Blue Christmas for passengers

Julia McClean. Photo / New Zealand Woman's Weekly.

A Kiwi ski champ missed Christmas with her family after budget airline Pacific Blue cancelled her direct flight - and said they could not get her on a flight for another three days.

Celebrating Christmas on December 28 was a grim option, she said, but it seemed almost attractive compared to the 3566km option offered to some: flying and busing them to Queenstown the next day via Sydney, Brisbane and Dunedin.

Julia McClean,23, had paid A$299 ($392), online, for a direct one-way Pacific Blue flight from Sydney to Queenstown - getting home in time for Christmas Day lunch with her parents and twin brothers.

In the end, she was forced to pay nearly $1500 to get home - and still did not arrive until Boxing Day.

She'd made the Pacific Blue booking back in July. But when she arrived at the airport early on Christmas morning, she was told the flight was cancelled due to engineering problems.

Check-in staff told her to go to Pacific Blue's airport office to arrange alternative flights.

"Everyone from the flight was standing outside the Pacific Blue office looking really pissed off."

She was given two options - take the next direct flight on the 28th, or ask for a refund and book her own.

Alternatives given to passengers included flying from Sydney to Brisbane, then to Christchurch for an overnight stay before flying to Queenstown on Boxing Day. Others were told they could stay overnight in Sydney on Christmas Day, then fly early on Boxing Day to Brisbane. Later that morning they would fly to Dunedin, then take a four-hour bus ride to Queenstown.

When she was told Pacific Blue could only offer her a flight on the 28th, she went to Qantas. It took her 10 minutes to find a direct flight the next day.

Virgin Blue corporate communications manager Colin Lippiatt apologised for "any inconvenience".

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Lippiatt supplied the Herald on Sunday with an unpublished priority email address which he suggested McClean could use to get a refund. Other travellers who faced disruption on Pacific Blue may like that address:

customercare.external@virginblue.com.au.