edmm

There is a question in the latest Consumer magazine from someone who paid premium economy and was downgraded to economy. No refund or compensation was offered. On complaining to Air NZ they were told that the sale price PE ticket was cheaper than an economy ticket on the day the change was made and refused a refund. The customer was wondering about their rights. Consumer's response was that the airline cannot supply you with a lesser service than the one you paid for, and that their view was that any compensation should be based on the fare difference on the day of purchase. They pointed out that the airline has obligations under the CGA and if they refuse to honour this they can be taken to the Disputes Tribunal. We found this interesting as Air NZ tried to downgrade us recently with no offer of a refund or compensation from full-fare Business Class tickets- we changed flights to a less suitable one.
Air NZ ultimately refunded the customer and gave them 300APD.

sbiddle

Air NZ's downgrade policy is pretty clear and published on their website.

edmm

I agree, their policy is clear, but my personal experience is that getting them to actually give that compensation can be very difficult, and the compensation offered very poor, nowhere near the fare difference at the time of purchase.

WLGNZ

My experience on getting refund for an AirNZ was a flat refusal.
Slightly different situation.
AirNZ cancelled a flight ex TRG. Original flight was TRG - AKL - CHC. No other options ex TRG to make meetings in CHC, so drove to AKL to catch the AKL - CHC. Fully Flexi fare. AirNZ said cost of flight AKL - CHC was higher, the day before departure, than the cost of the flight I had purchased ex TRG months in advance. Normally AKL - CHC flights are about $150 cheaper the the TRG - AKL - CHC.
Complained to AirNZ with zero response.

JamesBigglesworth

And their policy or T&C on tickets doesn't get them out of NZ law under the CGA. More people need to drag NZ into Small Claims and make them cough up. I've had to do it twice over the last ~15 years and they .....ed and moaned the whole time. And lost.

The important thing to remember is that as an individual consumer you *cannot* contract out of the CGA. They can certainly downgrade you on a flight for all sorts of reasons, but if they do so then they have consequent obligations they cannot wiggle out of.

Beckett66

I previously posted about a similar experience after booking PE and our flight being downgauged to an A320. I managed to delay our holiday by 1 day to get the class we paid for, and they were good about that. But, if I'd stuck with the original flights, they were offering Y (Works) and no compensation, even after I escalated it. They would not offer Y (Works Deluxe) - it was apparently reserved for people downgraded from J.

I argued that they should refund me the difference between the prices of PE and Y when I booked. They were both on sale at the time and those prices were the basis for my purchase decision. NZ suggested they didn't have the data about those prices, as if they don't hold records of their historical pricing.

They instead compared the price I paid for PE to the price I'd have to pay for Y on the date they decided to downgauge the flight. This was 6 months after I bought the ticket and getting close to the travel date so Y was now expensive. There was the sense that they were doing me a favour by offering me this more valuable Y fare.

I think it's absurd. If they really think this is a reasonable approach to compensation, it should work the other way too. So if I buy a Y fare for $100 and, when they cancel the flight, the cheapest Y fare is $300, they would refund me $300, not $100. Of course they wouldn't do that because it's just as dumb.

I read their downgrade policy and it doesn't address this issue.

Thai-Kiwi

A screenshot of the booking page with the fare/class options might be a handy thing to have in support of your argument.

Beckett66

I agree. This is exactly what I plan to do from now on.

s0ssos

Reading threads like this makes me feel NZ is a budget airline.

wackyflyer

My only recent down grade was a trans-Tasman flight where due to a change in metal lost J seat, and put in Works deluxe . Being elite, works deluxe is meaningless product compared to works ticket, which I pointed out without much success.

They offered me J if I wanted to delay flight to following day.

As I couldn’t wait a day I had to take the downgrade, and wasn’t offered a refund, because the works deluxe was the highest class available for the flight I chose to take.

Perhaps I could have fought for it but I’ve got enough going on rather than spend hours arguing with them.

samyoull

Domestically/regionally, NZ is a budget airline.

kiwicyclo

A companies policy is not allowed to breach an laws, so no matter what they say, publish, determine as their policy, if it contravenes NZ Law it is open to challenge.

Rebound

Got $400 compensation in Feb for a downgrade from Business to Economy when the aircraft had issues and a A320 had to be used SYD-AKL. Took 6 weeks.to pay however.

Beano

was that a upgraded ticket from economy or a business class purchase ?

Rebound

Pretty sure it was Paid - Business saver so that would be what $649 on that leg back - economy was some $350-400 and I got home, so overall happy with the outcome. PE to Economy was $200 compensation as I saw the letter.