Air effing New Zealand

I am not happy!

My flight to Hamilton this evening (to attend the NZNOG Conference) was cancelled. Now I can’t blame Air NZ for Wellington’s weather, but I can for everything else.

My complaints:

1) The flight was announced as delayed and then it just disappeared off the departures board with no announcement that it was now canceled. Lucky I checked regularly.

2) The Koru Club staff said that there were no other flights going to the Upper North Island that evening, and there was (flights could take off, just not land).

3) When I got to the Air NZ ticket counter, they put no extra staff on, so despite being at front of queue I waited 20 minutes for service. By this time line is 50+ long.

4) We tried transferring to another flight for about 15 minutes. The computer kept claiming the flight wasn’t ‘officially’ cancelled yet, despite the fact the luggage had been unloaded.

5) I finally said to book me a new ticket and I would get the old one refunded later. I then paid for a ticket on a flight to Auckland that evening, and only after it was ticketed and we tried to issue a boarding pass, did it point out that flight was cancelled also.

6) We then went for the 0715 flight the next morning to Hamilton. But the six seats left in that flight had all gone by now. Grrrr.

7) Finally got a seat on the red-eye 0630 flight to Auckland which means getting up before 0500 plus having to drive down from Auckland, arriving only half an hour before the session I organised actually starts. And I have a wasted night’s accommodation.

As Dr Cullen is the owner of Air New Zealand, I hold him personally and directly responsible.