Dual pax booking on a connecting flight to AKL then SIN. The initial regional leg got cancelled and we were off-loaded from the AKL to SIN flight (operated by SQ in J).

I immediately called Air NZ after receiving the notification and asked to not be off-loaded as we could make our own way to AKL, unfortunately they said there was no longer any availability in J and sure enough there was only Z1 displaying on Expert Flyer.

Despite this, I could still see the booking on the SQ website and following the flight's departure we got an email telling us that we have missed our flight and to call them to arrange alternatives.

Does anybody know where our seats could have gone to? I thought maybe pending SQ upgrades got automatically cleared... We have also been rebooked onto a budget non star alliance airline, is there any compensation for this (as we'd have no lounge access/completely different product/no SP/APD earnings etc.)

Was this an award/airpoints booked flight ? Or cash? Rebooking onto a non *A/budget airline seems very odd.

Booked with 100% cash. The rebooked airline was Vietnam Airlines and whilst it was maybe not "budget", it definitely had a worse product than SQ (and still not *A).

You should be able to claim the original routing credit for SP and $AP

You flown Auckland to Singapore operated by Vietnam Airlines? or was this code-share?

Original itinerary was AKL - SIN - SGN on SQ, rebooked onto AKL - SIN (NZ) and SIN - SGN (VN).

If you were able to fly on the same day, then this seems a �reasonable solution�, although SQ in Y (assuming no J) could have been pushed for�?

Actually, you may well benefit with receiving the better SP earn on NZ metal AKL-SIN. You could still then just claim the SP & $AP for the SIN-SGN sector.

What would you have preferred? And was this actually available?

That�s a reasonable outcome. The priority when dealing with IRROPS is to get passengers from A to B with minimal disruption.

How much additional delay would you accept for a preferred airline/cabin?

We were �involuntarily denied boarding� last week returning to NZ.


Flight still went but we were selected for bumping off the flight inside t-24. We had already checked in as soon as online check-in opened.

Not sure what criteria they used as we booked more than six months ago. We were booked in Works with upgrades pending (and good premium cabin availability). The replacement equipment only had economy seats, so I thought it would have been the BP and PE customers most affected. (ZKHB notes the scheduled equipment changed four times in that short period).

Anyhow, we were transferred to a Fiji airlines flight two hours earlier, but right down the back of the bus. Could have been worse but not much worse. No extra costs incurred as we repacked to stay within limits, used priority pass for the lounge. We missed out on meeting friends for dinner at AKL due to directly routing to WLG - not the end of the world but planned around our original itinerary.

We got a letter at the airport stating this was �due to changes in operational schedule�. I�m guessing a downstream consequence of the aborted flight to Raro that week. The letter just said �fewer seats� meant we could not be accommodated. So technically this was IDB because of overbooking. The website just says �The rules for payment of compensation and our boarding priorities are available at all airport ticket counters and boarding locations� - dear reader - they weren�t.

I could no longer manage the booking as it just disappeared. I used up my roaming minutes on hold without success, and chat team told me to go to the airport desk as they could no longer do anything with the booking either. The flight the next day was Wamos (full).

Anyhow, the letter offers an �inconvenience� payment of approximately $250 (I�m assuming each). Can�t find much online but what I did find was $350 outbound NZ to another Pacific Island.

Any experience of recent IDB compensation (not out of pocket costs) in similar circumstances? The last time I volunteered to take a later flight to Aus it was much more than that.

Do you know how many others were bumped? You would think they would bump passengers with low or no status before Elites.

I�ve inferred from what other posters have said previously that status means nothing during irrops - no priority. I�m personally not bothered by that, I don�t think
I�m inherently more important, just missed my elite perks.

Presumably AirNZ uses some logic in making the decision (if not using status); Perhaps fare class? Onward international connections etc.

That said, I haven�t been able to find any definitive information of �how� AirNZ determines who gets bumped�
Some information here, but not the methodology ! https://www.airnzagent.co.nz/disrupt-policy

Irrespective of status, I wonder if they started by bumping off those travelling NAN-AKL-WLG (mentioned before) or NAN-AKL-CHC if it was �easier� to route them on a direct FJ flight? Could be dozens that need to be moved after a 787 > 321 downgauge (depending on how full bookings for the 787 were)

UPDATE: 50APD comp. + ORC claimed + 1x RU returned.
Still waiting on the other RU. Email reply times so far have been pretty good for this non-urgent query.

UPDATE 2: The fast response times have gone
1) My 2nd RU has yet to be returned
2) Air NZ think I am Elite (I'm Gold)
3) They are unsure of what ORC is despite making the claim on my behalf weeks ago...

Do CS reps read previous responses they wrote?