SMcLean

When my husband emailed to express his concern about the changes - mainly that we won't be able to upgrade together anymore, as I am but lowly Gold - he received a big fob-off.
The staff member emphasises (rather snarkily, I thought) that there will be no change to my Recognition Upgrades.
Well, sweetie, he wasn't talking about that, was he? He was asking about APD upgrades. But of course you knew that, didn't you?

Here's the big brush-off (at one point she even forgets whether the customer is male or female - that's individual service LOL):

Or, as my husband interpreted it:

I think he's spot on.

brenrox

Hows it going to change what time of the year people request upgrades? It's not going alter people's travel patterns, so I don't see how it could change when people put in the requests for.

The only thing I can think of is people getting p*****d off, going to another airline and freeing up potential upgrade inventory then...

smeags_nz

Can't believe I've waited for 20 pages of this thread to throw in my two cents. But, it's just been total disbelief really, that this has actually happened.

The whole change itself is bad enough, but the communication from Air New Zealand has made this situation so much worse. No one seems to know what is going on and their willingness to aggravate so many of their most valuable customers is astonishing.

So many posts on here have hit the nail on the head, so there is very little left to add. I too am a GE with a BNZ GlobalPlus, with these changes, I'll be taking my business elsewhere.

Who are people e-mailing from BNZ regarding feedback on these changes?

MikeAKL

I've used the form on the GP website http://www.globalplus.co.nz/contact_us.html for lack of better options ...

smeags_nz

Great, thanks! Will get right on it.

DCF

Amazing as it may sound, it is clear that the people running Airpoints now don't understand that "Standby Upgrades" are currently CONFIRMABLE 355 days in advance for Gold Elites.

In their confused minds, Confirmed Upgrades have to go so that they can sell or auction that seat. They think that they are satisfying us Gold Elites by partially restoring Standby Upgrades, and that the fact that they only will clear at check-in is consistent with their Standby title.

So they think they have given GEs back what they wanted, and that we will get off their backs now.

But they don't understand that in actual fact what we want is the ability to Confirm our Standby Upgrades as soon as we pay for our ticket, and that without it we will invariably take our custom elsewhere. We've had this facility with "Standby Upgrades" for as long as I can remember, whereas Confirmed Upgrades are much newer (and much more profitable for the airline, as we typically pay an extra $1000-$2000 per ticket plus burn an extra 1000-2000 Airpoints Dollars to use them).

Xiaotung will, as a fellow Australian Gold Elite, probably be interested in what I've turned up in the last three days of research.

I have been paying the following fares:
NZ Premium Economy to LAX - A$4000
NZ Business Premier to LAX - $7000
NZ Premium Economy to LHR - $5000

What I have learned is that so long as I buy my tickets in the USA or UK, Qantas will sell me Business Class fares as follows:

LAX-BNE - US$4,600 return
LHR-BNE - GBP3,500 return.

I invariably return to those destinations more frequently than annually, so it is no hassle to do this.

So thanks to Airpoints, I have been paying Air NZ for Premium Economy what Qantas would have charged me for Business Class.

I should be grateful to Air NZ for getting me to wake up to this.

serfty

Correct me if I'm wrong, but even with the 'backtrack' for GE, airpoints standby upgrades still won't be able to be redeemed to go from economy to business on 3 class flights.

Xiaotung

DCF, I agree with you 100%. I suspect Airpoints rules are complicated enough to confuse themselves.

I finally got my calculator out and did the following. Something I never bothered to do because I was happy with Airpoints Upgrades.

Spending $62666 on my CBA Amex card would convert to 94000 Virgin Velocity points or 1175 Airpoints Dollars. That is to get 1 Airpoints Dollar I only need to spend $53.3. This earn rate is better than any cards in New Zealand. So let's see where this will take me. 94000 Virgin points can be used to redeem a one way business fare to LAX. Even under very impressive earn rate, 1175 Airpoints Dollars would be just enough to get me across the Tasman one way in business. I would pick LAX any day.

Virgin even runs bonus promo every now and then (15% bonus at the moment). When was the last time a promo was run at Airpoints? My point is (monopoly aside) without Airpoints Upgrades why would anyone use Airpoints and fly NZ!

pbl22

Yes, Serfty, I thought that it was only Recognition Upgrades that could be doubled up to jump from Econ to BP on 3-class. I am sure they were quite specific that you couldn't do that with APD upgrades (just as you can't with OneUp bids). So with only 2 RUs a year you will only get one sector per annum to get BP from an Econ ticket.

pbl22

Unfortunately, those of us who have to travel cheap Y domestically for work and get GAS fares for domestic leisure travel - there's nowhere else to credit those. But no more NZ TT - it's all QF now. I'm not sure what to do about LAX, though - may have to start going through SYD.

Susiew237

i wonder if one up bidding will apply to all classes of booking.

I'm annoyed to find out the flights we have booked to europe later in year, we cannot use our airpoints to get "confirmed" upgrades. despite me asking during the booking process if we could apply for upgrades. I dont care if they 'thought' i meant standby... i meant standby and confirmed. now I cant get confirmed. seriously what is the point of me having airpoints that I cant use.... we applied for standby last year SFO-AKL and never got a look in. If i find that we cant do one up bidding for this trip I'll throw my toys.... really i will.

I think air nz have lost their way a bit, it is all very confusing for the average traveller.

Susiew237

"In addition to the value of your offer and the value of other offers for the same cabin class, we will take into account your Airpoints� tier status or Star Alliance frequent flyer status, the booking class of the original fare purchased, how often you may have been upgraded through this program in the past, the number of seats available in the higher cabin class and the number of passengers in the booking and any other factor to be considered at Air New Zealand�s discretion."

hmm as a jade in L class i wonder what the chances are of ever getting a one up accepted. (although I hope to be silver by then, not that air nz deserve my business at the mo)

pbl22

Given that there's 20 pages of confusion here among some of NZ's most frequent travellers, it's not surprising that it is very confusing for the average traveller. Although I imagine that many people will simply not be bothered about these changes, because they never really understand/investigate the upgrade options (some of my acquaintances still think you can rock up at check-in and sweet-talk the check-in staff into upgrading you for free on AKL-LAX). Also, the average NZer doesn't have a clue about all this anyway - everyone I have complained to about these changes looks at me blankly.

But to your post, I am positive that OneUp bidding will apply to all classes (well obviously not business). Also, as I understand it, you should still be able to apply for confirmed upgrades until 30 May 2012, regardless of when your travel is. Then after that date, you should be able to OneUp bid, but only for one class above what you have booked. Be aware that, as you have seen last year on your SFO-AKL flight, upgrades are not always available - even Elites miss out if there is nothing available.

DCF

Exactly. The policy preys on everyone's gullibility.

It is opaque. They don't tell us how much (if any) weight is attached to status, they don't tell you what the current highest bid is and they don't have a "Buy It Now" price.

These features are not accidental. They are there so that they can always go to the highest bidder, and so that their defeated elite bidders have no clue as to the margin of their defeat.

In other words, in an era in which the new Airpoints manager is known to be partial to ancillary revenue, the whole system is designed to allow them to select the highest bidder, with no risk of their HVCs being able to seek redress for their bids not being weighted.

So it is plain obvious that if a no status passenger who paid $3500 return for low O class Premium Economy AKL-LAX bids A1000 for an upgrade and a Gold Elite who paid $5500 for high U class Premium Economy bids A999 they are going to take the higher bid, not the bid with status attached.

Because as far as their accounting is concerned, they make slightly more revenue that way than if they had allowed for loyalty and/or ticket yield.

And they will tell themselves that the Gold Elite would have won a "tiebreaker" and still has access to a Standby Upgrade at check-in if there are any no-shows.

SFO_FT

The new policy is also not very fair to the Golds and Silvers using their recognition upgrades. Given that OneUps are processed up to 7 days before flight, Golds and Silvers are now last in the pecking order (oh well, at least G/S may be ahead of GE that are processed at check-in).

Truly extraordinary changes that NZ has made.