AirNZ_bae

I am currently investigating/ assisting AirNZ with a potential legislative Breach regarding the allocation of airpoints versus the amount of potential airpoints promised.

The advertisement of potential ranges of airpoints promised by AirNZ has found to become less that what is awarded in two circumstances, particularly in the Auckland to Perth route which is currently covered by WAMOS.

My purpose is to assist AirNZ with highlighting this issue and ensuring people are credited at least what is within the limits of what AirNZ are advertising.

If anyone has any issues similar to the above, please let me know.

nzkarit

What is legislative breach? Just to me confusing choice of words. As Airpoints is a commerical relationship between two parties and government legalisation doesn't govern airpoints AFAIK.

I thought APDs listed at booking & on future booking was always an estimate and was labelled as such. Or am I missing something here as to what the problem is?

Thai-Kiwi

Perhaps the issue is the lack of transparency on precise earn? I mean, AirNZ’s system is highly opaque compared to many programs where miles/km are used…

Additionally, recent fare increases for each respective fare bucket when SP and $AP remains the same is a clear devaluation of ‘earn’.

AirNZ_bae

For example AirNZ advertise that Perth to Auckland Works Ticket will net you between a potential from 81 to 145 Airpoints. In this instance, customers have received 18.8 status points. A similarly scaled drop in AirNZ dollars returned is being experienced.

This is in breach of two pieces of legislation; fair trading act 1986 and also the consumer guarantees act 1993.

Although AirNZ is supported by the government, it is not there by wholly exempt from its own legislation, particularly how the promised benefits are monetary instruments (AirNZ dollars) and material benefits (status points for lounge benefits.

​​​​​​There are legal precedents set where govt supported entities have breached these two legislation and we're decidedly told where to fix their errors.

Simple fix from AirNZ will adjust the error, I'm just in the process of identification what flights this has affected, and it's likely that it's just the ones where AirNZ are selling tickets but flying the passengers on WAMOS.

sbiddle

Where are you seeing this? I've just searched pretty extensively online and can see no reference to these figures in a few different locations that reference earn.


Looking at the airnzpoints.co.nz site (which is the only "official" table and site for looking up this data) the range (without a booking class) seems correct when compared with dummy bookings in various classes.

It is worth noting that airpoints and status points are not the same thing, but you seem to have used them interchangeably in that sentence.

Are you saying customers earn rate isn't what is shown? I'm struggling to understand what actual issue you're claiming exists.

nzkarit

Where are you seeing this? And how many of the places are saying estimated earn or potential earn? Pretty sure through the entire booking process and booking list page says estimated or potential from what I can recall, so AirNZ does have an out.

I have always received what it said in estimated when making a booking. (I log SP on a tracking Spreadsheet).

Did the people receive the estimated APD and SP on the booking process shown in top right corner or something different? Or did they get something different from what they saw when they booked?

nzkarit

Just looking at https://www.airnzpoints.co.nz/

For AKL to Perth. The numbers you quote as the range are for full Flexi. The numbers you mentioned as earn fall into the range for saver economy. Looking at the ticket what fare basis was the ticket?
Sale, Saver, Flexi.

sbiddle

You really need to be a whole lot more open about your relationship to this and the error you're actually trying to say exists - because right now there appears to be no actual issue here based on the information you've provided. Your vague language and use of airpoints and status points as though they are one and the same makes things slightly confusing.

Based on what you've said so far there does not appear to be any issue here other than possible confusion from you or another party as to how many SP or APD that would be given for the flight(s).

What fare basis and fare class did you (or somebody else) book and how many SP and APD did you get for the flight(s)?

If you put that fare basis and fare class into the www.airpoints.co.nz website how many SP and APD does it tell you that you should get for the flight(s)?

nzkarit

Can you please state the fare basis: sale, saver, Flexi.
The booking class: Y, W, X, etc
You mention Works but that is just one dimension.

It seems to me that you saw the Flexi earn rate but booked a saver ticket. To get a Flexi you generally need to select the "make this refundable" option.

Thai-Kiwi

The multidimensional nature of the TT product/fare structure doesn’t make things easy for folks to understand:

Product (Seat, S+B, Works, WD) in one dimension, all of which are sold in a range of fare classes (YBMH QVWT LSGXKP F) in the other dimension, each with varying price, SP and $AP earn. Additionally the fare classes are clustered into categories of Sale, Smart Saver, and Flexi.

The QF structure, for all its other imperfections, it much more transparent and decidedly simpler. At least IMHO.

Xiaotung

I wish Airpoints would just revert back to using points as currency as we have seen in other programmes that points can be used to redeem on any fare on sale as well.

APD was designed to confuse consumers into thinking that are getting a good deal but in reality people are earning much fewer and burning at a much more rapid speed than other programmes. At the same time, they are creating more headaches to themselves. Unless they review their rates every 6 months, they are increasingly difficult to reflect the changing fares. There are just too many variables and errors are prone to occur. I am still not convinced that all of airnzpoints.co.nz site is showing accurate information than it was intended especially when it comes to a few partner airlines where earn rates have been reduced to a meaningless level and everyone is treating it like Bible.

Can you imagine if The Points Guy did a deep dive into the programme?

AirNZ_bae

The legal test in New Zealand is whether the idea / point is reasonable and fair, so there is not really an out if the advertising is deemed misleading to that test.

AirNZ_bae

This is a Tasman Flexi Fare H Class

jeffrocowboy

test it in court then if you are so certain?

Those very familiar with AirNZ airpoints are not convinced there is an issue. I does not seem like you will get very far with seeking any recourse - the problem is not established.

nzkarit

Ok
What page/ad (please link) are you seeing that range on?

When you booked what did it say in the top right corner? In regards to APD and SP?

When you looked at the booking on the web page or in the app what did it for estimated earn for APD and SP?

What was the final APD and SP credited?

Is final amount differing from some page/ad? Or is final amount differing from what is shown during booking?

Still trying to see/understand the issue you are talking about. In my experience with all my flights the APD and SP earned has matched what was shown in the top right.