NZer of Year in flights mix-up
Equal pay campaigner outraged at initial cost of discovering wrong date for journey back from awards ceremony. By Jessica Long.
KRISTINE Bartlett may have been awarded New Zealander of the Year for campaigning for equal pay but her journey to last week’s ceremony revealed some very unequal prices for plane seats.
Bartlett fell into the trap of mixing up her months when she booked her return flight to Wellington from Auckland and only discovered the issue when she went to check in at Auckland Airport on Friday and was told she wasn’t booked on a flight until March 23.
But the pain of realising the mistake was nothing compared to the shock to discover her replacement ticket was going to hit her hard in the wallet.
The flight change cost her $232.50 on top of the $99 flight already purchased for a one-way ticket.
Bartlett said she was gobsmacked by the price to change the flight, particularly as the plane had so many spare seats.
‘‘I just about dropped. I couldn’t believe it.’’
At the airport, 68-year-old Bartlett was surprised when she closely checked the itinerary on her phone. ‘‘It was March.’’
Bartlett was travelling with another passenger who was also caught out.
When Bartlett pressed the customer service workers at the airport about the high cost to change their flights she said they were left without explanation.
‘‘It’s very expensive. Especially when we could get on the flight, no problem. I was terribly shocked.’’
Bartlett accepted the mistake was made but wanted information and guidance from the airline which she didn’t feel had been given at the time.
‘‘I was very unhappy about that. It pays to check your flight.’’
And it turns out that the New Zealander of the Year isn’t alone in making date mistakes in online bookings – especially at this time of the year when a 28-day February means the dates and days of the week match those in March too.
So common is the issue that Jetstar even has a little-known policy that allows passengers to change flights in February for free if they book the flight for the wrong month.
Although Bartlett wasn’t immediately told that she’d get a refund, she said she was relieved to know she could expect a refund from Jetstar on the full amount of the last-minute purchased ticket, following Sunday News’ questions to the company.
The Lower Hutt resident has now returned to Wellington after receiving the New Zealander of the Year award from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Thursday night.
The honour was in recognition of the dedication Bartlett had shown to 55,000 low-paid, mainly female, care and support workers who she helped fight for a pay rise – a five-year and three court cases process described by chief judge Cameron Bennett as an ‘‘enormous personal sacrifice’’.