NZ Flight Centre accused of Misleading Advertising

[whatmeworry]

Flight Centre in New Zealand has been accused of misleading customers after a Wellington family's "five-night" Rarotongan holiday turned out to be four nights and a 2am departure.
Miscommunication then left them stranded at the airport without a flight home - leading to them having to fork out $NZ3700 ($A3244) for new flights, on top of the $NZ6500 cost of the holiday.

Read more: Flight Centre's 'five night' island holiday a furphy, family claims
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As like the woman in the old Yellow pages ads would scream "Not Happy Jan"!

 

[harvyk]

Not quite in defense of FC, but RAR is well known for confusing people since it is just on the other side of the date line. When we went there a couple of years back, we left AKL at 9:00am on Monday morning and arrived there at 3:00pm the previous Sunday. Likewise we departed RAR at 9pm on Friday night and arrived in AKL at 1:00am the following Sunday.

I could easily see how such a thing could happen. Of course FC need to share some blame with this, and advertising a 2am departure as a full night is not on IMHO.

 

[JohnK]

This is not limited to Flight Centre only.

There are many trips advertised with 5d/4n, or similar, where you either arrive at 6:00pm on first night or depart at 7:00am on the last day.

Neither of those are really a full day are they?

 

[harvyk]

This is not limited to Flight Centre only.

There are many trips advertised with 5d/4n, or similar, where you either arrive at 6:00pm on first night or depart at 7:00am on the last day.

Neither of those are really a full day are they?

True, but at some stage prior to payment you will look at the dates and times and realise that whilst their advertisement fits in with the technical definition of 4 nights, it might not quite fit in with the spirit of 5 days.

 

[UP4014]

Travels agents and in this case FC should be advising their customers on these situations before they part with their money.

Their only product is customer service, provide it properly or get out of the industry.

Matt

 

[eric2011]

Travels agents and in this case FC should be advising their customers on these situations before they part with their money.

Their only product is customer service, provide it properly or get out of the industry.

Matt

This is Flight Centre we are talking about, not well known for customer service and a take it or leave it attitude

 

[Travel Guru]

Travels agents and in this case FC should be advising their customers on these situations before they part with their money.

Their only product is customer service, provide it properly or get out of the industry.

Matt

I definitely agree with your first point, FC or any Travel Agent/Advisor should be taking the time to educate their clients on the product they're purchasing so they can avoid any issues.

I disagree with your second point, yes most TA's only product is customer service because most act like order takers, but at the high end of things although the customer service is ramped up another notch it's not the only "product" I offer; along with customer service you also get access to things you couldn't organise yourself without my contacts, so my main "product" aside from world-class service is unique experiences (although I can see how looking at the FC's of the world how you'd come to that conclusion).

TG