{"id":55203,"date":"2025-10-01T23:54:03","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T23:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/55203\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T23:54:03","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T23:54:03","slug":"air-new-zealand-criticised-over-870-fee-for-sick-bali-passenger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/55203\/","title":{"rendered":"Air New Zealand criticised over $870 fee for sick Bali passenger"},"content":{"rendered":"

He was too sick to fly home on the family\u2019s scheduled return flight.<\/p>\n

Lisa said that, despite medical documents confirming he was unfit to fly, Air NZ\u2019s only options were for him to board the flight or pay $870 to change the tickets for the family. <\/p>\n

The family chose to rebook, and the airline says they were offered \u201ccompassionate pricing\u201d, which was \u201csignificantly\u201d less than new flights would normally have cost. <\/p>\n

Lisa told the Herald that Air NZ\u2019s policy felt like the \u201cpolar opposite\u201d of what it did during Covid-19. <\/p>\n

\u201cTheir policy effectively says: Fly sick or lose your money,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe man\u2019s partner said his condition worsened over a week and became so severe that medical staff had to administer IV fluids at his hotel. <\/p>\n

Customer general manager Alisha Armstrong said the airline understood how distressing it could be to fall seriously ill while overseas, especially when it disrupted a family holiday. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur teams do everything they can to support customers in these difficult moments, including applying compassionate pricing where appropriate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this case, the fees charged were significantly reduced from what normal fare rules would have required.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"AirAir NZ said it applied compassionate pricing. \u201cIn this case, the fees charged were significantly reduced from what normal fare rules would have required.\u201d Photo \/ NZME <\/p>\n

Lisa said there was no concern from the airline about a potentially contagious person being on one of its flights. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey were just totally focused on their policies and their terms, what they could and couldn\u2019t do based on the Air New Zealand rules, opposed to logic. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no logic applied at all. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think the thing that disturbed me most about it was the thought that I could be on a plane with someone like that on there, and that Air New Zealand would have encouraged that.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust what lack of empathy they had and how they were just so hardball on it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Armstrong said Air NZ strongly encouraged customers to hold comprehensive travel insurance. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe never want anyone to feel pressured to fly when they are unwell, and we work with customers on alternative arrangements wherever possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lisa said the family had travel insurance. <\/p>\n

Her partner was calling for a review of Air NZ\u2019s rebooking policies in cases of documented medical illness, as well as stronger regulatory oversight to prevent airlines from profiting at the expense of passengers\u2019 health and safety. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just kind of feel like it just a little bit illustrates that it\u2019s all about making money rather than anything else,\u201d Lisa said.<\/p>\n

Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He was too sick to fly home on the family\u2019s scheduled return flight. Lisa said that, despite medical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[46603,74,68,51,31272,11687,2109,25349,12470,2079,70,2082,71,42,117,43,1523,14734,46605,40182,46606,27916,40,38,41,39,8238,46604,80],"class_list":["post-55203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-46603","tag-after","tag-air","tag-auckland","tag-bali","tag-criticised","tag-family","tag-fee","tag-fees","tag-fire","tag-flight","tag-for","tag-from","tag-headlines","tag-new","tag-news","tag-over","tag-passenger","tag-rebook","tag-refusing","tag-severely","tag-sick","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-under","tag-waive","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55203","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=55203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}