Air Niugini [can't book a flight on the airline's website]

[Tiki]

I just tried to book 2 tickets BNE-POM-HGU and their website is really buggy! It’s been “processing “ for 20 minutes. My Amex has been charged and I got a pnr from the call centre. But no ticket numbers or confirmation email. Still doing this

 

[Tiki]

Does anyone have a foolproof way to book this airline? This saga is still going on. They got an approval code for my booking but failed to claim it from Amex and the charge has since disappeared from pending transactions. Theoretically I should be able to rebook....but....

1. The fare has gone up by $34 per person. Other dates are available at the original fare $464 AUD. But I need specifically the Friday flight as we are staying at an eco-lodge for birding and I don't want to go there in the dark.
2. There is no guarantee the booking will go through.

One way BNE-POM-HGU.
I will eventually need a HGU-POM but waiting for the weekly special to come into the date. POM-BNE will be on QF. It's cheaper to book straight to HGU as a through fare from BNE than 2 separate tickets plus I don't want to be stuck in POM overnight.

Any suggestions?

 

[bam71]

Do it through a travel agent, or even an online agent. Their own IT systems clearly are not up to scratch.

 

[Tiki]

If I do that it would be at the higher price. I don't even know what caused the sale to fall through. I am used to bookings made directly with airlines ticketing automatically. I was wondering if anyone else has used Air Niugini's website to success?

 

[Tiki]

I got my tickets emailed just now and at the correct price so it's all good. I knew if I whinged on AFF enough they would come through and make a liar out of me!

 

[Scarlett]

Similar experience where I booked and the finalisation page never appeared. There was a note on the page (whilst the cursor was spinning) saying don’t do anything for five minutes or you may be charged twice.

No PNR shown and no charge against my card (Coles MC), so I waited a day and then emailed the PX helpline. Not surprisingly, they didn’t respond.
Called and left a message; again nothing.
Booked again; same thing.
Eventually got through to someone on their Brisbane number and they were helpful: they could see my attempted booking in their system and it only took a couple of minutes to confirm everything over the phone and email with etkt came through as the call was being finished.

All’s well that ends well: I’m in Port Moresby and flying back to BNE tomorrow.