I actually think you would be in a far better position to resist a clawback in case of a DT judgment/decision.

itxtme:

What happens when this whole mess lasts 16 months because we are all waiting on a vaccine to actually make travel safe? The credit just expires?  Possession it would seem is 9/10ths of the law. 

concordnz:

 

It could be an amusing thread(elsewhere - not here please), 
For someone(knowledgeable) to outline, what happens to these "credits" in the event a person is Bankrupted ? (say someone had a credit of $30,000 of travel from a cancelled around the world trip)
It is technically an 'asset' of theirs, - but their creditors cannot get their hand on it (even the Tax department cant I suspect)

 

You'll be an unsecured creditor of the airline as a holder of any credit. As I've already explained, you'll rank dead last amongst the classes of creditors and will frankly be out of luck. The company insolvency regime and the established priorities for different classes of creditors are well established.

concordnz:
@larknz - Great to hear, you have had some success in this area, 
Hopefully more companies take the same strategy, when they have failed to provide their service.

larknz: Actually the fare I bought was not refundable.

I had WLG-AKL return flights booked for 13-14 and 20-21 May. Around $220 all up and Air New Zealand put them straight into credit without telling me. Made me go "What the f***..." at first as the bookings simply disappeared from the Air New Zealand app on my phone and there were no details of them online either. I'm certainly nowhere near the out-of-pocket position of the OP but recognise the extraordinary circumstances we're in so am happy to sit on the credit. I have wondered about the point itxtme raised in relation to the longevity of the 'travel ban' but am reasonably confident we'll be back in the air (domestically at least) in the next few months.

@concordnz - there's a little bell ringing in the back of my mind about a statement I heard or read somewhere* that flights would be held in credit for up to 12 months and refunds would be issued once flights had resumed if the credit was of no use within that timeframe. Have you asked Air New Zealand about this?

I recognise you want your money a lot sooner than this, hence your post here, but have doubts this will be possible - especially given dejadeadnz's commentary.

* hopefully that statement wasn't just the voices in my head... :-)

I usually book almost all flights (including half way around the planet) 1-2 days prior to travel. Sure they may be more expensive but as it turns out protect from situations just like this. You usally can get a decent deal on Skyscanner, when I came back from LAX to AKL in February, AirNZ was sitting around $1,200 then for a split second it went to $700 through trip.com on Skyscanner. That is almost like a sale level price. I noticed that price dissapeared as soon as I bought the ticket 1 minute later.

Anyway I've just now spent all my Qantas points on gift cards and the only hard goods they will ship which are Apple products. Is it worth doing the same with AirNZ? I have $2,200 airpoints dollars. I can buy random products from their site or go for a splurge at Mitre10 as soon as Lockdown is over. Thoughts?

AirNZ is arguably too big to fail, so I think the risk of loosing your airpoints balance is low. But from a use of money point of view - may as well use your airpoints at Mitre10 when the lockdown end, as you might not be able to spend it on  flights for quite some time.

It would be nice if the credit card chargeback approach worked - I'd like real money rather than a credit voucher for my Virgin Australia flights. I will be very surprised if that company still exists in one year. OTOH, that money may well go on severence/annual leave payouts for staff

nickb800:

 

AirNZ is arguably too big to fail, so I think the risk of loosing your airpoints balance is low. But from a use of money point of view - may as well use your airpoints at Mitre10 when the lockdown end, as you might not be able to spend it on  flights for quite some time.

 

It would be nice if the credit card chargeback approach worked - I'd like real money rather than a credit voucher for my Virgin Australia flights. I will be very surprised if that company still exists in one year. OTOH, that money may well go on severence/annual leave payouts for staff

 

Belgium or Austria might be able to get by without a airline because of excellent road and rail links, for NZ it would be much harder.  We would have to rely on sea links and air cargo, and maybe charter flights.

nickb800: AirNZ is arguably too big to fail, so I think the risk of loosing your airpoints balance is low. But from a use of money point of view - may as well use your airpoints at Mitre10 when the lockdown end, as you might not be able to spend it on  flights for quite some time.

 

It would be nice if the credit card chargeback approach worked - I'd like real money rather than a credit voucher for my Virgin Australia flights. I will be very surprised if that company still exists in one year. OTOH, that money may well go on severence/annual leave payouts for staff 

Just for clarity's sake - no company/organisation is "too big to fail". However it's importance to a region/state/country may be such that lots of public money is thrown at it to prevent it failing. This is where the term 'privatising profit, socialising loss' comes from.

I see that any US bound flights are now required to be refunded. https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/us-department-transportation-issues-enforcement-notice-clarifying-air-carrier-refund