cancellation of about 50 flights to and from the capital<\/a>.<\/p>\nShe said the airline\u2019s standard practice after a diversion was to arrange or cover accommodation, meals and reasonable incidental expenses.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccommodation was actively sought. However, Auckland was experiencing an acute shortage of hotel availability due to large events and peak holiday travel.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur cabin crew advised customers to secure their own accommodation if possible and that the airline would reimburse them for this.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Alisha]()
Alisha Armstrong. Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n
She acknowledged there were few airline staff at Auckland Airport to help the diverted passengers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith less people rostered to work our overnight operation at Auckland Airport, we acknowledge that support may not have been as visible or as comprehensive as it should have been.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile two of our leaders met the flight and handed out meal vouchers as customers disembarked, there were also a number of customers requiring special assistance for them to support.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said limited seat availability to Wellington meant customers were rebooked on the next available services, and an additional turboprop flight was operated the next day to help. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhile our teams did the best they could in challenging circumstances, we understand how frustrating this would have been.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are reviewing our processes to ensure clearer communication and more visible on-the-ground support for customers in future disruption events.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Consumer NZ, when a flight is cancelled or delayed because of weather or other circumstances outside the airline\u2019s control, such as a pandemic, travellers\u2019 rights are limited.<\/p>\n
In these situations, airlines will generally offer a credit or rebook passengers on the next available flight, while any additional costs, including accommodation, transport and meals, are usually the traveller\u2019s responsibility.<\/p>\n
However, if a flight is cancelled because of an event within the airline\u2019s control, such as staffing or mechanical issues, travellers can request a refund. <\/p>\n
They may also be entitled to claim additional expenses incurred as a result of the disruption, up to the lesser of 10 times the cost of the ticket or the actual costs of the delay. <\/p>\n
This can include expenses such as meals, taxis and accommodation.<\/p>\n
Consumer NZ advises travellers to keep receipts to support any reimbursement claims. <\/p>\n
Airlines must not mislead passengers about the reason for a delay or cancellation, as doing so could breach the Fair Trading Act. <\/p>\n
If the cause is unclear, travellers are encouraged to ask the airline for clarification or evidence, noting that, even if conditions appear fine, flight schedules may still be affected by earlier weather disruptions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cBut after clearing customs and immigration, there was no one there.\u201d The only staff member visible was at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[23968,74,68,2681,1975,51,4731,83295,73,84537,70,2082,23546,1345,11551,101,117,111,43,139,69,14734,139845,312,12507,10507,5273,1883,1354,80],"class_list":["post-236728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-23968","tag-after","tag-air","tag-airport","tag-at","tag-auckland","tag-days","tag-diversion","tag-diverted","tag-either","tag-flight","tag-for","tag-forcing","tag-home","tag-hours","tag-left","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-passenger","tag-rebooked","tag-says","tag-stranded","tag-ticket","tag-wait","tag-whanganui","tag-woman","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}