$13,500 down after fog disrupts flights
A Christchurch family’s Bali holiday using ‘‘the best airline in the world’’ was almost ruined when fog forced them to fork out an extra $13,500 to secure new flights.
Shelley Trigg and her family were heading to Bali for her father’s 70th birthday when fog grounded their Air New Zealand flight from Christchurch to Auckland on Wednesday morning.
After picking up their already checked-in bags, the group of seven family and friends waited more than an hour in ‘‘a queue a mile long, with one Air New Zealand ticketing person serving hundreds’’.
‘‘They told us to ring reservations [while in the queue], so two of us were on hold for over 40 minutes, then when we got to the front of the queue they told us to ring reservations,’’ Trigg said.
‘‘The whole thing to me was a debacle, it was very very unorganised.’’
Dense fog affected about a dozen domestic flights in Christchurch and one international arrival was diverted after it was unable to land.
‘‘I would’ve thought the best airline in the world would have a system in place to deal with this better. No-one knew what they were doing and that disappoints me,’’ Trigg said.
Eventually Trigg rang her travel agent and rebooked. The family travelled to Sydney on Wednesday evening, where they stayed the night before flying with Qantas to Denpasar, Bali.
The detour cost the group $13,500 in flights and accommodation in Sydney, though all of that would be reimbursed by their travel insurance when they lodged a claim.
‘‘I didn’t have a choice, what else are we going to do.’’
Following questions sent to Air New Zealand, the airline found the family and took them to the Koru Lounge before their evening flight to Sydney.
Air New Zealand spokeswoman Anna Cross said the company was sorry the family did not receive the level of service they expected.
‘‘These customers booked through a travel agent and we are unclear why the agent issued brand new tickets and charged the customers a second time for these as it would be normal process to use the fare already paid.’’
The family’s new fares were nonrefundable, but Air New Zealand would provide a refund for the first set of fares and would offer $2000 towards their accommodation in Sydney ‘‘as a gesture of goodwill’’, she said.
In November 2016, AirlineRatings.com named Air New Zealand airline of the year and, in April this year, TripAdvisor named the carrier best airline in the South Pacific.