bsd

Was at the NZ website this morning with the intention of booking 3 seats AKL-WLG return. I'd researched it first by browsing 'in private' to avoid NZ knowing I was interested, as I believe they offer different prices to different users.

Quoted price $664, or $688 with credit card.

I got to the end of the booking, past seat selection etc. checking it all reasonably carefully but not dawdling, and then POLI wouldn't work. Error message.

I tried again, and guess what - that price was no longer available, and it had jumped to $1054. My fault for not paying by credit card I suppose. That's a 59% increase in minutes.

I hadn't even considered giving our business to Jetstar, but that kind of gouging, related to some kind of IT fault, made me take a look at their competitors.... Jetstar certainly win on price.

johnnyfive

This happens to me a lot with their "When's a good deal" site: http://promos.airnz.co.nz/wenza/

What's the point of creating what seems like a useful tool, that doesn't reflect actual prices when you click through?

johnnyfive

Took me two minutes to find an example...

bsd

It's a form of bait and switch.

Let's see what the price is on Jetstar.

Blackcloud

? Was it the use of the Private Browsing function that caused POLi to fail?
I wonder if the seats you tried to book were held?
Anyway the price differences are hard to explain but sometimes with more than one passenger in the group the website will match the group to the fare class that has the availability required. eg the $59 may have 2 seats available but with 3 passengers it changes the fare class to a higher one which increases the cost of the fare.

bsd

No to the Private browsing - I use Internet Explorer to suss out price with 'In Private' turned on, then go to Firefox for actual booking, and submit my Airpoints details after price is offered. So for POLI I was in Firefox, it was not private, and they knew my Airpoints details.

Re seats, I did not select seats because I wasn't prepared to pay extra for that (recently dropped from Gold to Silver). So, I looked at seats, but did not select specific seats.

I suspect POLI failed because they updated the price by over $400 for three of us while I was booking.

Quokka

Yes, it sells all 3 tickets at the higher fare class that has 3 available, and doesn't sell 1 or 2 at any lower fare class(es) that have only 1 or 2 available.

johnnyfive

Indeed, I know it does that. That's why I searched for 1 passenger on the Wenza site...

LyingFlat

Is it possible that while you were faffing about with Poli that someone else bought the seats? AFAIK the seats only get taken out of availability when they are actually purchased, not when you are going through the booking process. Essentially they are on a first-come-first-served basis.

sbiddle

Firstly Air NZ pricing doesn't change depending on previous viewing and they do not have dynamic pricing. Using private mode or deleting cookies will make no difference to the price you pay.

The new Air NZ booking engine is IMHO incredibly poor and shows a) very poor scoping and requirements and b) total lack of end user testing

There is a major bug affecting the new NZ booking engine that they still haven't fixed, and what you've experienced could be related to that.

If you select a flight and seats and get to the payment screen do not under any circumstances ever try to make changes and go back. If you do you will lose the seat and the fares that you booked - an example follows which is easily to replicate.

Book a random flight, select a seat and then get to the payment screen which is step 4. Decide at that point "hmm maybe I might select a different flight" so click on step 1 on the progress bar which takes you back to the flight selection screen. At this point your even if you don't touch the flights and step though to 2 and seat select your allocated seats will be blocked out (but not to you) and you won't be able to select them. The worst is to come - the booking engine has effectively held the 2 fares you started with so if you're on a flight for example that doesn't have another 2 of that booking class still available you'll see the message saying the fares you booked are now unavailable.

If you see this error and open a new browser and start again from scratch you'll find both the seats and fare classes you originally booked are still somehow held in the system and locked out. These seem to release themselves a few hours later.

I just seriously don't know how such a terrible system got past anybody at the airline who has to book flights (I can only conclude they don't). Don't get me started about not being able to view all flights numbers on a day..

johnnyfive

True. I get way more flight options on Expedia or Flight Centre! Although booking through them comes with other caveats... *sigh*

sbiddle

I don't mean viewable flights (I don't see why Expedia or Flight Centre would show flights Air NZ don't?) - I mean when you select say Wellington to Auckland you're presented with a list that you can sort by time, price or # of flights.

To view the flight number(s) you have to hover over the flight(s) to see the flight number. Previously flight numbers were all displayed as part of a search.

To me flight numbers are an important aspect of a flight. If I ask somebody what flight they're on they'll give the flight #, not the time. When they say "I'm on NZ412 to Auckland" and you want to book the same flight you have to firstly find 412 by hovering over every flight till you find it, or looking at a flight schedule to see the departure time.

serfty

I think it's endemic with AirNZ. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-n...l#post26278861

It was a tough program during my 5 years of [Gold Elite] Elite but the turn of the decade saw the peak and it's been in decline ever since ...

Suprane

Having been gold with Air New Zealand for about eight years, in Dec 2014 I made a decision to switch loyalty to Qantas, and just suck up the fact that when I wish to travel to the USA I (currently) have to travel via Australia.

It was the cumulation of many things:

- general decline in professionalism. I don't wan't want to be called "mate" by some sloppily dressed 20 year old flight attendant as I board business class. Nor do I want to have to suffer one after another banal, barely funny if you have an IQ >80 safety video. The original "bare essentials" one was clever; subsequent ones have been like an icepick in the head.

- decline in hard product, 10 abreast on the 777, a business class product that lacks width, storage space and privacy, decline in the food and beverage service

- No VLA in the fleet

- No business class on the A320

- Marketing disasters like "Rico"

- Progressive reduction in value of the loyalty program.

Qantas have provided me with what I need. Food is good even in economy, service is attentive and professional yet unobtrusive, and their loyalty scheme is generous compared to NZ's. You also get a decent 747 or A380 on long haul flights. It's a shame really, because for 30 years I had been passionately loyal to Air NZ, but one can only take so much.

W91238

Sbiddle I question your comments re NZ NOT remembering your last search and pricing accordingly. Their has been some discussion advising that this may not be the case and that they do in fact creep pricing up based in interest and click through