Air New Zealand — Local services in Waitematā

Overall rating purposely skewed by air nz employees!

As a proud New Zealander and a supporter of all things NZ, my family and I have actively flown Air NZ for almost 2 decades.  We had always been one of your biggest advocates and when people complained about Air NZ and I would always vehemently support you and promised them that Air NZ would put it right.

I write to you about the worst, abhorrent behaviour and treatment I have ever experienced by any airline at the hands of your Air NZ Staff on our recent flight NZ7 from San Francisco to Auckland on the 26 Oct.

The first incident occurred when my wife had pressed the attendant button for water for our 1 sick year old. After waiting for almost 10 minutes we were forced to wave down an attendant on the opposite aisle to request some water. Now, we had raised to another attendant earlier in the flight that our child had an ear infection and were hoping that your staff had some common decency and could be a little bit more understanding of our long journey of 12 hours. Obviously, it was too much to show any shred of decency, which leads on to the second incident.

At food service, with a baby on our lap we ate as quickly as possible and pressed the attendant bell for the second time as our baby was getting upset. When we got no service yet again, when stewardess walked by our aisle we politely motioned to her and asked her if she could please take away one of the trays so that we could try to get our child more comfortable. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself, but Natalie the stewardess actually visibly sneered at our request. We were absolutely dumbfounded!

Before you respond with the excuse that the flight was full and the team was stretched to the limit - The final incident / nail in the coffin occurred when my wife pressed the attendant bell quite a while later to request some more water for her and my child. After previous abysmal behaviour and approximately 15 mins of being ignored, my wife had no more patience left and got up to find out what was the hold up. When she walked to the back, she found all the flight crew talking and joking around. At this point she got extremely upset and asked them “what the hell was going on?!” and that she had been waiting for ages for service. There was absolutely no acknowledgement of my wife’s distress by any of the crew, nor any attempt at an apology for gas bagging while customers waited for service. Instead the staff just dispersed.

You and your lazy staff Air NZ have made this the most unpleasant flight we have ever travelled on and surprises me how you got awarded the Number 1 airline in the world!

In the past I had never thought twice about paying more for an Air NZ flight and “your number 1 service” over your competitors. I promise you I will actively avoid ever having to fly Air NZ and gladly pay your competition to avoid my family feeling like they are lepers and an inconvenience for even being on your flight.

Let me assure you, I have a large number of friends, family and colleagues who have children and I am going to make sure every single one knows how badly we were treated by Natalie and your staff.

You have just lost one of your biggest supporters and it will bring me pleasure to see you eventually fail as an airline due to your arrogance. This also goes out to ALL your business partners who I refuse to do business...

It started with a staff member named Sisile, who was rude, condescending and acted like she couldn’t care less. Our bags were 2.5kg over the limit - fair enough, but instead of helping us, she shooed us away from the counter with no explanation and handed us baggage tags without telling us what to do. Her tone and attitude were completely unacceptable for someone working in customer service.

After fixing our luggage, we came back and deliberately avoided her. The staff member we approached instead (clearly her friend) didn’t even weigh our bags. When I asked for Sisile’s name, she lied and said it was “Angelina.” As we walked away, we heard them laughing at us behind the counter. Unbelievably unprofessional.

It got worse. At the oversized baggage area, we were told our bags hadn’t even been checked in because no weights had been entered. A third staff member had to manually fix the error. This caused even more stress, especially for my sister who was traveling with a baby.

I returned to ask for the second staff member’s real name and once again, she lied, calling herself “Cici” while covering her name badge so I couldn’t see it. I asked her to show me her name tag she said “I don’t have to give you my name for security reason” while covering her name badge with her hand, which is again, another lie. When I asked why her colleague lied, she shrugged it off and got extremely defensive. As I walked away, she threw out the threat: “You’re not getting on that flight.” Completely unacceptable.

I spoke with the duty manager, Talah, who was the only professional we encountered. He assured us the bags would be on the flight and that the staff would be notified. He also asked us once we get to the terminal to have staff call him to assure our baggage was on the plane. Yes, but the damage had already been done. We were so stressed and anxious that we couldn’t even eat. My sister was distraught and I was left wondering whether we or our bags would even make it home.

This entire experience was humiliating and infuriating. And now, after being ignored for over three weeks, it’s clear the airline either doesn’t care or is trying to sweep this under the rug.

We used to recommend this airline to everyone.

Not anymore.

Photo attached is Sisile - from what I’ve seen from the google reviews, I, my sister and infant niece are not the only ones who have experienced this kind of terrible service from this staff member. Do better Air New Zealand,...

Don’t ever pay for “premium seats” on Air New Zealand. It’s a scam.

Let me explain. I was flying from Auckland to Fiji with my 7 year old. With a young one in tow, I’ll pay to get off the plane 10 minutes faster in case she has to go to the bathroom when we land or to get through customs quicker by being at the front of that line so I can get to the hotel sooner since it was a night flight. Kids get cranky at night waiting in line for customs. (Flight was delayed to boot)

So we arrive at the airport and are told “oh sorry, but we changed aircraft and it’s a smaller plane so row 3 a,b,c is missing seat 3c, so we had to put you in another row further back in the plane.

Ok. Things happen.

But you’ll refund the extra that we paid for the premium seats right?

Nope. You have to file a form that’s hidden on the website and then it will take 5-10 days to get a response.

The airport employees are completely powerless to do anything to help a customer. (Way to empower your employees Air New Zealand management!)

But after you fill out that form, you’ll get the money back right? (Why isn’t it automatic in this day and age?)

Nope.

They’ll ask you for more information - even though you already provided that information previously. (They just want to drag out the process hoping you’ll give up.)

Oh and then the kicker - you board the plane and lo and behold - there actually is a seat 3c! So either the representative lied, or they double sold the seat.

Then you have a live chat with them. They take 15 minutes between responses - again hoping you give up (or maybe the customer service is triple dipping working from home).

And then Kristian D. From Online Assist | Customer Recovery and Policy - tries to claim that aisle 21 is just as premium as aisle 3 and she refuses to refund the money. (What exactly does “recovery” mean in her title one might ask?)

So you’re forced to go the only route which companies now respond to which is bad reviews on social media, so you spend your time poolside in Fiji fuming and undoing the thousands of dollars they spend on social media marketing all because they couldn’t issue a $30 refund.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who they nickel and dime for “premium services” which they don’t deliver on. (At least with JetStar you know you’re being nickled and dimed)

If you’ve had a similar experience respond to this and let’s put together a class action law...