Long-haul flight cancellations

Forums › Travel (planes, train, cruise) › Long-haul flight cancellations – what happens?

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#3206689 15-Mar-2024 14:24

floydbloke:

Air NZ use B787-9 on that route and I saw the other day there is a worldwide shortage of the RR Trent 1000 engines, meaning their maintenance schedule gets messed up which could have contribute to historical cancellation. They will stop flying NZ26 to Chicago from the end of this month to mitigate this somewhat.

Was just about to point that out. Could just be juggling available planes around to fit routes if some are being serviced. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/511473/air-new-zealand-suspends-chicago-service-after-rolls-royce-engine-headaches

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#3206901 16-Mar-2024 09:01

According to flightradar24 NZ24 AKL-YVR originally scheduled for 19 March has already been cancelled (that's two in six days, and there was no flight scheduled last Thu 14/03). I would assume that they will have already started to reshuffle the booked passengers on that particular flight, and I guess they might be able to offer them a small degree of flexibility. Would still be damn annoying though.

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chatterbox

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#3211991 29-Mar-2024 07:33

You'll probably get rerouted. Air NZ, United etc have flights into LAX, SFO etc and they'll definitely be going and then you might have a short flight in economy on a star alliance partner airline up to Vancouver. United have PE and it's fine. Air NZ is better but it's pretty similar.

If they don't offer this, then be proactive about it and get on the phone asking for a reroute. Especially if it affects hotel bookings etc. It's better to arrive on time than claim insurance. That's just a hassle.

Alternatively they may say you can go a day later or something.

johno1234

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#3211997 29-Mar-2024 07:56

Our golf group flight to Melbourne was on B777 but AirNZ changed the aircraft to B787 so fewer seats. Some of us got downgraded seats and one who had a bought business class seat got bumped off the flight altogether which made zero sense as there were still economy seats available on the smaller plane. AirNZ offered to put him on a Qantas flight but he kicked up a fuss and made it back to our original flight in business class. Someone else must have then been downgraded or bumped. Shambles of an operation.

But one thing this shows is the Airlines will book you on other competitor airlines if they are made to.

chatterbox

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#3212034 29-Mar-2024 11:50

johno1234: Our golf group flight to Melbourne was on B777 but AirNZ changed the aircraft to B787 so fewer seats. Some of us got downgraded seats and one who had a bought business class seat got bumped off the flight altogether which made zero sense as there were still economy seats available on the smaller plane. AirNZ offered to put him on a Qantas flight but he kicked up a fuss and made it back to our original flight in business class. Someone else must have then been downgraded or bumped. Shambles of an operation.

But one thing this shows is the Airlines will book you on other competitor airlines if they are made to.

Across the Tasman Air NZ tend to put people on Qantas. There aren't any other star alliance carriers. But on the longer routes there are. And it's not just NZ routes to consider, Australia is across the way so there's that option too. Not ideal but it's been done before to catch United out of there. I think Air Canada are probably year round out of Australia as well.

Rebooking people can be messy with any airline. That's why it's a good idea to go to them with a back up plan instead of waiting to see what they spit out. Obviously search Air NZ's alternate routes close to your destination as that would be the preference for them. For Vancouver though they fly to a bunch of US destinations, then there's United's routes so there will definitely be options. And once you're there it's a short hop to Vancouver.

Anyway, fingers crossed it doesn't happen but if you want some back up plans then choose your routes before the day.

floydbloke

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#3219093 16-Apr-2024 13:37

Thanks for all the advice and experiences here.

Looking at available non-stop flights it looks like they're flying AKL-YVR 6 days per week now, not flying Tuesdays and from end of May dropping to 5 a week. I guess this is rescheduling to accommodate the 787 engine shortage. Previously they were available to book 7 days a week.

Our particular flight doesn't appear to have a lot of seats left. None in prem and business, and economy is rather pricey. I'm hoping a fuller flight means less chance of cancellation, notwithstanding mother nature intervening, accidents or mechanical issues. (Only 46 sleeps to go.)

Sometimes I use big words I don't always fully understand in an effort to make myself sound more photosynthesis.

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noroad

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#3219133 16-Apr-2024 15:40

Airnz's long haul fleet is a disaster zone, they got rid of too many planes (777-200's) and delayed delivery of what was supposed to be the replacements (787's) as well as laying off staff. Now the aircraft are being worked into the ground and they have no spares. Most of their 777's for example do a flight from the US, 4 hours on the ground, then off to Australia or the islands, then back to the US, rinse and repeat with only a few hours inbetween. There are no spare aircraft so if anything happens they just cancel everything that plane was going to do. I had a Melbounre flight recently, a nice afternoon flight and the day before I got a you have been recheduled to this 6am flight, no explanation. Then there were like 3 PE seats left and myself and the lady next to me who had the same issue paid extra to get the only non centre of the row seats left in the front of PE. Once on the flight I found out (the crew did not know and no one mentioned it) the IFE was broken on my and a few other's seats. Its a good thing I load my phone up before any travel. Its going to get even worse as the a32X-neo engine issues and extreme workload take a further toll on the fleet over the coming couple of years. They have also only got a small 787 order in so as far as I can see Airnz's long haul is going to be rubbish for several years and they have made no decisions that will fix any of it.

floydbloke

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#3233352 22-May-2024 08:28

noroad:

Airnz's long haul fleet is a disaster zone, they got rid of too many planes (777-200's) and delayed delivery of what was supposed to be the replacements (787's) as well as laying off staff. Now the aircraft are being worked into the ground and they have no spares. Most of their 777's for example do a flight from the US, 4 hours on the ground, then off to Australia or the islands, then back to the US, rinse and repeat with only a few hours inbetween. There are no spare aircraft so if anything happens they just cancel everything that plane was going to do...

@noroad Looks like you were spot on.

Got the Air NZ email last night. Your flight has changed, now flying Air NZ to LAX, then transiting through to YVR on Air Canada from there.

Rather inconvenient but in the end not a huge deal, we arrive in Vancouver only two hours later than originally scheduled and we need to set off from home 4 hours earlier.

I have requested some compensation based on:

The 3 hour LAX-YVR flight is in economy, we've paid for premium. I feel that we'll be receiving a sufficiently different product from what we bought (And of course we've lost our previously reserved seats.)
I'm out of pocket to the tune of NZ$80 odd for US ESTA

As expected, Sue the contact-centre agent, didn't have authority to approve anything like that but she has submitted my request to 'the right team' with some urgency given that we'll be travelling in a week and a half. We'll wait and see if I hear anything back. ( I don't need necessarily want hard dollars back from them but if they can swing some lounge access or something I'd go for that).

Sometimes I use big words I don't always fully understand in an effort to make myself sound more photosynthesis.

noroad

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#3233437 22-May-2024 12:43

I have to book a trip to the LA (September when Delta, American and United are not coming here), now do I trust AirNZ or just give in and Book via Qantas/Sydney ? *sigh*

afe66

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#3233440 22-May-2024 12:49

I'm in the "Don't worry about it" camp.

Realistically there's nothing I can do about it.

I book the whole trip on single ticket and let the airline sort it out. But have travel insurance..

My only modification is never have flight leaving early morning from Dunedin to pickup international flight mid day.

Too often it's foggy and early morning flights delayed in winter.

floydbloke

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#3233443 22-May-2024 13:05

afe66: I'm in the "Don't worry about it" camp.

Realistically there's nothing I can do about it.

...

You're absolutely right and I'm actually reasonably relaxed about it (moreso since Covid, that's what real disruption looked like). It is what it is and we don't have any major time-constraints at either end.

At the same time though, in my true grumpy, middle-aged man fashion, I've let them know that I'm a bit pissy about that LAX transfer and a 3 hour flight in economy when I've paid big bucks. It does appear to me that Air NZ does push the boundaries of consumer rights at times.

Like I said, not a huge deal. At least I'm not stuck in New Caledonia and I wasn't one of those unfortunates on SQ321 last night 😢

Sometimes I use big words I don't always fully understand in an effort to make myself sound more photosynthesis.

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noroad

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#3233458 22-May-2024 14:10

afe66: I'm in the "Don't worry about it" camp.

You're absolutely right and I'm actually reasonably relaxed about it (moreso since Covid, that's what real disruption looked like). It is what it is and we don't have any major time-constraints at either end.

At the same time though, in my true grumpy, middle-aged man fashion, I've let them know that I'm a bit pissy about that LAX transfer and a 3 hour flight in economy when I've paid big bucks. It does appear to me that Air NZ does push the boundaries of consumer rights at times.

Gave AirNZ one more chance and booked with them rather than Qantas (the 10 hours quicker might have something to do with it)

allan

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#3233559 22-May-2024 16:56

Air NZ have leased an ex Cathay Pacific 777 I have just discovered - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_HBCHgX-bI

openmedia

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#3233719 23-May-2024 10:59

allan:

Air NZ have leased an ex Cathay Pacific 777 I have just discovered - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_HBCHgX-bI

Flew on one of these back from Houston a week ago. Very comfortable. Whilst is still has the Cathay cabin fit out it has a full Air NZ Crew and experience.

The Inflight Entertainment systems is a little bit of a bodge and not up-to the standards of the modern systems on newer planes, but overall still a great experience.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

floydbloke

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#3234080 24-May-2024 09:35

floydbloke:

...

Got the Air NZ email last night. Your flight has changed, now flying Air NZ to LAX, then transiting through to YVR on Air Canada from there.

...

Turns out the flight we were booked on isn't actually cancelled but we got bumped. Been having several conversations with Air NZ this week, other than for Operational Reasons no-one was actually able to tell me why. I suspect we were bottom of the list because we'd bought sale fares and aren't frequent flyers. I managed to wangle some lounge access out of them in the end and because we really didn't fancy the LAX transfer we decided to change dates and our holiday now starts three days earlier than originally planned 🙂. (Although more contact centre agent incompetence was suffered during this re-booking).

Sometimes I use big words I don't always fully understand in an effort to make myself sound more photosynthesis.

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