No guarantees for air points future

By ELEANOR BLACK

Frequent flyers with Air New Zealand Air Points set aside for future travel are scrambling to find out if they will keep their value.

Though the airline is still honouring air points despite the threat of bankruptcy, the appointment of a statutory manager to haul the company out of debt would throw their value into doubt.

Air points are regarded as unsecured credit and a statutory manager could set them aside with the rest of the company's debt.

Travel agents contacted by the Herald said they had been fielding hundreds of calls from clients wondering if they should book travel using their stockpiled air points now, while they were still worth something.

Air New Zealand is not providing any answers. Spokeswoman Rosie Flay said it was "business as usual" for the company and air points were being honoured on the basis of seat availability.

She would not comment on the future or even reveal the number of people using the air points scheme.

Consumers Institute acting chief executive Simon Wilson said that if Air New Zealand were to go into statutory management it was unlikely to suspend air points and damage goodwill, the basis on which people did business with airlines.

"A statutory manager is able to act in the wider public interest. They are not simply required to look after the interests of shareholders," Mr Wilson said.

Other members of the Star Alliance - a group of 15 airlines including Air New Zealand, Ansett Australia and Singapore Airlines which honour each other's frequent flyer programmes - are still accepting Air New Zealand points.

But a source at another member airline, Air Canada, said that could change if the carrier were to stop flying.

On Sunday, Air New Zealand wrote to air points members saying that the points were still valid.