Air New Zealand strike: Airline warns customers to check bookings made by travel agents

Air New Zealand is warning customers affected by upcoming strike action to check bookings made by third parties to avoid sudden, unknown flight changes.

Cabin crews on international flights announced they would be conducting a strike from February 12 to 13.

Dianna Bain told the Herald her parents were due to fly from Auckland to Vancouver on February 12.

“They knew the strike was coming because they did get an email saying flights might be affected.”

Bain said her parents, in their 70s, use the Air New Zealand app to receive travel alerts.

“They just happened to be looking at their app last Wednesday, and opened it up and found their flight had been rescheduled without any communication.

“They hadn’t had an email, phone call or travel alert on their app. They had a new flight, new seats that were no longer together, new day and nothing from Air New Zealand.”

The pair then scrambled to find more information about what was happening by calling the airline’s call centre.

“When they did get to talk to someone, the girl on the phone didn’t know there had been flight cancellations based on the strike.”

Bain asked the Air New Zealand call centre why her parents had not received notifications through the app about the flight changes.

She said her parents had used their Royal Bank of Canada Visa card points system to book flights from Canada, which is considered a third party.

“They said that even though they had the app and the Airpoints number is linked and the app has all of their contact information in it, the system doesn’t link third-party tickets to Airpoints numbers.

“So there are going to be all of these people who aren’t going to get an alert because they booked through a third-party travel agent or a Visa card points system.”

Air New Zealand said third-party agents were responsible for informing customers about flight changes.

Customer care general manager Alisha Armstrong told the Herald that when customers book through a third party or travel agent, they can add the booking reference to the app.

“[If there is] a change to their flights schedule the app will update automatically,” she said.

“If a flight is cancelled, we might move a customer to another flight and confirm the change with the third party or travel agent to update the booking,” she said.

“The agent is then responsible for notifying the customer of the schedule change and ensuring it suits their needs.

“Customers with flights affected by the strike who no longer wish to travel may opt for a full refund, regardless of the fare rules. This is managed through the third party or travel agent.”

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