Article: 6 Things Stopping Me Flying Air New Zealand More

[DC3]

… QF seems to hate ADL

Probably more of a business decision.

 

[anat0l]

Its a small thing, but QF seems to hate ADL

Who knows, with these upcoming A321s, maybe QF will try ADL-AKL. They've said they're prepared to try PER-AKL. I think that if they try for both then it may well be only seasonal, or a few times a week.

I genuinely wonder how much cheaper the non-stop services will be compared to sending pax via SYD, MEL or BNE.

If JQ has not considered either of these routes even on a seasonal basis, I think that says enough about what QF thinks the viability of running mainline QF (or Jetconnect) services on them will be.

For whatever it is worth, are those NZ ADL/AKL services always full?

 

[trendwhore]

Main reason I don't use AirNZ? Can't use Qantas points to book it

 

[justinbrett]

Main reason I don't use AirNZ? Can't use Qantas points to book it

Yes you can!



Only NZ domestic, but still…

 

[poopiepoo]

I have both QF Plat and NZ Elite. I gave some of my business to other airlines when Luxon started and saw significant deterioration in nearly every aspect of the travel experience and diminishing benefits of the FF program.

I feel scammed every time I step out of an NZ business class flight. Often, the food tastes is no where near as good as described on the menu. The protein is usually cheap, fish or chicken, any red meat is cheap and easy casserole Y grade. Prawns have been green washed from the menu under the guise of sustainability. I am not buying it and have bought less fares on NZ. Maybe paying for my own fares, I feel it more than those who's fares are paid for by their work.

Seats are so out of date, and I hate facing another pax. Worse if they want to read and the opposite reading light of other pax are super annoying to me. Even with the new seats, the service will be let down with the serving of the cheapest protein they can get away with. The new seats will be an improvement, but not enough for me to start flying NZ more.

Yes, other airlines can be a hit and miss at times, but superior dining found in First and Platinum lounges on the OW network can blunt a bad inflight menu of the day. Just a few days ago, I flew QF and was glad to be served a properly cooked eye fillet and nice prawns before I landed. I will put up with an additional stop for this.

Annoying yet expensive inflight safety videos are another one. Every time I put up with watching one, I ponder to myself, if only they spent that money on food instead. I choose to annoy myself less and book the competition where, to me, I find value.

 

[HS-TQE]

Air NZ have been really struggling with their fleet and it shows unlucky decisions with the 787s and A320s have meant they’ve taken delivery of aircraft and then instantly parked it in Auckland taken the engine off and used it on a different aircraft. Obviously this isn’t their fault as the engine manufacturers told them how many cycles an inspection would be required and it’s turned out to be a lot less however they now don’t have the aircraft to operate a competitive trans Tasman and pacific schedule which is why we’re seating old CX 777s being bought into help.

I'd have to say, IMO, that may one of the reasons why VA only decided to approach NZ as a unilateral partner initially (ala acting as the glorified Travel Agent) to provide Trans-Tasman services to the main 3 NZ cities by re-selling NZ seats, without spending the CapEx (or OpEx) to operate their own metal, or even putting in the expenditure towards operating the old Joint-Venture (JV) partnership pre-COVID/breakup.

VA would be breathing a sigh of relief that they are not exposed to NZ's operating expenses (including their ongoing fleet woes) as a current glorified travel agent for NZ.

Whilst Aeroroutes may had posted previous speculation of NZ putting their code on some VA domestic services in January, nothing has progressed beyond that and may suggest VA and NZ are still negotiating commission rates for Trans-Tasman services (with VA continuing their role as the authorised travel agent) plus also negotiating the rates per passenger for allowing each other's FF into their domestic lounges, if it has progressed beyond that at all.

 

[justinbrett]

I'd have to say, IMO, that may one of the reasons why VA only decided to approach NZ as a unilateral partner initially (ala acting as the glorified Travel Agent) to provide Trans-Tasman services to the main 3 NZ cities by re-selling NZ seats, without spending the CapEx (or OpEx) to operate their own metal, or even putting in the expenditure towards operating the old Joint-Venture (JV) partnership pre-COVID/breakup.

I doubt it was VA that decided to only go unilateral. Either it was pragmatism that it would be easier for ACCC to approve, or it was NZ that restricted it. Going bilateral would risk the QF deal and sabotage sales to NZ pax (having to give VA a cut to take pax on its own metal and/or having to reduce capacity to share with VA).

After all it was NZ that ended the agreement in the first place, not VA.

 

[trendwhore]

Yes you can!

View attachment 440471

Only NZ domestic, but still…

Actually wasn't aware of that so that's useful information

 

[Clipped wings]

I agree with having a long memory regarding treatment from AirNZ. We were stuck in the Cooks as covid began. We could not get through to change our flight for love nor money. Understandable. The local office told us we were on our own and had to rebook flights. Rather than getting stuck (to be fair not a bad place to be stuck), we rebooked and determined we’d get on to them when we got home. Their response was “well we were here”. Absolutely rude. They gave us a credit for our original fare, which in no way matched to the excessive last minute fare we paid. We gave them the benefit of the doubt as it was Covid. We thought that was a fair thing to do.

With our credit we booked a business class flight from Sydney to Rarotonga. All good until they decided they would no longer do business class and put us in economy. Fine. But the amount they charged for the economy fair was $1500 more than we could purchase ourselves via their website. Upon contacting them we really they actually could not give a $h!t. I’ve never had a more bland and disinterested service response. We finally forced them to cancel and rebooked ourselves at the lower price. Jetstar now fly direct so there is no chance I’ll pay for the privilege of an AKL stopover despite the terrible timing of the JQ flights.

To use up my final airnz credits I flew to AKL on business class where I got to stare at everybody’s feet pointed into the aisle. I flew home from Queenstown with Virgin to avoid AirNZ. Never again. More fool me for giving them a chance after they showed me who they are.

 

[clifford]

I agree with having a long memory regarding treatment from AirNZ. We were stuck in the Cooks as covid began. We could not get through to change our flight for love nor money. Understandable. The local office told us we were on our own and had to rebook flights. Rather than getting stuck (to be fair not a bad place to be stuck), we rebooked and determined we’d get on to them when we got home. Their response was “well we were here”. Absolutely rude. They gave us a credit for our original fare, which in no way matched to the excessive last minute fare we paid. We gave them the benefit of the doubt as it was Covid. We thought that was a fair thing to do.

With our credit we booked a business class flight from Sydney to Rarotonga. All good until they decided they would no longer do business class and put us in economy. Fine. But the amount they charged for the economy fair was $1500 more than we could purchase ourselves via their website. Upon contacting them we really they actually could not give a $h!t. I’ve never had a more bland and disinterested service response. We finally forced them to cancel and rebooked ourselves at the lower price. Jetstar now fly direct so there is no chance I’ll pay for the privilege of an AKL stopover despite the terrible timing of the JQ flights.

To use up my final airnz credits I flew to AKL on business class where I got to stare at everybody’s feet pointed into the aisle. I flew home from Queenstown with Virgin to avoid AirNZ. Never again. More fool me for giving them a chance after they showed me who they are.

My wife (who is lifetime Star Gold) had a similar problem, where her $4,000+ fare was just put into a credit account. She tried to use it booking to Fiji in J, but because of equipment changes, she ended up in Y. No apologies or refund or compensation from NZ, so never again.