We were “involuntarily denied boarding” last week returning to NZ.


Flight still went but we were selected for bumping off the flight inside t-24. We had already checked in as soon as online check-in opened.

Not sure what criteria they used as we booked more than six months ago. We were booked in Works with upgrades pending (and good premium cabin availability). The replacement equipment only had economy seats, so I thought it would have been the BP and PE customers most affected. (ZKHB notes the scheduled equipment changed four times in that short period).

Anyhow, we were transferred to a Fiji airlines flight two hours earlier, but right down the back of the bus. Could have been worse but not much worse. No extra costs incurred as we repacked to stay within limits, used priority pass for the lounge. We missed out on meeting friends for dinner at AKL due to directly routing to WLG - not the end of the world but planned around our original itinerary.

We got a letter at the airport stating this was “due to changes in operational schedule”. I’m guessing a downstream consequence of the aborted flight to Raro that week. The letter just said “fewer seats” meant we could not be accommodated. So technically this was IDB because of overbooking. The website just says “The rules for payment of compensation and our boarding priorities are available at all airport ticket counters and boarding locations” - dear reader - they weren’t.

I could no longer manage the booking as it just disappeared. I used up my roaming minutes on hold without success, and chat team told me to go to the airport desk as they could no longer do anything with the booking either. The flight the next day was Wamos (full).

Anyhow, the letter offers an “inconvenience” payment of approximately $250 (I’m assuming each). Can’t find much online but what I did find was $350 outbound NZ to another Pacific Island.

Any experience of recent IDB compensation (not out of pocket costs) in similar circumstances? The last time I volunteered to take a later flight to Aus it was much more than that.