Pacific Blue changed my flights

Forums › Off topic › Pacific Blue changed my flights - what to do now?

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Starplay

267 posts

Ultimate Geek

#381774 19-Sep-2010 09:13

hairy1: Starplay, I think you would be in the minority of people who appreciate Pac Blue leaving domestic. Competition = choice. Less competition means less choice.

Pac Blue jobs are not being lost (according to the press release) but being increased due to more international flying.

I undserstand what you are saying... and I agree with the fact that higher variation creates competition and choice. But when you have barely any Customer Service knowledge, alarm bells should be ringing. If they done their job well (i.e good customer service and good service of flights I would have a very different outlook on them).

Regarding jobs... the general idea that has been around ever since they announced there exit of the market has been along the lines of this.

Based on my experiance with them I have never flown with a worse airline. When my luggage was mistakenly unloaded on a connection/stopover flight I had to wait 3 days to get it back... And that was only to Australia. Luckily it was only one suitcase.

bazzer

3438 posts

Uber Geek

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#381916 19-Sep-2010 16:37

ArcticSilver: itxtme sums up my thoughts exactly on the matter. Its the part where you choose a time which you then book and pay for that gets to me. Why should you be selecting a time if it could be moved last minute? Why is it so hidden that a flight may move last minute?

This sort of information should be where the time is. ie: 2:00pm or later if low on bookings, or some thing like that. Not 2pm and may change in the terms and conditions.

Should they start issuing refunds if the flight is moved by 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 2 hours? If not, why not? Where do they draw the line?

ArcticSilver

729 posts

Ultimate Geek

#381964 19-Sep-2010 18:22

bazzer:
Should they start issuing refunds if the flight is moved by 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 2 hours? If not, why not? Where do they draw the line?

Easy, they should start issuing refunds on request when the time is more than a reasonable amount off that of which you booked, say 15mins.

When you go on holiday you usually book things like a hired car, you set times to pick things up/get picked up.

By moving your flight from a early morning one into the mid afternoon it screws all those times up, especially if you need to travel a reasonable distance to your accommodation, no one may be there!

sbiddle

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Biddle Corp

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#381969 19-Sep-2010 18:46

A key difference here is that they are telling you about this in advance. It's not like your flights is being delayed for hours on the day. The Civil Aviation Act does have clauses for compensation where delays can occur, however this does not apply in this case.

Airlines can't exempt themselves from CGA rules, but nothing I've seen in this thread so far would seem to give cause to lodge a claim (and I've been involved in a lot of CGA stuff over the years).

At the end of the day what you have experienced is the exact type of scenario that travel insurance will cover. IMHO if you book travel and don't book insurance you are accepting a level of risk and have to accept that.

I would never leave NZ without travel insurance, the times I've needed to use it in all my overseas travels have made things so much less stressful when somebody else gets to sort out your troubles for you.

bazzer

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#381995 19-Sep-2010 20:12

ArcticSilver: Easy, they should start issuing refunds on request when the time is more than a reasonable amount off that of which you booked, say 15mins.

When you go on holiday you usually book things like a hired car, you set times to pick things up/get picked up.

By moving your flight from a early morning one into the mid afternoon it screws all those times up, especially if you need to travel a reasonable distance to your accommodation, no one may be there!

My guess is that if airlines had to build that assumption into their pricing, everyone's flights would be more expensive (since they'd need to issue refunds more often and the subsequent empty seats wouldn't be filled). Since the majority of people probably don't have an issue with being informed in advance of a flight change then we'd all end up subsidising you. No thanks!

Just get a Gold Visa/MC or better and enjoy the free travel insurance!

ArcticSilver

729 posts

Ultimate Geek

#382001 19-Sep-2010 20:28

Telling you about this in advance (hidden away in their pages of conditions) is not clear enough in my mind.

Some thing so important should not be only in the terms and conditions.

Also i disagree that using insurance or buying a more expensive airfare excuses them. If you sell a service for a set time and you do not clearly state that there is a margin for movement (next to the time) as far as I am concerned you should have a flight for that time.

"Since the majority of people probably don't have an issue with being informed in advance of a flight change..."

I disagree, i believe the majority of people would not be happy about a sudden flight change. They may live with it but that does not change the fact that they booked a flight for a specific time and now they have to rearrange their day around the change.

sbiddle

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#382009 19-Sep-2010 20:48

ArcticSilverAlso i disagree that using insurance or buying a more expensive airfare excuses them.

It doesn't excuse them. But if you had travel insurance and had time critical flights you'd probably find that assuming there were alternative flights available (such as with another airline) you wouldn't be facing any issues right now.

I don't want to sound like a stuck record but I would never leave NZ without travel insurance, quite possibly because I've done enougbh travelling around the world to realise how valuable it is when things change or you're stuck when airlines change things. It really does surprise me that so many people choose to fly and not have insurance.

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ArcticSilver

729 posts

Ultimate Geek

#382018 19-Sep-2010 21:14

sbiddle:
ArcticSilverAlso i disagree that using insurance or buying a more expensive airfare excuses them.

It doesn't excuse them. But if you had travel insurance and had time critical flights you'd probably find that assuming there were alternative flights available (such as with another airline) you wouldn't be facing any issues right now.

I don't want to sound like a stuck record but I would never leave NZ without travel insurance, quite possibly because I've done enougbh travelling around the world to realise how valuable it is when things change or you're stuck when airlines change things. It really does surprise me that so many people choose to fly and not have insurance.

This is where my comment about the mod changing the topic comes in.

My folks have travel insurance, it isn't a problem because they have re-booked with another airline. This topic was to serve as a warning/discussion about the matter rather than what should have been done/what to do.

PS: It would be nice if a mod could change the title back to some thing more suitable ie "Pacific Blue changes flight times" or some thing along those lines.

kingjj

1728 posts

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#382165 20-Sep-2010 11:07

ArcticSilver:
sbiddle:
ArcticSilverAlso i disagree that using insurance or buying a more expensive airfare excuses them.

?

It doesn't excuse them. But if you had travel insurance and had time critical flights you'd probably find that assuming there were alternative flights available (such as with another airline) you wouldn't be facing any issues right now.

I don't want to sound like a stuck record but I would never leave NZ without travel insurance, quite possibly because I've done enougbh travelling around the world to realise how valuable it is when things change or you're stuck when airlines change things. It really does surprise me that so many people choose to fly and not have insurance.

This is where my comment about the mod changing the topic comes in.

My folks have travel insurance, it isn't a problem because they have re-booked with another airline. This topic was to serve as a warning/discussion about the matter rather than what should have been done/what to do.

PS: It would be nice if a mod could change the title back to some thing more suitable ie "Pacific Blue changes flight times" or some thing along those lines.

But EVERY Airline does this. Every Airline changes flight times or cancels flights regularly. Just talk to any travel agent and they will tell you what a headache it is. Any travel agent worth their salt will make sure that there is a decent time delay between any connecting flights just incase of this. Fair due your angry with Pacific Blue but really this is neither a new nor an amazing revelation. I do sympathize, it is a pain but legally and ethically they have done all they have to.

ArcticSilver

729 posts

Ultimate Geek

#382174 20-Sep-2010 11:36

kingjj:
But EVERY Airline does this. Every Airline changes flight times or cancels flights regularly. Just talk to any travel agent and they will tell you what a headache it is. Any travel agent worth their salt will make sure that there is a decent time delay between any connecting flights just incase of this. Fair due your angry with Pacific Blue but really this is neither a new nor an amazing revelation. I do sympathize, it is a pain but legally and ethically they have done all they have to.

As much as I dislike flights being moved or canceled this is not so much what it is about. It is the fact that they will not refund the fare.

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