Air New Zealand offers stranded passengers $850
Hundreds of Air New Zealand passengers who were bound for Auckland were stuck in Hawaii for two nights due to a mechanical issues within the planes system, reports the Daily Mail. Air New Zealand awarded each passenger $1000 New Zealand dollars, which translates to $850 USD, in cash.
Pilots aboard the the Boeing 767-300 noticed a faulty indication system on flight NZ09, which was originally scheduled to depart Hawaii on Sunday.
The airline was forced to cancel multiple rescheduled takeoffs and issued an apology to all passengers affected by unusual delay. The airline attempted several times to fix the issue with no success.
“Due to the lengthy nature of this disruption, the difficulty we’ve experienced in adequately communicating with customers and the fact we have repeatedly let them down, we have made the decision that in addition to our unreserved apology we will also be compensating each customer $1000 in either cash or Airpoints Dollars,” Carrie Hurihanganui, general manager of customer experience told passengers. “We are incredibly sorry to have let our customers down and will conduct a full review to see how we could have managed this disruption better.”
Hotel accommodations were also taken care of by the airline, as were “some” meals.
According to a customer service agent, about half of the passengers from the original NZ09 flight were rebooked on a Hawaiian Airlines flight headed to Auckland.
Being stuck in Hawaii for 2 extra days isn’t bad, especially if the airline picks up the hotel cost.