Peter and Beth Chapman of Auckland. Peter Chapman had to leave an Air New Zealand flight to make room for a crew member. Picture / supplied
Peter and Beth Chapman of Auckland. Peter Chapman had to leave an Air New Zealand flight to make room for a crew member. Picture / supplied
An Auckland couple who were forced to choose which of them got off a packed Air New Zealand flight to make room for a cabin crew member are upset at the way they were treated.
Beth Chapman had done up her seatbelt on an Auckland-Queenstown flight when she was told she would have to leave the plane, even though she and her husband Peter had booked their seats about seven months in advance to go to a wedding.
He chose to go instead and was escorted off the plane by an Air New Zealand staff member.
The airline apologised to the couple, has given them some compensation and now publicly acknowledged it was an "unfortunate experience" for them.
Peter Chapman said he was still angry even though he did make it to Queenstown on an Air New Zealand flight later on February 22.
An Air New Zealand Airbus A320 at Auckland Airport. Photo / Grant Bradley
He contacted the Herald following the international controversy around a passenger being dragged from an overbooked United Airways flight to make room for crew.
Chapman, a regular flyer on Air New Zealand and previously a big supporter of the airline, said he and his wife couldn't book in through a kiosk when they turned up at the airport and were told they were on standby at a check-in counter.
"From the moment we were put on standby we were treated badly, with no opportunity of discussion," he said.
"We were seated in the plane ready for takeoff and the pilot advises they have to remove someone from the plane so I am escorted off the plane, instead of my wife whom they marched up to and asked to leave in the first instance."
Chapman said he and his wife had discussed what they would do.
"I had previously said to my wife if they approach us to sit tight and let them get security to remove us, however as my wife was beside herself with anxiety I decided to go quietly," the 58 year-old Remuera man said.
An Air New Zealand spokeswoman said the airline's schedule was at risk of disruption due to weather and crew had to be flown down.
"We acknowledge that ideally this decision would have been reached before the flight was boarded, however, given the widespread weather disruptions across our network that day a number of inter-related decisions were being made simultaneously in order to achieve the best result for the greatest number of passengers," she said.
"Just to be clear, Mr Chapman was not offloaded, he offered to disembark so that his wife could fly."
The ''significant" weather disruption on a transtasman flight that day left crew out of place and meant there was a shortage of crew available in Queenstown, the spokeswoman said.
This meant the airline would have been forced to cancel an early morning jet service out of Queenstown the following day.
"In order to avoid inconveniencing up to 171 passengers booked on that service we needed to get a replacement crew of four to Queenstown and allow them to have sufficient stand-down time. This meant a last-minute decision was made to put the crew on an inbound Queenstown flight," she said.
Two of the crew travelled in the cockpit jump seats, one in a spare flight attendant seat, meaning one seat needed to be found in the cabin in what was "unfortunately" a completely full flight.
"We can appreciate that this resulted in an unfortunate experience for the Chapmans and we sincerely apologise for that," the spokeswoman said.
The case of United Airlines has highlighted the problem of overbooking in the US, which is comparatively rare here.
Air New Zealand says denied boarding situations are generally the result of weather or engineering issues.
"We sincerely apologise to the Chapmans for what occurred. We acknowledge that they had an unfortunate experience with us and in light of this Mr Chapman received a $200 flight voucher as compensation."
When one or more passengers needed to be moved to a later flight, the airline's policy is to ask for volunteers.
''If there are no volunteers then staff make a selection taking into account a number of factors including the value of the fare paid, any requests for assistance associated with the booking, and Airpoints loyalty tier status.''
Beth Chapman said when she talked to the Air New Zealand crew member (a young cabin crew trainee) who was in her husband's seat, he said he "was following orders and not sure why he was being sent to Queenstown."
