Air New Zealand Avis 

I have always respected Air New Zealand for its reputation as a leading airline, but my recent experience with their customer service and refund processes has been deeply disappointing.
Flight Cancellation and Miscommunication
In December 2024, my flight from Auckland to Sydney was canceled due to engineering maintenance—an issue Air New Zealand acknowledges was within their control. Despite the cancellation, I continued to receive conflicting notifications via their app and email, falsely stating the flight was still scheduled. This lack of internal coordination caused significant confusion and stress at an already busy time of year.

Refund and Airpoints Discrepancies
The problems didn’t end there. Refunds for my tickets have been plagued by discrepancies:
• Despite paying the full fare for a return ticket, only a partial refund was received, leaving an unresolved shortfall.
• For another ticket, Airpoints were reinstated incorrectly, leading to further confusion about the remaining amounts.

Customer Service Challenges
Despite my efforts to resolve these issues—providing detailed receipts, screenshots, and transcripts of conversations with their representatives—I have faced delays, inadequate explanations, and no resolution. The inability to process refunds promptly, accurately, and transparently has caused significant financial strain and frustration.

Broader Concerns
What should have been a simple process turned into weeks of chasing customer service for clarity and action. This experience highlights systemic issues within Air New Zealand’s refund processes and customer communication, which severely undermines the trust and loyalty of customers.

Final Thoughts
While Air New Zealand has a strong brand reputation, my experience reveals critical gaps in their customer service and operational efficiency. I sincerely hope they address these systemic issues to prevent similar experiences for others. Until then, I would urge travellers to proceed with caution when dealing with refunds and Airpoints reinstatements.

I’m sharing this review in the hope that Air New Zealand takes this as an opportunity to improve its processes and restore customer confidence.

They cancelled our direct flight from Auckland to Hobart. No apology, just email that said your updated flights are... . Day later with low cost carriers and a wait in Sydney. I contacted them immediately and they blatantly lied to me saying no other flights that day. I could see several options on skyscanner and google flights.. They must train their staff to be pally with you and straight-face lie. I quoted precise flight numbers, several. The agent insisted she could not see them in her system. I mentioned that this was part of my husbands special birthday trip that I had planned and booked and paid for over 6 months prior. It seemed the agent liked this as she insisted (whilst sending me heart emojis) that there are no other flights. I could see several. She offered to cancel our flight with full refund so that I could book these alternative flights. It was only after I said that they are working hard not to abide by the international law and book us onto an alternative flight. Need I say this... the flights are now over £1000 whereas we booked and paid a fraction of that for a direct flight that they cancelled at short notice. Shame on Air New Zealand! Not about cancelling but trying to take advantage of elderly people and lying and lying... with heart emojis.

Flown with them many times with no issues. Always very supportive.

Booked flights from NZ to South Africa and was put on an Air NZ flight from Singapore back to Auckland without my knowledge. I would have chosen different flights had I know they would put me on an air New Zealand flight.

The food was terrible, tasted like nothing and the portions were tiny.

The staff were less than helpful and had such an attitude when we asked for anything.
We were travelling with 3 young children and got no extra attention only a bad attitude from staff.
Having just done 3 international sectors with Singapore Airlines who were incredible this really stood out for us.

We had a bassinet for our infant on 3 sectors with Singapore Airlines.
We were told no when we asked for a bassinet for our infant on air New Zealand. We were told that we never booked one (how were we supposed to know we had to book one). Then we were told that our babies too big for a bassinet. then we were told that bassinets are only for babies up to 6 months (which is incorrect, as it is a weight and heigh limit.)

I overheard air hostesses telling people that were struggling to connect to the inflight wifi that there was no inflight wifi on this flight (even though the pilot had announced 10 minutes earlier that their was and to was also advertised on the inflight entertainment system) and most of us had already connected and were using the inflight wifi.

Water jugs and cups were left out for the flight with a help yourself system as opposed to flight attendants offering you and purring water for you throughout the flight like on all other international flights / airlines.

The seating configuration was really squashed compared to our last 3 sectors with Singapore Airlines.

We asked the cabin attendants not to be disturbed as we all wanted to sleep and not 30 minutes later were all awoken for a meal by the same cabin attendant we had asked to not disturb us.

We asked in the middle of the flight for snacks for our baby (having all slept through our first meal) and were told that there was only crisps or pretzels. I again said this was not suitable for a baby and was told with an attitude "well that's all there is". I then asked for our missed meals so I could see if there was any puddings or cheese and crackers or fruit etc. to feed our baying was told that they were binned straight after meal for Health and safety reasons. Really!?

very bad experience and will make sure that any flights I book in the future do not include sectors on an air New Zealand flight.

Flight cancelled PMR-AKL at extremely short notice. Missed connection to DXB. Eventually got to Dubai a day later. Incurred extra car rental costs and lost one days hotel accommodation and private transfer costs in Dubai. Total loss £300+ Air New Zealand compensation £61.99, basically cost of car rental extension. Have sent emails disagreeing with their compensation decision but have had no reply since 17/10/24. Not a happy customer

I made a $6,350 payment to Air New Zealand. They can't find the payment. It has been 14 days and they still haven't given me any information.

I have now had to pay my bank a fee to cary out an investigation into the "missing" funds which could take weeks.

UPDATE: I am now taking Air New Zealand to court to reclaim the funds

Living in a small country in the Pacific Air Newzealand flight was one of the sole airlines to travel with their customer service was impeccable their OTP is fantastic fly with Air New Zealand for better experience

Air New Zealand deliberatley bumped us off our flight on the 30/06/2024. We were on time, but they made us adjust our luggage saying we were overweight, which we weren't as we had just weighed our bags. This made us slightly late. 1-2 minutes. Evil Air NZ CSA at check in got our flight number wrong as well. She wouldn't listen. They could tell we had a connecting international flight so they charged us $100 NZ extra to change. We had no choice but to pay as they hold the monopoly on regional air travel. Do not fly with Air NZ. Flew out of NZ on Qantas. What a fantastic plane and crew. Air NZ then agreed to refund the $100 later on after our holiday, they lied- reneged and went back against their word to make it right. Just strung us along. I'll drive to Auckland from now on and fly out with a competitor. I'll never fly Air New Zealand again.

Very arrogant gate staff and complaint handling staff. My flight was delayed for more than 2 hours (apparently the original pilot fell ill in the last minute) and the boarding staff repeated twice that people are welcomed to go to the lounge without any qualifier. Silly me, with 2 kids in tow, I actually thought this airline was kind enough to treat distressed customers with a bit of comfort only to be turned away.

I made the complaint online in hope that Air NZ will better train their staff and clearly add a qualifier when announcing in the future and all I got was a long spiel about who's eligible for the lounge and who's not. If hubris is more important to them than humility, I guess I just have to look for alternatives in the future. Adios, Air NZ!

To charge full card fee for a Debit Card is not justified, as it does not incur any fees such as CC. Air NZ, the greedy near monopolist carrier in New Zealand does exactly that.
Well, they offer - making you jump through at least 5 loops - online banking payment, but it is as cumbersome as it gets.
Looking forward to the time when Jetstar will fully move into NZ to start proper competition.

We flew from Sydney to Queenstown. We had a great experience. Everything went smoothly. The seats were really comfortable and the plane felt smooth and safe. The staff were friendly, and the pilot did well to give us a smooth landing.

Refusal to credit or refund a flight on compassionate grounds due to illness. Looks like you need to have someone die to get any kindness or understanding from these money grabbers.

15th May transporting a dog from ChCh to Akld is $75
24th May transporting the same dog from Akld to ChCh is $120?
The dog did not suddenly put on weight?
This is huge increase for your customers in 10 days, any reasons???

As a New Zealand citizen it pains me to write this but sadly Air New Zealand is an incredibly poor version of what it once was. I used to fly this airline between 2005-2010 from London to New Zealand regularly and it was excellent back then. These were the days when Air New Zealand was credited with being an excellent airline. One of the best in the world, innovative, affordable and always brilliant service!
Fast forward 15 years and this airline is possibly among the worst I have flown in recent years.
March 22nd, 2024 I flew Air New Zealand from Wellington to Melbourne. I was hoping for something great but from start to finish it was woefully bad.
From the 4am staff-training on the Special Assistance desk, dealing with serious issues that were far too complex for the South African trainee Quentin to comprehend, to the rude, elderly feminist air hostess that had no desire to disguise her discriminatory attitude towards men, to the outdated 'costumes' the flight attendants wore.
I have flown three Chinese airlines recently. All excellent and all a fraction of the price of Air New Zealand tickets. If this airline does not improve it's act quickly it's not difficult to imagine it's international brand ceasing to exist in the near future!

My wife and I have just booked Air New Zealand Premium Economy seats from Auckland to Vancouver and return.

When we got to the payment part of the booking we expected, based on the wording of Air New Zealand's published “Flexipay terms and conditions”, to be able to use our not insignificant number of Airpoints Dollars to pay for a part of one ticket. To our surprise we couldn't. Since there weren't a lot of good seats available, since we didn't want to risk losing the seats we had already chosen and based on our last experience we didn't want to wait three hours waiting for someone at Air New Zealand to answer the phone, we decided to complete the booking and pay the full cost at that time.

The next day I contacted Air New Zealand about it and was told that the rule is that you have to have at least 20% of the TOTAL BOOKING before you can use the Airpoints Dollars in partial payment. The Air New Zealand agent’s suggestion was to cancel the original booking and then rebook separate tickets. In that case we would be able to apply the Airpoints Dollars to one of the tickets since we had more than 20% of the cost of one ticket. We decided not to do that since we didn’t want to lose the seats we had already selected.

So the Air New Zealand policy means that Airpoints Dollars could have been used if we had made separate bookings but not if both tickets were on the same booking. That doesn’t make any sense to us.

I have had another look at the Flexipay terms and conditions and it is not at all clear what the 20% is referring to, the cost of one ticket or the cost of the total booking.

I approached Air New Zealand suggesting that, because of the ambiguity, they could apply our Airpoints Dollars to the booking and refund the equivalent amount to our credit card. They refused to do that “due to system limitations”.

I asked them to split the booking and to rebook for us, holding our selected seats so that we didn’t lose them. Their reply was “we're unable to hold seat availability during the cancelation and rebooking process”, presumably because of those same “system limitations”.

I asked that this issue be escalated to a senior manager and the response was “we won't be engaging in further correspondence on this matter”.

We are frequent long-haul travellers on Air New Zealand (except for during Covid) and we don’t think this treatment is reasonable or acceptable.

BEWARE! Paid ($10x8x2 = $160)for preferred seats so my travelling party were seated together - AIRNZ changed the flight schedule which changed all seating to and from Fiji (no flight schedule changed on the return but they changed out paid for seating) They are refusing to refund because they do not consider splitting the party up is sufficient grounds for a refund. Dont bother wasting your money on preferred seating it is a SCAM by AIRNZ.

We have wasted NZ$52 on NZ Entry Forms having had no advice on the need to complete them from AirNZ while we were in Singapore when we could have completed them if we had known of the need and 3 hours waiting for the Check-in to open when we could have done something.
Only at the Check-in counter were we told that we needed to complete them. It then took an hour to complete the forms with the assistance of some computing experts whose’s fee was NZ$52. We should like the fee refunded as this was a completely avoidable cost had we been properly advised by ANZ of the requirement.
The flight to New Zealand was good and the food and service was excellent. Our server, a mature gentleman, was first class, friendly and very efficient.
The Entry Form cost and time wasted was the only aggravating feature and it was all so unnecessary.

Had a flight booked for 23.35 AKL to LAX, the airline cancelled our flight, we had no choice but to take an earlier flight, meaning our flight to AKL was no good, no help what so ever when you contact them, i just had to pay again, i will take my story to the news, i want my money back Air new Zealand, first and last time i will take a flight, im supposed to be excited to be going, but im not now, i don't want to go

National flight from Blenheim to Auckland was delayed - putting my connecting international flight from Auckland to London via Dubai at risk. I had rung the call centre and was on hold for an hour to learn that they could not provide me any information on either 1) why there was a delay or 2) alternative options to ensure they get me to Auckland in time for my connecting flight. Response was more than unsatisfactory - the weather is fine in both Blenheim and Auckland so that cannot be the reason for the delay. My assumption is that it was a decision by the airline, who does not adequately care for their customer’s needs. Due to wait times on the phone, if my next flight is delayed again then I will most certainly miss my connecting flight as it took approx 1hr of waiting on the phone for someone to pick up. They could not provide any proactive management of my case.

My advice - if you are travelling around NZ, look at local / smaller airlines. In my experience, they have always thought of the customer (SoundsAir being one airline I trust).
If you are travelling international - don’t book AirNZ - they are expensive and outdated. Also once you land in NZ the luggage allowance changes so you will find it difficult to continue carrying the 25kgs from your international flight, as they limit it to 23kgs on national flights so you have to buy extra bags. The only reason they exist is because there are not many commercial airlines in New Zealand. Such a shame

I want to cancel the assistance that I had booked when I bought my tickets in November. Flight out on 9th January 2024. Tried online but there is no method to cancel in "manage my booking". Tried Oscar but that was hopeless. Rang but gave up after 35 minutes. Sent an email in reply to my booking confirmation, reply was that as the mailbox was overfull couldn't deliver my message.
So today 8th January 2024 9.30am have tried again and am waiting for someone to answer my call. So far over 35 minutes of aweful music. After 40 minutes finally was able to speak to someone.
I felt it was the correct thing to do as my cirumstances had changed.