Air New Zealand increasing Customer Care teams to service surge in customer queries in the wake of the new travel restrictions

Air New Zealand is boosting the size of its Contact Centre and Social Media Customer Care teams to deal with a surge of customer queries and travel changes.
15 March 2020

Air New Zealand Senior Manager Customer Care Doug Grant says this is an unprecedented situation and as a result the airline is dealing with a very high volume of customer enquires through the Contact Centre and social media channels. 

"We have brought in additional staff to assist and are actively prioritising customer queries. To ensure urgent cases are dealt with as quickly as possible, we strongly encourage customers to only contact us if their flight is departing within the next 48 hours."

"All customers should check our Travel Alerts page for information and guidance before getting in touch."

"We really appreciate the patience and understanding of all our customers at this difficult time. The entire Air New Zealand team is focussed on providing care and support for our customers," says Doug Grant.

As announced yesterday, Air New Zealand is offering fare flexibility for customers affected by Covid-19 travel restrictions. 

Customers with international flights affected by Covid-19 government-imposed restrictions due to depart up until 31 March 2020 will be eligible to:

  • Hold the value of their fare in credit for twelve months from the time of ticket purchase;
  • Receive a refund;
  • Amend the date of their flight without change fees. The normal fare difference will apply.  

Customers purchasing domestic tickets should consider purchasing our Flexidate or Flexitime fare products which provide greater flexibility should they need to change their travel plans. Standard fare rules continue to apply on all domestic tickets unless they form part of an international itinerary including a destination impacted by government travel restrictions. 

Full details of Air New Zealand's fare flexibility policy regarding Covid-19 can be found on our Travel Alerts page. Customers booked via a travel agent (including online travel agents) should contact their booking agent. 

Ends

Issued by Air New Zealand Communications.

Email: media@airnz.co.nz  │  Phone: +64 21 747 320  │  Twitter: @AirNZMedia

About Star Alliance

The Star Alliance network was established in 1997 as the first truly global airline alliance to offer worldwide reach, recognition and seamless service to the international traveller. Its acceptance by the market has been recognised by numerous awards, including the Air Transport World Market Leadership Award and Best Airline Alliance by both Business Traveller Magazine and Skytrax. The member airlines are: Aegean Airlines, Air Canada, Air China, Air India, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, Avianca, Brussels Airlines, Copa Airlines, Croatia Airlines, EGYPTAIR, Ethiopian Airlines, EVA Air, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, SWISS, TAP Air Portugal, THAI, Turkish Airlines, and United. Overall, the Star Alliance network currently offers more than 19,000 daily flights to more than 1,250 airports in 195 countries. Further connecting flights are offered by Star Alliance Connecting Partner, Juneyao Airlines.

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