sinus

Question for NZ frequent flyers, what is airline policy when the flight is overbooked?

Do they offer any voucher, compensation (like in EU) or just alternative flight?

ajnz

While I have no direct experience with this, I would expect you may get IDB compensation if they can't get you out same-day. However, I think this would be EXTREMELY rare and probably only occur in bad weather in remote stations.

Generally speaking NZ has good inventory management and the domestic network is big enough with enough variation in pax loads that there will either be enough no-shows/people voluntarily changing their flights, that the flight will get out without denying boarding. If it's really bad, they usually offer to put you on an earlier flight when you arrive at the airport, if one is available.

NZ_Flyer

A good friend on mine was involuntarily bumped a couple of years ago WLG-DUD and received a very large amount of compensation in AP$ as well as a number of one-time Koru Club passes. But as ajnz mentions, NZ overall have excellent inventory management. It's rare for international flights to be overbooked and even rarer for domestic. No compo for weather related problems in my experience though.

Kiwi Flyer

In my experience the only times pax need to be bumped is irrops (eg trying to accommodate pax when earlier/later flight(s) have been cancelled).

In several hundred NZ flights I can only think of a handful of cases.

DarF2001

My wife and I are proof that they do overbook, IDB and give next to nothing as compensation for it. We are *Golds (UA 1Ks) on B-fares (domestic legs of a business class) and they said the oversold us. After twenty minutes of arguing with the staff at the premium desk, all we got was a handful of food vouchers and placed in a four hour van ride to our destination.

What irked me the most if that he kept insisting it was "Queenstown's fault" - the New Zealand employee there booked us on the oversold flight because our original one went mechanical. I was dumbfounded how it being the "fault" of another air NZ employee to give us seats on a full plane made us ineligible for proper IDB compensation. He was even unwilling to look for VDB volunteers.

As an US traveler, I'm not up to speed with New Zealand's IDB laws. If United pulled a stunt like this, I'd be pursuing a large check from them, but need to do more internet research to see how the laws work in New Zealand. They kept insisting they owed us nothing since "they got us to our destination" but I don't consider a van ride an equivelent value service to an airplane ride.

And I will raise hell if I don't at least get my FF miles credited for it.

oranjemakker

Wow, that does sounds unusual. What route were you travelling?

cavemanzk

So your original flight was canceled due to technical reasons & the flight they re-booked you on was oversold?

Sounds like the ZQN agents, wait-listed you on another flight hoping some seats would open up before departure. They most likely did you a favor as a *G by wait listing you on this flight. The other option was they could have not let you try get onto another flight & made you take the van option strait away.

Legally you are entitled to nothing, they got you from point A to point B. Which is the contract you enter into them upon purchasing tickets.

You might want to check this page out, as you took the van ride you voided all your rights.

http://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/artic...d-cancellation

everywhere

DarF2001, I would ignore both cavemanzk and any talk of VDB/IDB and send a letter or e-mail to the Chief Executive expressing your extreme disappointment that as revenue Business Class customers that you were treated like this, the blatant disrespect for your time and of the enjoyment of your holiday, and how this has profoundly affected your impression of this airline as it goes against everything you have heard about and experienced with the airline. Then ask them to make it right. I wouldn't ask for anything which a dollar sign or miles attached, but still of significant value to you: Roundtrip C tickets SYD-AKL or something if that works for you.

birder

I agree completely. This is completely apalling treatment and at the very least it needs to be reported to the highest level so that some re-training can take place.

DarF2001

The original routing as ZQN-WLG-TUO. When we checked in, it only printed boarding passes for the ZQN-WLG sector, which we thought was very odd. We went to talk to a person, and they said there was something up with that flight but not sure. We went and ate lunch, and then our names were called on the loudspeaker.

The ZQN agent said she could rebook us on the ZQN-AKL-TUO flight. Absolutely nothing about waitlisting/standby - it was confirmed seats. She gave us boarding passes with seat assignments. I know better than to accept a re-route without confirmed seats. If they didn't have seat numbers, I would not have taken the re-route.

I know by accepting the van ride, I probably forfeited a lot of rights with respect to IDB compensation. The customer disservice agent at AKL was adament that they were "fulfilling their contract" by getting us there, which is pure hogwash. However, I wasn't willing to waste more time in AKL airport arguing/waiting and it was too late to cancel my TUO hotel. Again, one of those cases where I know I might win legally but the fight might be more cost and hassle.

They also called it a "bus" the entire time, and I had visions of Greyhound stopping and picking up a bunch of backpackers. After twenty minutes of arguing, they said it was a small van with two other overbooked people. But they mysteriously disappeared - either they came up with alternate arrangements, or as I suspect, they were Kiwis and Air NZ was willing to pay out two vouchers for them. Once I realized it was just us I was a little more amicable to the van.

He did say if we did not take the flight, we might be able to get some money back, but it was part of a Star Alliance Circle Pacific business fare. I'd have to be on hold with the United 1K line for about two hours and I'm sure it'd compute out to $43.67 or something lame like that. Again, not worth the hassle.

I haven't decided whether or not to fire off a nastygram to anyone. Ntddevsys hit the nail on the head - I'm more hacked off about the disrespect. There was minimal economic damage - I only lost two hours all said and done, and yes, riding in a van for four hours is only slightly less comfortable than drinking in the Koru lounge and thirty minutes on a prop plane. It's the treatment that bothers me and the fact they failed to acknowledge their mistake.

The agent in AKL treated us like a couple kettles on internet tickets. Maybe that's what I'll buy next time.

DarF2001

Air New Zealand's international product is AMAZING. We flew biz class on NZ 1 from LAX to AKL before this debacle, and it was perhaps the best commercial flight experience we've ever had - a step above UA international F.

I was just shocked to see the two extremes from the same company.

birder

If you don't tell them, they don't know, and they'll keep on doing it to the next person. For the sake of the next person, please say something!

KiwiSurfer

Sadly this is the norm for Air New Zealand domestic flights.

Due to the fact I mainly fly domestic segments on Air New Zealand, I have a very low opinion of Air NZ and preferred to travel domestically (maily AKL-CHC vv and AKL-WLG vv) on other airlines. Sadly excellent airlines like Qantas and Pacific Blue have pulled out leaving me with Jetstar as the sole alternative to Air NZ. I now just choose whichever carrier is cheaper since the service is pretty much the same on both carriers -- well NZ gives you a bag of nuts but that's not sufficient for me to choose them over JQ!

I flew Air NZ on an international segment earlier this year (a 777-200 service AKL-SYD in March) for the first time in over a decade and I was gobsmacked at how fantastic the service was and my opinion of NZ went up a few notches. The service I received on the 772 was one of the best I had received on any airline. A few months later I then flew domestically (AKL-CHC-AKL in May) and I was rudely reminded of why my opinion was originally a new notches down...

While I appreciate birder's intentions -- I don't think Air NZ gives a crap. I have noticed that since Qantas and Pacific Blue left, Air NZ has no one to look up to and strive toward improving their service. The result is NZ degrading their services just enough to ensure they are still better than JQ. For many kiwis NZ is still 'good enough' (or, worse, their only option) but I am one of the few that (rightly or wrongly) expect a lot better from NZ than what they current deliver...

*rant over*

- James

Joshua

The international product is indeed stunning, although the hard product is not a step above UA F suite. (It is definitely ahead of UA C)

Domestic short haul (and trans-tasman too along with other island flights apparently) seems to be operated with a service philosophy similar to NK here in the US.

cavemanzk

Short haul International is pretty much like flying an LCC.