I wonder how would people feel if all those who bought non-refundable tickets were not given any credit to allow anyone who bought a refundable one to get either a full or partial refund?

I wonder if the amounts would balance it out? I personally buy the cheapest I can find which normally is non-refundable however on some occasions I pay a premium for when the need arises.

surfisup1000:

 

But, that is not to say the government won't look at flight cancellation laws in future, bringing New Zealand into line with other countries. My view is that for 'act of god' events, credits are a good trade-off between the customer and airline. Perhaps a '50% refund' could also be a future option, such that both parties share the pain for act of god disasters.  

 

From all the complaints I've read online US citizens are having a harder time getting refunds on their flights than what NZers are on flights to the US. No airline anywhere wants to have to give out cash when it's so precious to them right now.

As for a "50%" refund one option has been available since day 1 has been the refund of taxes on flights. In the case of a typical ~$400 flight to Australia 50% of that is tax (around $200) so you can opt to have that refunded - but if you do this you can't get the fare in credit.

surfisup1000:

 

For sure. And retrospective law changes are very rare for good reason, so people shouldn't bank on the possibility of any covid-19 related ticket refund. 

 

But, that is not to say the government won't look at flight cancellation laws in future, bringing New Zealand into line with other countries. My view is that for 'act of god' events, credits are a good trade-off between the customer and airline. Perhaps a '50% refund' could also be a future option, such that both parties share the pain for act of god disasters.  

 

For my personal situation, domestic flights are slowly returning to normal, and , prices are even looking semi-reasonable.  I spoke with Air NZ a few weeks back and they said they were enhancing their online booking so people can use their cancellation credits to pay for new flight bookings.   Sooner the better....manual processing is painful.

 

The credit isn't a full credit in buying power terms.  Air travel is more expensive post COVID, so generally, people will have to top up a credit of $x.

IMO if a flight is cancelled the legal position should be a 100% refund wit credit and option by mutual agreement.

Geektastic: If Air NZ can’t function without taxpayers money, the business should be sold or wound up.

NZ is going to need an airline if theres any hope to save the economy with tourists post-lockdown

For all his huffing and puffing John Duffy from Consumer did have to admit this morning on Newstalk ZB that what Air NZ are doing is 100% legal and within current legislation.

Geektastic: If Air NZ can’t function without taxpayers money, the business should be sold or wound up.

MikeAqua:

 

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The credit isn't a full credit in buying power terms.  Air travel is more expensive post COVID, so generally, people will have to top up a credit of $x.

 

IMO if a flight is cancelled the legal position should be a 100% refund wit credit and option by mutual agreement.

 

Some air travel is more expensive at present because Air NZ can't sell every seat on a plane. This means they've culled the cheapest fare buckets, and they've also culled the most expensive fare buckets. This means the maximum fare price that you'll pay on a domestic flight is currently less than the maximum price you would have paid prior to Covid-19.

Air NZ have not put fares up. There are 130 different domestic routes (direct and indirect) available across the Air NZ network, and 14 different fare classes for each of those journeys which means 1,820 different fare options. Every single one of these is exactly the same as it was in February.

Come next Thursday when we're (hopefully) back at level 1 you can guarantee Air NZ will be trying very aggressively to sell every possible seat on every plane it has flying.

nathan:

Geektastic: If Air NZ can’t function without taxpayers money, the business should be sold or wound up.

NZ is going to need an airline if theres any hope to save the economy with tourists post-lockdown

sbiddle:

 

MikeAqua:

 

[The credit isn't a full credit in buying power terms.  Air travel is more expensive post COVID, so generally, people will have to top up a credit of $x.

 

IMO if a flight is cancelled the legal position should be a 100% refund wit credit and option by mutual agreement.

 

 

Some air travel is more expensive at present because Air NZ can't sell every seat on a plane. This means they've culled the cheapest fare buckets, and they've also culled the most expensive fare buckets. This means the maximum fare price that you'll pay on a domestic flight is currently less than the maximum price you would have paid prior to Covid-19.

 

Air NZ have not put fares up. There are 130 different domestic routes (direct and indirect) available across the Air NZ network, and 14 different fare classes for each of those journeys which means 1,820 different fare options. Every single one of these is exactly the same as it was in February.

 

Come next Thursday when we're (hopefully) back at level 1 you can guarantee Air NZ will be trying very aggressively to sell every possible seat on every plane it has flying.

 

My flight costs for work are up about 60%.    Speaks for itself.

Then of course .. try using your credit.  It's not a simple credit for $x of travel, so it's specific to the customer for whom the travel was booked (e.g. can't use it to buy your immediate family travel) and some other criteria.     Another airline I fly with offers a multitrip concession.  I can just carry on using those without additional expense or restrictions (other than with reduced capacity).

For those near a radio or online, Magic Talk talkback are discussing this topic this morning.

As usual, actual and substantive issues are being missed amidst far too much noise. There are many Air NZ customers who are reporting that despite holding credits, they are not able to apply those towards flights that they wish to rebook now. This isn't legally and morally acceptable. Air NZ (like NZP with their parcel delays) is just throwing out the usual "We have lots of things to deal with! Poor us!" lines but if MSD can, for example,  manage to pay out hundreds of thousands of people using their systems quickly, business sense and social responsibility demands that Air NZ should not milk customers who are their creditors to put in further cash to buy air tickets when they are holding credits that Air NZ is making unusable due to their systems, actions and/or inactions.

Longer run, the legal position regarding refund of cancelled flights will likely head towards a position more akin to the EU and the US. The unavoidable consequence of that (and I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing) is air travel will actually need to be priced more realistically, instead of airlines constantly just competing on price. 

dejadeadnz:

 

As usual, actual and substantive issues are being missed amidst far too much noise. There are many Air NZ customers who are reporting that despite holding credits, they are not able to apply those towards flights that they wish to rebook now.

 

I would be very interested to know how many that are complaining about this very issue have actually tried to book. I don't know a single person who has encountered this issue, and I do know a handful of people who have successfully used their credit for rebookings which was a slightly convoluted process but didn't take long.

Talkback radio and RNZ checkpoint are both on a rampagne against Air NZ however it's pretty clear that many of these people are claiming things that simply aren't true. I wonder how much of it is simply jumping on the bandwagon rather than people actually experiencing an issue.

The thing that people with international (incl Australia) flights also need to remember is their flights can be changed free, and a lot of people will not need to pay any fare difference for doing this. If it's travel that people still will do (such as the 4 x credits I have for Australian flights from the past few months), changing it makes a lot more sense. The only issue is that TT rebookings at this stage need to be redone before the end of June, or the end of August for other international flights.

Air NZ's comms has been a shambles, but some of the outrage seems to be over issues that Air NZ have addressed. If people don't read their emails which detail many things, or take the time to look at the Air NZ website, I'm really not sure how Air NZ are supposed to "communicate what is going on" (which seems to be a common thing people are complaining about).

If changes to the law happen it'll only mean flights going to to cover costs, and suddenly lots of people will realise how cheap airfares in NZ are compared to somewhere like the US where consumer law is very strict, and airlines have to factor refunds and significant compensation allowances into ticket pricing.

Geektastic: If Air NZ can’t function without taxpayers money, the business should be sold or wound up.

if you live on the edge of the planet and you want to get food, laptops and urgent medical supllies flown in I think it's important to have an airline.

though the business will have to contract and shrink.