poopbunny

I fly MH a bit and always look forward to the meal service. I wish I could say the same for NZ. Vintage Tattinger Comtes Blanc de blanc was served on my MH flight last week. This beats EK Moet & SQ Charles Hiedsick. The ability to book my meals before flying sure takes the russian roulette out of whatever PG meals coming my way.

I get it takes time and money putting gifts together. A voucher is a nice alternative to nothing.

Kiwi Flyer

A voucher that requires further travel to use is also good for the airline, assuming it can be effectively used. I don't count NZ's upgrade vouchers in this category because they are difficult to use in practice (limited availability) or provide minimal benefits (e.g. trans-Tasman A320 services).

gratn

nzkarit

SHRU is ok for AKL based people but when based anywhere else they aren't much help. Unless the inconvenience of flying via AKL is counteracted by the upgrade. An extra 2 to 3+ hours of flights and transit for an upgrade?

sbiddle

It's still useful ex WLG or CHC though - yes Works Deluxe isn't PE but using the upgrade to go from seat only is handy especially when they can confirm it at time of booking.

poopbunny

Yes, that school charity thing last year was worse than nothing.

So nothing this year is an improvement.

A great gift would be a binding referendum on that "It's Kiwi Safety" video.

zoovet

Actually this does remind me that AirNZ didn't make any semblance of a gift to charity this last Christmas. Talk about one shot wonders!

CHCflyer

After yet another delay on a regional trip - first flight cancelled, rebooked flight two hours late, I sent an 'I am fed up with your punctuality' email to customer relations. NZ response was yep, we are not hitting OTP but we are working on it. Not a sniff of any compensatory airpoints. Time for us to introduce an EU-style compensation scheme.

edmm

I've come to expect it as the norm because it is so common. The biggest issue is when it involves connecting to an international flight. I agree that it is time they started compensating, then I think they would suddenly improve the OTP.

gratn

poopbunny

OTP can be fiddled. I had an NZ flight delayed 2 or 3 hours a few years ago. The flight was then cancelled, then a new previously unknown one-off NZ flight number appeared on that same route, departing some hours later. If I had to guess, I would say, everyone on that cancelled flight was re-booked on the new one-off flight, probably on the same plane. If that isn't more magical than the oxygen mask on "Its a Kiwi Safety" video, I don't know what is.

poopbunny

Xmas 2016 was the RU.

Xmas 2017 was the unilateral decision on "charity". Not all GE may have received the notification.
Elite Xmas Gift

nzkarit

And then we get interesting things like delay attribution. What is the Airline's Fault Vs Airways Vs Weather Vs shared use facilities at Airport Vs Maintenance Faults Vs Bird Strike Faults etc

If AirNZ actually had an actual domestic competitor (JQ doesn't have the frequency to compete and the 3rd levels save WLG to Top of the South Island don't go head to head) or OneWorld or Skyteam set up a Pacific Rim to NZ competition plan. Things might change.

If fines were going to be a thing. AirNZ would play the card all the Turbo Props routes are too risky from an on time performance because of weather. So we will drop the region centres as when bake in the fines into the profitability of a route the numbers will no longer add up. Guess the Govt will blink first.

And say WLG/AKL which is a 1.45 cycle time (push back to push back) might go to 2 which drops utilisation, so there is enough fat to play catchup and will push the 1.05 flight time to 1.10 or 1.15. Which means higher fares as getting less flights out of the plane and the crew (and because no competitive pressure).