KEY POINTS:
Herald readers have responded with their own stories of being bumped from booked airline flights after Consumer Affairs Minister Judith Tizard urged airline passengers to seek compensation in the event of overbooking disputes.
Here are a selection:
Anton
Some airlines, especially in the US, are very open about compensation for bumped passengers or passengers on delayed flights. Our NZ and Australian regulatory counterparts are not so vigilant.
While it is industry practice to oversell flights, the percentage varies from market to market as well as with seasonal demand.
Air NZ didn't mention in their explanation that it was also the industry that decided that passenger reconfirmation was no longer necessary. This was driven by the fact that airlines wanted to reduce costs and do away with staff who had to take non-revenue earning functions such as passenger re-confirmations.
The industry took a punt that it was cheaper to have no-shows than maintain higher staff levels. Air NZ (and others) have had it good for too long and the revenue they have saved over the years will easily run into several millions of dollars.
I guess we should now expect a new levy or surcharge if we don't show up for flights.
Jim Hunia
Here's my story: Wed 21 Feb. Auckland to Palmerston North Flight NZ8339. Depart 15:05. Bumped to Wanganui Flight NZ2755. Depart 16:00. Air NZ paid my taxi fare to Palmerston North.
I went to record the finals of Te Matatini '07, the national kapa haka competition.
Avis Rentals had been waiting on my supposed arrival at 16:15 to pick up a hire car. Arrived there at 17:55.
Avis closed for the day. Counter phone brought them back to process me.
Arrived at the Palmerston North Stadium to set up recording equipment.
Stadium closed for the night.
Of course the flight would have been full of people attending the kapa haka competition, but I had booked early - which obviously means nothing to Air NZ.
Faye Bax
Last January I took my son to Auckland International Airport to catch a flight back to Hong Kong, where he lives. After a lot of waiting, 13 of those on the flight were taken aside and told that there was no room on the flight for them. They were all given food vouchers and told the plan was to get them on the next flight to Sydney, with a connecting flight to Hong Kong, and if this all happened they would arrive back in Hong Kong about four hours later than planned. I do not know what happened to the other 12, but my son was offered $500 and an upgrade to business class on both the flight to Sydney and the one to Hong Kong.
So, at the end of the day this all worked in his favour, he wasn't in a hurry to get back to Hong Kong, he went from being a broke student to having $500 and he was only four hours late arriving back in Hong Kong - one very happy Air New Zealand traveller.
Margot
On Friday I was booked to fly on the 1.30pm flight from Auckland to the Bay of Islands. I tried to get my boarding pass online at 7.50am. For some reason, Air NZ's system did not let me do this. It said: "Problem with your booking. Call this 0800 number...". I called the number and the man who answered was confused about the online boarding pass. He said I didn't need to do it online, that my booking was fine and I should just turn up at the airport half an hour before the flight and check in there.
I got to the airport just before 1pm and tried to check in using the automated machines. The machines said "seek assistance" - they couldn't process my request.
I then joined a very long line of people and waited my turn. At some point they started asking for people on 1.30pm flights to jump the line and check in through a different teller. I did this, and she put me on standby for the flight. "No," I said, "I have a ticket."
Apparently there was a fuel-supply problem in Kerikeri. They offered me a place on the 6.55pm flight. There was a 4pm flight, but they said this was fully booked so I might not get on it. When I did get on that flight, there were 12 empty seats. And when I got to Kerikeri, they said they had got extra fuel at midday, that they had told Auckland this, and there was no need for me to have been bumped off the 1.30pm flight in the first place.
They put me in a Koru Club lounge with loads of other angry customers who had been delayed. And they gave me a $100 flight voucher.
On the return flight on Sunday, the guy at check-in asked if I wanted to take a later flight. I said I would as I had lost the afternoon in Kerikeri on Friday and wanted to spend extra time with my folks. The excuse for the delay this time was that a pilot needed to be taken to Auckland and pilots get priority over regular passengers. I got another $100 voucher for this leg of the flight.
