KEY POINTS:
A woman who won a lifetime of free trips to Australia from Freedom Air has been told by Air New Zealand she can't have them.
Celia Watkins, who hit the jackpot in 2001, is considering taking Air New Zealand to court after it offered her just $1200 worth
of free air miles instead of the flights.
The 38-year-old nurse from Stanmore Bay, Auckland, was told a lifetime of free flights lasted only for the lifetime of Freedom Air, which will cease flying from the end of next month.
Mrs Watkins says she wants her free flights to continue because it enables her and her family to visit friends in Australia.
Yesterday, a top law firm said the prize clearly meant free flights for the lifetime of the winners.
Mrs Watkins, a casualty nurse and mother of two, said she was stunned after getting a letter from Freedom Air's marketing department in November 2001 telling her she had won a trip for two for life.
The family have taken just four free trips to Australia and say the prize enabled them to enjoy family holidays they would otherwise have been unable to afford because they have been building their own home.
But last November, they were shocked to receive a letter from Freedom Air's reservations manager, Debrah Teiho, saying the flights would end in March when the airline will cease flying.
"As a gesture of goodwill, we would like to offer you Air New Zealand airpoints to the value of $1200 which can be redeemed on any Air New Zealand flight."
Mrs Watkins wrote to Air New Zealand rejecting the offer, saying: "I am very disappointed that this 'lifetime reward' has only lasted six years. The offer that has been made falls very short of the original lifetime flights that was won on Freedom Air.
"Experts tell us that the original prize is worth in excess of $50,000 - if so, $1200 is very disappointing ... "
Lawyer Peter Stubbs, a partner at Simpson Grierson, said: "I would say that if you run a competition where the prize is for a lifetime of free air flights, that means for the lifetime of the winner not the airline.
"It is an extraordinarily generous prize. The problem is that if the airline no longer exists there's no one to chase legally.
"Then you move from a legal issue to a public relations one. If you now own the airline and the airline has folded through your own decision, what sort of moral obligation do you have towards the prize winners?
"But if Freedom Air still exists as a company, the couple may well have a very good claim against them."
Sue Chetwin of Consumer NZ said it was a breach of the Fair Trading Act for companies to offer a prize and then not honour it.
Stephen Jones of Air New Zealand said: "Under the terms and conditions of the promotion, which was run in 2001, the Freedom Air prize is non-transferable to Air New Zealand.
"We have been working for some time with Tom and Celia Hallam to address their concerns and have made what we believe to be an appropriate gesture of goodwill in light of the exit of Freedom Air from the market.
"We are disappointed that we have not yet been able to reach agreement and will continue to work with them to try to reach a satisfactory resolution."