Came across aircraft cleaning promo on EK
Looks impressive

 

The spread in the USA was always going to be (somewhat) inevitable. Its such a huge country, with so many large international airports, and political factors at play meant that a containment lockdown just wasn't ever going to happen, at least, not fast enough for it to matter.

I'll still be heading to the USA though, nonetheless. I had been thinking it was unlikely my SFO upgrade was going to clear, but the chances of success have since massively gone up!

 

Am I right in thinking that a change of aircraft which has led to my business class booking being downgraded to economy is grounds to cancel without penalty? Pretty sure that will be the case but am unfamiliar with NZ practice.

 

A few have asked about what if anything NZ might do for their FF tier rention and/or hitting higher tiers. I spoke to the airpoints team yesterday and asked specifically if NZ are doing or planning to do anything to help. My specific case is I'm close to Elite <50SP, with some points rolling off in a week or so, I have upcoming family travel booked to AUS next month which we are 'watching' the situation, if everything played out I was going to do a SP run to get ~45SP mid May to hit Elite, which now may also not be the best thing to be doing (non essential travel I mean)

Anyway the overall message to this, it appears the airpoints team will be open to reviewing indiviudal situations on a case by case request, my agent went and spoke to a supervisor to review my situation to see if they could do anything to help currently, I guess to see if they could bump me. The outcome was at this stage they would not as my anniversary date is not until July, but for me it's now or never as I just don't have enough upcoming travel planned and the virus situation is evolving daily. Just on Friday my company put out a notice all domestic travel needs manager review and anything non essential should not go ahead.

 

Given Air NZ's constant devaluation of the Airpoints programme and their treatment in situations like this, I'd suggest now would be a good time to focus less on maintaining Air NZ loyalty and switching to a program or pass that actually cares for their passengers. My feeling is Air NZ does not realise the extent of travel bans on HVC (mostly corporate), and will probably regret it 12 months from now.

 

The problem is that for most corporate travellers based in NZ where a fair chunk of SC earnings comes from domestic, we are so limited in choice. Even on the mainlines, JQ is there and offers good earnings on QF but many people actively avoid JQ. So Air NZ is in a monopoly situation.
However, I wonder if this may come to hurt them with others like AU travellers who fly via NZ to go to the US and may choose other airlines. I would guess that airlines might be open to status matches right now.

 

I totally agree but I am so close to hitting Elite + soft landing to gold I'll have a good couple of years+ of what I need for little outlay at this point. It make no sense right now to look at shifting. Yes depending on how they handle the next 2,3,6 mths etc may define their FFP and how much support they get going forward

 

Interestingly my early morning domestic main trunk flight tomorrow morning (which is already under airport control so with seats filled) and which would normally be full through the whole plane, is virtually empty down the back but reasonably full in the HVC section. So much so that I switched from my 8D to a empty row of six in row 20.

 

could you not upgrade your Australian family trip to business class as the SP are 83 SP easily more than the 45SP you need ?
(Or premium economy at 34)

 

Only Auckland gets big planes that fly to Australia. Its not an option for everyone.

 

It'll be interesting watching what unfolds in the US... I'm in SF, and the big tech companies are shutting offices left right and center. Of course that doesn't help when you go and get a coffee from some poor minimum wage worker who doesn't get any time off, regardless of how sick they might be.I am legitimately concerned at how this is being handled at the Federal level, and California's sprawling bureaucracy hardly has a reputation for being well run at the best of times.

I have a feeling things are about to get very bad, very quickly unfortunately.

 

Ex CHC so not an option

 

On my upcoming trips to the USA, I will definitely be thinking twice before going out to eat...

 

Reflecting on this and looking at my own account with banked years and rollover SC, while those of you who have read my other posts know I'm not generally fan of the Airpoints programme, in this case in terms of Elite AirNZ are actually quite generous in giving multiple years status. one could argue that the banked years and rollovers are exactly the kind of "rainy day" fund that means that even though we dont travel due to issues like nCov we still get to keep status. From a purely loyalty based view this locks in the best customers (historically). of course it doesnt help to protect future customers.

Not sure a blanket extension of status makes sense here? Maybe something more refined based on travel patterns etc.? Or a stop gap like allowing CC spend to count fully towards Elite requal?

 

I think this is a time for Air NZ to be proactive and try and maintain loyalty. Most of us are not choosing to refrain from travel, it is forced on us, and if members lose status there is always a danger of them walking.
To me banked years are Air NZ's version of lifetime status, I will be very old before I run out of them.

I wonder if an easy answer to the current crisis wouldn't be moving everyone's requalification date out by three months, that way everyone gets 15 months total to reach the target, rather than 12. That would be fair to everyone and hopefully would be simple to do.