Red-eye road trip gets stranded team home

An Auckland netball team which was stranded in Palmerston North on Sunday night arrived home yesterday morning after a gruelling all-nighter.

The Manukau Flamers travelled to the Manawatu city to compete in the New Zealand Indoor Netball Junior Nationals tournament, but found themselves high and dry when Jetstar cancelled their flight due to crew sickness.

A group of parents decided to stage an overnight long-haul convoy to collect the stranded team after they were told the next available flight out was not until today.

The team had to hunker down in another team’s motel room to wait.

A Jetstar spokesman said the airline apologised to affected customers.

The airline had contacted all customers by SMS and email at the time of the cancellation, including the netball group, the spokesman said.

“The email outlined the options available to customers. This included offer for a refund, or if they continued to travel with us we offered all affected customers hotel accommodation, meals and transfers.

“We can confirm this email was sent to the email addresses provided in the booking. They declined our offer to travel by bus to Wellington and fly to Auckland.”

Team coach Ihaia Burns said three parents made the drive from Auckland and arrived around midnight on Sunday to immediately escort the team back.

“It was a 14-hour haul for the parents. They drove straight down, switched over and drove straight back,” he said.

“We got home at about 6:10 [on Monday] morning. We were a bit weary and a bit tired, but everyone got home.”

Burns said they made the call to set up the overnight convoy due to the cost of supporting 11 players plus support staff to stay on in Palmerston North.

“To stay on for another two days would have firstly been more expensive. My understanding was if we chose to stay on in a hotel, we would have to pay upfront and seek a reimbursement, but there was no guarantee,” he said.

“The kids also had other plans for the holidays, and some were going away today, so the parents were expecting them home.

“It was also a long tournament and everyone was tired and sore so we just wanted to get home as fast as we could.” Burns said he did not hear from Jetstar until 8pm on Sunday. The airline offered to arrange accommodation or buses to Wellington, but the rescue mission was already under way, he said.

Burns said he was aware their flights were being refunded.