It seems there is a great story here just waiting to be told.
OK, since you asked ...
Following is the text of an email I sent to Air NZ from the RCC at SFO on the evening of 12 December 2004
Let me introduce myself ..
My name is ***** ****** and my Airpoints number is ******.
I have been a customer of Air New Zealand for many years and a Koru Club member since 1996. During the past five years I have had one year as a Gold Elite member, at least three as Gold, and am currently (officially) silver. Under the new Airpoint dollars regime I qualify for Gold, however I am still waiting for someone at Air NZ to find the time to process this. After my current trip, I believe I shall qualify again for Gold Elite. However it may be of little use to me as I am seriously considering never flying with Air NZ again.
I arrived at LAX last night, 11 December, with a confirmed Pacific class booking and an upgrade request on NZ5. As I am sure you are aware .. well, maybe you are not because nobody else at Air NZ seemed to know until just before the flight .. NZ5 was cancelled. The aircraft operating NZ6 (ZK-NBS) had an undercarriage problem and did not operate the service out of Auckland, leaving NZ5 without an aircraft.
I arrived at the premier checkin counter at LAX to find a queue of about ten people and two check-in agents. The Pacific class queue was right out the door and onto the footpath. After standing in the queues for about twenty minutes, one of the other passengers informed me that the flight had been cancelled. He also informed me that he had called Air NZ at around 1200 hours local time and was told the flight was on time. THIS WAS ABOUT 8 HOURS AFTER THE AIRCRAFT WAS DUE TO HAVE DEPARTED AUCKLAND AND DID NOT.
To cut a long story short, there were ten people in the queue in front of me and I was still waiting to see an agent 90 minutes later. During this period the Pacific class queue was reduced in size by about fifty percent.
I appreciate that engineering problems occur and that flights get cancelled, however the overwhelming impression which not only I but many others in the queue gained was of a group of people who had no idea how to handle the situation and had no idea how to provide the standard of service that frequent fliers expect. To use a colloquialism they were like a bunch of chooks with their heads cut off.
When I finally got to speak with an agent, after two hours in the queue, she personally was very helpful. I was offered various options and chose to travel by UA to SFO and then on NZ7 to Auckland. I was provided the appropriate documentation and hotel voucher etc. This part of the procedure actually worked. I asked about my upgrade request and was told it had been transferred to NZ7 and that there was space in J class on that flight.
I duly arrived at SFO and checked in at the premier check in counter. I mentioned the upgrade request and was met with a blank stare. After reference to the original PNR it was found and I was told it should be OK but needed to be confirmed by "control". After ten minutes of the check in agent trying to contact control, her supervisor informed her that the person in question had gone to the airbridge and would be back soon. I agreed to return in 30 minutes to follow up.
On my return, I was told by the agent that no upgrade was available as there were no available seats. By now my patience was wearing thin. I requested to speak with the person in "control". At this stage the supervisor intervened and told me that they could not confirm the upgrade until they could confirm that additional meals could be loaded.
Can I strongly recommend that you include in your agent training "If you are going to lie to the passenger, please meet together beforehand, so you are both telling the same lie".
I am currently sitting in the UA lounge at SFO wondering whether I shall get upgraded at the gate. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. Whether I do or not is irrelevant to this complaint, although after being screwed round by Air NZ for the past 24 hours I shall be real pissed off if I don't.
My opinion of Air NZ's service has sunk to an all time low and I am giving serious consideration to never flying with them again. I can assure you that I am not the only person who was in that queue at LAX last night .. and remember that they were all premier customers .. who expressed the same opinion.
I await your response.
The story continues after I wrote the email ....
I duly proceeded to the gate and approached the podium. Guess who was there ... the same agent who had lied to me upstairs. I politely asked her about the upgrade. She didn't say a word, just handed me a business class boarding pass. I looked at it (and I can be a mean ba$tard sometimes) and said "any chance of a window seat?". Not another word was spoken but inside thirty seconds I had a J class window seat.
Interestingly, a number of other people whom I had met at LAX the night before and who had standby upgrades were also in J class. Sorry, but I thought they said there were no spare seats .. or was that meals .. or was that b****t?"
(As an aside, I had been chatting to a couple in the queue at LAX and again in the gate lounge at SFO. About twelve months later, I was again travelling LAX-AKL and was quite stunned to meet the same couple in the same queue at LAX.)
So what did NZ do about it?
I waited and waited and waited ... no response.
Then two months later ...
It was Valentines Day. I arrive home from work and on the kitchen table is a large gift hamper - bottle of wine, gourmet foods, chocolates, all sorts of goodies.
Very tongue in cheek, I say to my wife "and who sent you that?".
"Nobody ... it's addressed to you".
Uh, oh.
I open the card and it's from Air NZ. A handwritten apology for screwing me around at LAX and SFO last December and please accept this gift with our best wishes.
Sometimes it just does help if you complain!!