Credits for flights with Air NZ

Neill42

We are writing to check an issue which has arisen over the purchase and transfer of air tickets with STA travel and Air New Zealand.  We would like to know who we can go to see what if any rights we have.

In January 2020 we brought two return flights London Heathrow to Auckland New Zealand with STA Travel, departing at the beginning of September 2020 and returning at the end of September 2020.  Total Cost was £ 1860.

Subsequently in the summer of 2020 STA Travel went into administration and our flights were transferred to Air New Zealand.  Due to the pandemic and the closure of the New Zealand borders our flights were cancelled and we were advised to rebook for September 2021.

On contacting Air New Zealand, we were informed that we would have to pay extra for our tickets as the price we had brought them at was a ‘special rate’ by STA.  Initially we were told we would have to pay an additional £300 each.  However, on phoning back to book we were given a lower price by a different staff member and duly paid £255 each (total £510).  

Due to the continual close of New Zealand’s borders, our flights were again cancelled in 2021 and we were advised to contact Air New Zealand once the country reopened.   We were advised that we would have to make a rebooking by the end of June 2022.

We had made a succession of phone calls to Air New Zealand in April of this year but had been unable to get through due to a high volume of calls.

Having searched their Facebook page and Contact we finally had to resort to using a flight feedback form to determine our position re our current flight tickets and to make a complaint about the difficulty in getting through to talk to someone.

We have had a response via email, informing us that ‘a refund was out of the question as the tickets were not originally purchased with Air New Zealand and that we would have to purchase tickets at today’s prices. Therefore, having to pay extra again.  Unfortunately we cannot be flexible in our travel plans due to work commitments and are looking to travel at the beginning of October this year, returning at the end of the month

We were also informed that due to the phone lines being overwhelmed, the average wait by phone to get through was two hours.

We have the following questions we would like confirmation on:

• Are Air New Zealand correct in ruling out a full refund due to us not having purchased the tickets with them originally?

• Why do we have to pay extra again?

Many thanks for any advice you can give us.

Kind regards

Neill Talbot & Kay Snowdon

Caz3121

Neill42 said:

We have the following questions we would like confirmation on:

• Are Air New Zealand correct in ruling out a full refund due to us not having purchased the tickets with them originally?

• Why do we have to pay extra again?

I assume the tickets you purchased originally were not a fully refundable fare type so being allowed credit may have been the best to hope for
It is usual for a flight ticket to have a maximum validity of one year so rather than changing the ticket you are likely now in the position that you are spending the credit. (putting it towards the cost of a new flight)
have you checked if your travel insurance policy is able to assist with any reimbursement?

Westin

It would seem that NZ gave a credit to the value of the original tickets and therefore you may well have to pay extra if fares have increased for your new travel dates two years later.

One thing however perhaps on your side on the refund route is that NZ completely pulled out of the UK in 2020. They closed their LHR crew base and announced they would no longer serve the UK on NZ aircraft.  Perhaps Google those 2020 announcements to see what was being offered at the time to impacted passengers. They may well have been offering a full refund and you might be able to argue that case today given there is no NZ services LHR LAX AKL planned.  NZ will instead code share with another airline (I think United).