Air New Zealand Reviews 

76
TrustScore 2 out of 5

1.8

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Review summary

Created with AI, based on recent reviews

Evaluating 28 reviews, most reviewers were unhappy with their experience overall. Passengers frequently complained about expensive ticket prices, hidden baggage charges, and narrow seating that felt extremely cramped on long international flights. Consumers also encountered unhelpful customer service, extremely long waiting times at airport check-in desks, and very poor communication during unexpected flight disruptions. Though some reviewers were happy with the service, noting that individual crew members and ground personnel were kind, efficient, and truly went above and beyond. Additionally, a small group of people mentioned that certain domestic routes and specific onboard amenities successfully met their general travel expectations and provided a relief.

What people talk about most

Service

Customers had negative experiences with service, reporting that staff attitudes were disappointing, cold, and... See more

Price

Reviewers mention negative feedback about price, consistently describing tickets as expensive and complaining... See more

Staff

Customers consistently note ambiguous experiences with staff, reflecting high disagreement in their reviews.... See more

Customer service

People report disappointment and frustration with customer service due to inadequate support and a lack of... See more

Product

Users describe profound disappointment with the product, feeling that it fails to perform and lacks proper... See more

Reviews shaping this summary

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

The Service Desk at Auckland Domestic Airport has the most unfriendly, miserable people working there. They need to review some of the staff and get more friendly helpful staff. We flew out on the 1... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Booked through Webjet. Flight cancelled. Accepted the not ideal alternative. Moving work commitments, medical appointments, car hire, hotel etc (was told in the email this would be my alternative fl... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Checking in my dog for a domestic flight of 2 hours was beyond stressful. Air Zealand now removes water, and soft toys, even a hoodie as it’s a too greater risk for the dog. All they have is their... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Ripped off! Air NZ website 20% or more expensive than other sites like google flights , Skyscanner or kayak in comparison to exactly the same routes and flights time. Spoke to their premium call cen... See more


1.8

Poor

TrustScore 2 out of 5

76 reviews

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1.8

All reviews

(76)

29 reviews in the last 12 months

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Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Missing $6,350 payment

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

17 October 2024
Unprompted review
Rated 4 out of 5 stars

One of the top airlines to fly with

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

1 July 2024
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Don't fly Air New Zealand

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.

30 June 2024
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Flight delayed and then come the arrogance

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!

26 June 2024
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

To charge full card fee for a Debit…

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.

1 July 2024
Unprompted review
Rated 4 out of 5 stars

Great

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.

23 March 2024
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Air NZ price goes up by 40% in 10 days?


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???

24 May 2024
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

WHAT WENT WRONG?!

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!

22 March 2024
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Inflexible and Unhelpful Air New Zealand Policies.

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.

17 March 2024
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

BEWARE - AIRNZ Preferred Seat SCAM

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.

21 December 2023
Unprompted review
Rated 3 out of 5 stars

We have wasted NZ$52 on NZ Entry Forms…

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.

19 January 2024
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Had a flight booked for 23.35 AKL to…

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

16 January 2024
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Lack of communication and care for customer needs

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

9 January 2024
Unprompted review
Rated 2 out of 5 stars

I want to cancel the assistance

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.

7 January 2024
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Horrible experience

Horrible experience. Cancelled flight at the last moment, substitute flight scheduled 2 days later after my connecting flight would have already left. No refund, no recompense, no nothing. Money taken, no service rendered. Other airlines could fly according to schedule, AirNewZaeland could not due weather. I suppose it's not weather but god himself shedding tears over this sad excuse of an airline.

9 December 2023
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Ineptitude

My daughter and grandchildren were flying from New Zealand via Singapore to Manchester UK. Unfortunately due to adverse weather they had to land in Kuala Lumpur and were put in a room with all the other passengers. They were there hours with no information but eventually sent to a hotel where they were able to shower. They were then taken to back to KL airport and flown to Singapore. On arrival no onward flights had been booked for them and no one was available from Air NZ to help. They have been without any refreshments for nearly 36 hrs and the children are tired and hungry. This is appalling service from a leading airline hence this review.

21 November 2023
Unprompted review
Rated 3 out of 5 stars

Slow responses but issue resolved

When provided services are great, but it is extremely hard to contact staff and report problems when they arise. It took close to three months to resolve issues with damaged luggage, although a new one was provided when the team finally responded.

26 February 2023
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

The customer service is non existent

The customer service is non existent. They responded to an email 6 months later. I now have had a flight booking disappear from my app. Am very concerned about my booking but there is no way to contact them. I spent 3 hours on hold yesterday on the phone and then gave up. They are a disgrace.I will avoid flying with them in future.

15 September 2023
Unprompted review

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