henrus

The last couple of days has seen some poor weather across NSW and QLD however NZ's approach has been interesting to say the least...

Yesterdays (14/3) NZ883 CHC-SYD diverted to Melbourne but then was canceled as was the return NZ888. Instead the aircraft positioned MEL-CHC as NZ6018.

Today (15/3) NZ805 CHC-BNE diverted to Sydney but then was canceled as was the return NZ804. Instead the aircraft positioned SYD-CHC as NZ6014.

Now I appreciate that they don't want to cause knock on impacts throughout the network however leaving a lot of people stranded in another city and rebooking onto partner carriers noting that Qantas also has a SYD-BNE backlog seems like a half baked attempt especially when other carriers were able to get their plane in and out on the same night or early the next morning.

AviationNZ

As far as I'm aware, one of the other main reason for re-positioning the plane rather than operating the next morning is due to crew requirements. Air NZ don't have any AU based crew, so don't have the resource to be able to call on extra crew to operate the next morning. And yes, it's also a domino effect on the network which effects many more flights/people rather than a single group.

Nathan Catton

Sydney also has a curfew. If the weather didn't clear in time then the aircraft might've been stranded in Sydney. Also, NZ739 to BNE doverted to Sydney yesterday.

codyc1515

I experienced something similar with a maintenance issue in the past week or so and also found their disrupt handling "interesting".

Air NZ cancelled the flight at about half past midnight for a flight that was meant to depart around 6am the next morning (so about 5 hours out from departure). Disappointing that for whatever maintenance reason they had to cancel at such short notice, but understandable, however I'm not exactly sure why that they weren't able to arrange a replacement aircraft of some sort given the timeframe. Are they really that stretched for aircraft?

They rebooked passengers on NZ services operating later in the day direct to the original destination or offered routing via. Australian connection travelling on Qantas, and apparently Virgin Australia. Ultimately wasted the greater part of a day transiting Australia on Qantas going via. Sydney to end up in Melbourne. Somehow I managed to keep my RU / Works Deluxe seat. Altogether, not a great experience when you are only taking a weekend trip. They don't proactively offer compensation either, even though the delay is ultimately caused by them.

NZbutterfly

I have a different approach to this and if I get a replacement aircraft then I guess it was possible and if I get put on a different flight I guess it wasn't possible. At no time do I believe an airline should be buying aircraft to sit around as a replacement. They're already leasing 3!

sbiddle

The only flight in recent weeks that has been cancelled is NZ891 on the 2nd so I can assume it's that.

I'm not really sure how you really expect NZ at midnight to find a spare A320R lying around, more importantly then find a spare crew who just happen to be contactable off duty (remembering even if you're on standby that'll be for the morning flights, not a middle of the night aircraft movement) that would be willing to fly, and then arrange to fly that aircraft between AKL and CHC when there will be zero ground handling or maintenance staff available at either end.

Yes it sucks if it's only a weekend and in terms of compensation the one time this happened NZ were more than happy to move the return flight back a day for free if I'd wanted.

codyc1515

Not really helpful if I am going to have to take unpaid leave on the following Monday, never mind that I would miss the event that I wanted to attend which was only available on Sat/Sun.

kiwifrequentflyer

I was on a flight to Sydney with Emirates during their recent storm and we got diverted to Melbourne where languished for six hours before leaving to arrive in Sydney around 6am..
And my meeting was at 9:30am in the city centre.

Did it suck? Sure. But it was my fault for choosing the least safe option of flying the night before. I paid a price.
​​​​​

NZbutterfly

If you want seamless travel it requires a risk evaluation. I've taken risks on separate tickets and never been burned yet but there's usually a back up plan. If you want to leave same day, arrive on time and go straight to a gig then you have to ask what if there's a mechanical issue or weather issue. How long is that likely to take? What are the alternative flight options? What's my cancellation policy? There are some subtle differences between the carriers. Is a Flexi ticket worth it? Should I travel the night before although it means paying for an extra night of accommodation etc. I can handle missing the connection to a short haul leg say out of Sydney because they've got a lot of flights but I am reluctant to take risks missing connections to long haul as they don't go as frequently.

Of course if you plan to the nth degree nothing happens. I'm sure people have asked questions about when to fly on this board and people have been happy to answer.