Letters to the Travel Editor

Ask and ye shall receive Dear Sir, For the elderly, or folk hesitant about travelling alone and navigating their way through airports and customs please, please use the airlines assisted travel, which will make life so much easier, even for domestic travel.

Folk who have heeded this advice cannot thank me enough, for it has been the difference between continued adventures and not, all wishing they had availed themselves of the service earlier.

Then there is another who is to date, many dollars out of pocket due to missed flights and having to pay to rebook because she has missed flights even though she is in the terminal. If only asking for help wasn’t such an issue . . .

Some years ago, while still badly affected by a brain injury, I walked into Auckland Airport when it was crowded — sensory overload enveloping me. I asked for assistance at the help desk and no trouble, I was escorted to the exit gate and alerted when my plane was due to leave — this being all that was needed.

Thanks Winston and crew for another great year of Travel. Cheers, A Kidd, Tasman The Travel Editor replies: It’s good to know that passengers in need of assistance can get it. Perhaps those of us who are regular travellers should also be more vigilant for others in need of a little help. Passport alert Dear Sir, Re: “Out of time, out of mind” [ Travel, December 12] and expired passports.

Do you know why we can’t get a notification from the Passport Office Te Mata Uruwhenua when our passport is some months away from expiry? Nowadays we get notifications from the dentist, the eye clinic, the pharmacy, and NZTA Air New Zealand’s first 787-9 Dreamliner. that our drivers licence is about to expire. It doesn’t seem it would be difficult for the Passport Office to notify us similarly. It would save so many people a lot of heartache and distress. Cheers, Lesley Gardner Operational issues Dear Sir, I flew with our national airline last month to Perth, flying Premium Economy in the Dreamliner. Unfortunately, my seat would not operate insofar as the leg extension would not extend and the male attendant could not get it to operate. I felt around under the seat and there was a copy of the New York Times jammed in the mechanism and an old used water bottle. Still the seat did not operate. On arrival in Perth, I emailed Air New Zealand, who decided to refund me the difference between Economy and Premium Economy and consequently refunded $150. The gesture of the refund was to be applauded but the amount is ridiculous. On the basis of the amount of the refund I could book in for a flight to Perth, flying Economy, and then if I paid another $150, could be upgraded to Premium Economy.

The other complaint that I have is that at Auckland Airport, both arriving and departing, we were transported by bus. In this modern age, we have become accustomed to walking on or off flights directly via the fingers that extend from the terminal building. We arrived back from Perth at 6am and had to descend a very steep and slippery mobile set of steps to the bus. The last step from the stairs required a jump.

When you get to your 80s you don’t anticipate so many problems getting on and off the aircraft. The bus toured around the terminal buildings and I counted five empty fingers that we could have exited through. I flew the same route and class a year ago shortly after the Dreamliner was introduced. The seats worked perfectly and getting on and off the plane presented no problems. This latest excursion was a major disappointment and no credit to Air New Zealand. Jim Innes The Travel Editor replies: A free copy of the ‘New York Times’! Bonus! No comparison Dear Sir, Your comment to the writer of the letter complaining about the vast difference between Air New Zealand and United Business Class service was ridiculous. Comparing a United Houston-New York Business Class flight meal with a chocolate biscuit on an Economy Class flight from Auckland to Queenstown [‘Letters to the Travel Editor’, Travel, December 12] was way out of line. You and I both know that domestic Business Class meals, and service in general, on US airlines, pale into insignificance compared with Air New Zealand’s international service, Business or Economy. Norman Hogwood