They may be losing a bit at the cheaper price but to be honest it is probably not good business to worry about $10 or $20 when there are so many annoyances and frustrations for customers with schedule changes, aircraft changes, flight cancellations, changing levels of service all reducing loyalty to NZ at present. They have just I believe reported a significant profit and in such circumstances they would in my opinion be best looking at creating and maintaining longstanding loyalty as they may struggle to regain some customers who decide that price and service are far more important than status which has variable diminishing value. Things like the WiFi price increases, removal of elite gift etc etc give a message which when looking at the bigger picture would seem to be ill advised.

If they are not able to legally obtain significant financial compensation for the Trent issues from RR and/or Boeing I would take significant convincing to believe that those involved in the purchase and acquisition of those aircraft and engines should still have employment and/or that the NZ legal team is competent. The fact that they have issues should be handled aggressively commercially and legally and should not translate into making customers unhappy and losing loyalty as this would show incompetence at a governance and management level. A bigger picture view would give customers some extra rewards in times of inconsistent and frustrating service - free WiFi. Better elite gifts etc would make sense.