Air NZ insults Tongan noble, apologises with airpoints

By ANGELA GREGORY

Air New Zealand has said sorry and given thousands of free airpoints to a Tongan noble after its check-in staff at Sydney airport put him through the grill for only having one name.

Honourable Luani told the Herald he was deeply offended and embarrassed at being scrutinised at length when he was attempting to fly to Tonga via Auckland last month.

One of seven nobles from the northern island of Vava'u, Honourable Luani inherited his title from his deceased father in 1987.

"I am the 47th Honourable Luani ... once a person is bestowed with a noble title, the Honourable immediately becomes effective and the person is no longer called by his former first name but by the title."

That name had since been printed on his passport and he had travelled overseas regularly without incident.

Honourable Luani, who had been in Sydney on business, said he ran into the problem with the Air New Zealand personnel as they could not understand why his passport did not show a first name.

Other passengers boarded the flight while he and his wife were kept waiting about 45 minutes as the staff ran checks. Honourable Luani pointed out he had a multiple visa to enter New Zealand until 2005, but it made no difference.

When they were finally allowed to board, he said, he felt "below human" and would never forget how "all eyes were on us" as they took their seats after the long delay.

"You immediately get the feeling that you're just trespassing into a foreign territory - as if to say you should not be allowed to fly on this plane."

In a letter of apology Air New Zealand said with tightened security at airports its staff were encouraged to be extremely vigilant.

"It appears on this occasion with the staff member's desire to follow correct procedure, the need to also be culturally sensitive was overlooked."

That was regretted and all the carrier's airport staff would be reminded to take all factors into account when faced with a similar scenario. The airline credited Honourable Luani and his wife's airpoints accounts with 10,000 complimentary points.

An Air New Zealand spokesman told the Herald when a customer checked in for a flight the airline had an automatic link to the Immigration Service which authorised passports electronically.

"As there was a problem with the computer link on the evening the Honourable Luani travelled, his passport could not be verified in the normal manner. Therefore, his details were manually re-entered into the system."

It was a mandatory immigration requirement for advanced passenger passport data to be validated before a customer could board an aircraft.

The spokesman said the flight was actually delayed on compassionate grounds to allow two passengers who had experienced a personal tragedy to return to New Zealand.