My ex-husband was born and raised in New Zealand. When his mother told us about her 50th birthday, my ex was determined to go to New Zealand and celebrate with her, as well as introduce me to his family and friends.
It was up to me to find the best airfare. Qantas offered a fare of $935 each. United offered a fare of $955. My ex insisted on flying Air New Zealand, because he thought they were the best. Since there was only a $43 difference in fares (Air New Zealand was $978), I listened and bought the tickets online.
We arrived at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) three hours before our flight. Check in was easy. Unfortunately, we were seated in an emergency exit row, which I was unable to sit in because of an injury. The gate representative had no problem changing our seats.
Boarding the plane was easy and organized. My ex bought some items for his family at the duty free shop, which we picked up as we walked to the plane. We were greeted pleasantly at the plane doors and found our seats easily.
We soon noticed that our seats were very uncomfortable. He and I flew economy class before and knew the comfort level of the seats. These seats, however, were below the standard that we were used to. We were in seats 27a and 27c. 27a, the aisle seat, had a malfunctioning footrest. The footrest wouldn't stay up. There was also something poking me in my back from inside the seat. I moved to the middle seat, 27b. I reclined the seat to wait for takeoff, and was abruptly pushed forward. It wasn't rude passengers sitting behind us - The seat didn't lock in the reclining position. I went to the front of economy class, where I saw a gaggle of flight attendants, and let them know that our seats were broken. I also requested a glass of water so that I could take my pain medication. A flight attendant snapped, ''You'll have to go to the back of the plane and ask.''
I walked down the rest of the plane to the rear galley and let a flight attendant know, and requested a glass of water. He slammed down whatever he was doing, looked at me as though I was a major annoyance, shoved a warm glass of water at me and stormed down the aisle. I couldn't believe it. Two other flight attendants joined him. He made a huge scene, yelling about the seats and how they weren't broken. He totally embarrassed us, and didn't give us the chance to show him what was wrong. He looked at us and said, ''We're not moving you.'' Even though there were plenty of seats left in the plane, the two of us were banished to the broken seats.
About an hour into the flight, the movie started. My ex, seated in 27c, plugged his headphones into the headphone jack. The result? No sound, of course. We told the flight attendant about the broken jack, and he just told us to move over. We informed him that 27a was extremely uncomfortable because it was broken, and he basically told me that I was imagining things. He was a Kiwi, too, which gave me a sour taste of the people I was to about encounter in a country that I had never visited.
The fifth hour on the flight, which would have been 2:30am PST, proved to be a painful turning point. My neck and shoulder went into spasms because of the seats, regardless of the pain medication I had taken. My ex and I attempted to talk with a different flight attendant, and told her that the seats in our row were broken. She said that she would go to IFC (International First Class) and see what she could do. She was intercepted by our favorite male flight attendant, and we overheard him say, ''We're not doing anything to help them.'' THAT'S customer service? The female flight attendant brought my ex some earplugs and a sleeping mask.
After a total of twelve and a half hours in those seats, we limped off the plane. I slept maybe 2 hours throughout the entire flight, which left at 9:30pm PST on May 26. We arrived at 5:30am NZT on May28. It was a horrible ordeal, followed by a horrible time trying to speak with customer service.
Later in the day on May 28, my ex called Air New Zealand customer service. He told them about what we went through on our international flight. Nicole, the representative that he spoke with, told him that someone would call him back within the next couple of days. No apology was offered. By 8pm on the 30th of May, no one from Air New Zealand returned our call. Since it was a Friday, I told my ex to give them the weekend and call on Monday. No one called during the weekend. My ex called on Monday morning, and spoke with Nicole once again. She told him that the incident was still being investigated, and she would call him back within the next 48 hours. Once again, no apology was offered - not even for not returning the call when they said they would.
No one called by the close of business on Tuesday evening, so my ex called again on Wednesday. Once again, he spoke with Nicole. She said that the incident was still being investigated, and she would get back to us once we returned to Los Angeles. My ex informed her that it wasn't good enough, and we would call back on the following Monday, which was when we were supposed to fly back to LA.
I then called an Air New Zealand travel center and spoke with a woman named Maria. Maria took all of my information, and told me that I would have to call customer service. She gave me the necessary phone numbers, and I called the customer service center. I spoke with a man named Guru, who was absolutely no help. He refused to give any information to me because my ex was the original person who had called to complain. (Keep in mind that my ex and I had the same passenger/flight record.) I asked to speak with his supervisor, and he told me, ''I am authorized to make decisions on behalf of Air New Zealand.'' He gave me a very hard time about speaking with his supervisor as well as giving me any information. I handed the phone to my ex, whom Guru was reluctant to speak with.
My ex tried to get answers as to why we were being treated in such a poor fashion. Guru gave none, and still refused to put his supervisor on the telephone. Guru also offered no apology. Finally, my ex got Guru's supervisor, James, on the telephone.
I spoke with James first. I told him briefly what transpired. James tried to make some excuses, all ending with, ''But, I'm not sure why this happened.'' I finally pointed out that we had been calling since May 28th, and no one ever bothered to apologize. James gave me an apology, which was very insincere and, of course, prompted.
My ex then got onto the telephone with James. He let James know exactly how disappointed he was with everything that had transpired with Air New Zealand, as well as his disgust with the way Air New Zealand handled everything. James promised to call back, but the phone remained silent.
Air New Zealand is a joke and an insult. They seem to only care about money, which is sad. In New Zealand, I noticed that the people weren't money-hungry at all. For an airline to don the name of a country, it should be a good representation of what the country is about. Air New Zealand is the worst representative for New Zealand as a whole. I will NEVER fly Air New Zealand again.
