer experience was improved at AirNZ hub - the flight was destined for the NY area… so that’s where most passengers were going…for those going onward (to Europe) they were likely flying other carriers and ANz wouldn’t need to worry about it - if you know the NJ/NY area, you know that getting between the 1/2 dozen airports is relatively easy and inexpensive for those folks who did need to get back to JFK - same goes for people who live in the NY metro area… a train would take them home from EWR, Dulles, Philadelphia etc, So basically getting us to east coast would have been the most convenient for the passengers. But perhaps I’ve misunderstood ANZ’s priority… it seems they were concerned with their convenience and I’m guessing costs. Bottom line, we NZ 2 passengers paid for a flight to JFK… not to the middle of the Pacific and back to Auckland. I acknowledge the JFK problems but ANZ clearly put their priorities before taking care of the 200 people on their plane already IN THE AIR. Unfortunately I have another 1/2 dozen ANZ flights already booked… but they will be my last ANZ flights."
Odd the author doesn't remember the EK return two weeks ago when AKL was closed due to flooding. Or the Korean Air flight to JFK which also turned around.