Air New Zealand credit redemption goes digital

The new online tool enables more than 300,000 customers who purchased a ticket with New Zealand Dollars to view a breakdown of their credit, including seat selection or carbon emissions offset, and use their credit to book new flights.

Air New Zealand Chief Commercial and Customer Officer Cam Wallace says offering a self-service tool will make it simpler for customers to use their credit, without having to call the airline's contact centre.

"We know this hasn't been quick to resolve, and we would like to thank our customers for their patience. Pre-COVID-19, we didn't have the systems in place for customers to redeem credits at this scale, so our teams have had to build this long-term solution from scratch.

"There are a lot of Kiwis who are keen to get out and explore New Zealand so for customers to be able to use their credit from their own device, booking flights will be much easier.

"Customers now have more flexibility with using their credits, including the ability to use credit from an international flight to book a domestic one and vice versa, and for the credit owner to choose who the credit is used for. We've also extended the period in which customers can use their credit – they have until 31 December 2021 to book and a further 12 months after booking to travel."

Throughout June and July, around 57,000 customers who had paid in full using Airpoints Dollars had the value of their fare returned as Airpoints Dollars.

Air New Zealand Chief Digital Officer Jennifer Sepull says the airline's digital team has been working hard over the past few months to get the online tool up and running.

"We wanted to create a solution that was intuitive and able to manage the large number of customers needing to redeem credit. Over the next few months, we'll be working to evolve this credit tool to increase its self-service capability.

"At this stage, the online tool can only process credit from single bookings and we are actively working on extending this so credit from multiple flights can be combined and used. In the meantime, customers with multiple flights will still need to call our contact centre."

If customers do not use the full value of their credit in one booking, the remaining balance will be available to view and use for as long as the credit is valid.

From today, the airline is proactively emailing customers who have a fare in credit with Air New Zealand to let them know this tool is now available on the website.

The airline is currently working on a solution for its international customers and those who have booked through a travel agent. There are also a number of ticket types that will not have access to this tool immediately, for example group bookings. A solution is also being worked on for these.

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Issued by Air New Zealand Communications.

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