01 November 2018. Prince Harry and Meghan's royal tour of New Zealand. Video / NZ Herald
Air New Zealand has made a cheeky dig at the Sussexes after responding to claims about a flight Harry mentioned in his memoir Spare.
A post on the airline’s Twitter page poked fun at Harry’s claims Meghan booked an Air New Zealand flight for her father in 2018, writing, “Introducing#SussexClass, apparently coming soon.”
“Any Spare seats?” one person joked in the comments.
It comes after the airline responded to claims about an Air New Zealand flight from Mexico to the United Kingdom which Harry’s wife Meghan Markle had apparently booked for her father.
“We told him, leave Mexico right now: A whole new level of harassment is about to rain down on you, so come to Britain. Now,” Harry wrote in Spare.
“Air New Zealand, first class, booked and paid for by Meg.”
Prince Harry also claimed his wife bought her father, embattled in a controversy surrounding his staged photographs for media at the time in 2018, a first-class ticket on the flight.
Air NZ responded to general questions from the Herald by pointing out it only provides Business Premier fares, rather than first-class as the book claimed.
“We’ve never had flights between Mexico and the UK. And we only have Business Premier,” an Air NZ spokesperson said.
Prince Harry has been ridiculed over his claims about an Air NZ flight. Photo / File
Other inconsistencies have raised questions over whether other parts of Harry’s book might be incorrect, including claims about where he was when he learnt of the late Queen Elizabeth’s mother’s passing and a gift his mother bought for him in 1997 that didn’t exist until four years later.
The book does reveal that Harry and Meghan considered moving to New Zealand when they announced their “stepping back as ‘senior’ members” of the royal family in January 2020.
“What if we could spend at least part of each year somewhere far away ... beyond the reach of the press? The question was ... where? We talked about New Zealand,” Harry says in Spare.
