I am at SFO, haven't even left the country and already I have been given the cold shoulder at check-in by a female who was abrupt, unsmiling, cold and unhelpful. Every question I asked her about seating was greeted with a grim poker face. This does not auger well. The outbound trip a month ago was not much better in terms of the crew: rude and curt. The food was appalling too. My husband flew back with Air New Zealand a few days ago and said the same thing. He made a joke while boarding and was stared down and quite deliberately ignored by the same crew member the whole trip. Even when he disembarked she turned away to avoid eye contact. I am dreading this flight tonight.

I called Air New Zealand Sydney office today to try to change a flight. After 25 minutes on hold A recorded message told me that the office was now closed. How can any company treat their customers like this? I understand that the intention is to dissuade us from personal contact but this has simply dissuaded me from ever flying with Air NZ again.

Not only were they not helpful, but they were the cause of deliberately making me miss my connecting flight with them due to laziness and indifference. They knew that I had to get medications urgently but they didn't care. I was treated with a cavalier attitude. Despite holding up four other connecting flights for other passengers, they would not hold up my connecting flight for 5 minutes! That was all that was required. No, they had made their decision - you will sleep in the hotel and that's what we have decided. You will not be going home. As a woman travelling on her own, needing to get my medications, they were indifferent and didn't make any effort to get me to the connecting flight. They do what they want to do, not what you as the passenger might need. If you want good customer service, don't fly with Air New Zealand. I paid top dollar for the seat which was very cramped and the food was awful. If anything goes wrong, they don't give you any customer service. They are indifferent to their passengers and they don't care about your business. Don't fly with them.

On returning from my holiday back home from Auckland to perth I found the Air Zealands service was terrible.The welcome onto the plane is half arsed and unprofessional.Since My wife and two children paid for the "works" I politly enquired why the inflight entertainment was not working and asking me for a payment,I was ruddly told it will get fixed but it was a choice of delaying the flight or fixing the entertainment. I found the safety rundown tacky and weird prior to takeoff. Children were served there meals which are age appropriate with pencil case aswell etc,however my two young boys were not I enquired politely.The group of air new zealand staff standing around the back of the plane TOLD me that although i have purchased two childrens tickets that you need to specify that they want childrens meals and there were none left.I must add at this point that i had sat down with a air new Zealand person who had booked the tickects who never mentioned this or gave me this option!!.However after been made to feel like a problem child by the air new zealand staff,They said they would serve my boys sooner before the adults,five minutes later someone flew passed throwing some meals down,my children were pressured to answer the staff quickly which i ignored and protected my children from there rudeness.There were multiple issues throughout this flight.There seemed to be an aternaty between the meal and getting a drink. My sons headphones were playing up so I asked for a new set and inquired if there were any for children as the set he had were adults and just dont fit on a four and a half year old,I was told that she would get a new pair but there was none for children,30 minutes passed obivously she had forgotten,so asked another person eveturally getting replacement adult headphones for my son. Several hours later i asked for water and some crakers for the chilren,i was told that there was not this not that bla bla but they would see. Nothing turned up, not even water.I complained and the children got there water and biscuits.The staff had again completly forgot for my request. There were more issues not to mention the landing,The staff were complete rubbish,I fly a fair bit with different air lines so my expectations are not real high,but for the price air nz charged me for the "works" i was really dissappointed with the whole experience.It maybe time for air nz to clean out some rubbish and get some young staff with some memory and service!!I will be traveling via Sydney in the future with a different air line as this is not the first trouble with air New Zealand.nz175 30/01/12

My friends and I flew with Air New Zealand over Christmas. Our luggage was lost and we were stranded without warm clothing, basic necessities and of course our holiday gifts. The airline misplaced 1/4 of the flights bags and of couse blamed it on the weather conditions. We understood that these things happen but my complaint is not about lost baggage but about the way they handled us. Over the next week, we were given over 15 different phone numbers, many wrong numbers, lied to and told so many different stories, even from high end management in New Zealand. We were hung up on and just basically left being told that it was not their fault but an outside baggage handling company that they hired. My friends and I were in tears, pleading with them as all of our heavy clothing was in the liggage and being from Califonia had nothing warm on us. They were unaware of policies for us to buy some items to get us by and this was higher management. Even when I asked if they felt like this was fair, they would say NO, but there was nothing for them to do and they couldn't and wouldn't. After over a week of this we decided to return home early and miss our planned out holiday in London for New Years. I pleated for at least an upgrade and again they said "NO". Upon arrival to Heathrow, our luggage was there and it had been there for four day with stickers attached saying it was located days before and we were never contacted.I brought this up to the person at the desk and she tried to remove the sticker but I made sure to keep it as evidence that the bags were located and they did nothing. At this point we were offered an upgrade. Only when we arrived at Heathrow totally upset and ready to go home. Our trip was ruined. Our holiday cut short and this was because of Air New Zealand's horrible mistreatment of us and our situation. They kept and still blame the weather, Heathrow, the outside baggage handlers.... but really, I paid them and they are responsible for not giving us what we paid for. This is not about lost luggage, this is about how we were treated dealing with the employees at Air New Zealand. For an award winning Airlines, they failed horribly.

I have flown Air New Zealand multiple times in the past year, in fact, I've just earned Silver status and am quickly on my way to gold status with this airline. You would think the problems regarding the true, factual experiences of a more valued customer would be heeded, but this is not the case. Without whining about the details, a brief summary of the factual events are below. I am happy to discuss in greater detail, and am willing to provide details to journalists who need evidence to write articles about either Air New Zealand, or its Premium Economy class of service.

1) Tried to charge me a US$150 change fee to upgrade from regular Economy to Premium Economy, when the fare terms state that this fee was to be waived when upgrading to a higher class of service. Had to argue with customer service agent for 45 minutes until he finally logged in as me on my online profile and saw that I was right. I did purchase Premium Economy service at an extra cost of US$903 for an Auckland-San Francisco segment.

2) One of the reasons I upgraded was supposedly power ports in "most of the seats". I was told by the gate agent that no power ports existed in the Premium Economy cabin on this flight. Writing Air NZ customer service later, they now argue that this was not the case (essentially calling me a liar). This is in direct contradiction to the onboard power ports advertised on their website (ask me for a print-out of the airline's website page)

3) The food, which was supposed to be the same as business class, was disgusting (in particular, a fish dish). The food in regular Economy cabin has always been much better.

4) Due to the change in daylight savings time, the crew got our arrival time wrong and therefore only Business Class passengers got breakfast. All other passengers were not offered any meal service whatsoever. This seems odd to me - why would business class passengers be served an hour earlier than regular passengers? This sounds calculated to me.

5) Bags of Premium Economy and Business Class passengers were supposed to be delivered at the same time - earlier than regular economy passengers. Mine were delivered a full THIRTY Minutes after the other premium economy/business class passengers. Huge waste of my time.

In summary, Air New Zealand's "Pacific Premium Economy" service means a premium profit for the airline. True, you get more leg room, a cheap amenity kit, and nicer headphones, but these are small wins in the face of the other shortcomings. Most importantly, and disappointingly, my follow-ups have been completely disregarded by the company. I receive lip service but the airline will not stand by its mistakes. I cannot recommend Premium Economy on Air New Zealand. It was a complete waste of my money. I will also be trying the nonstop Auckland-Los Angeles service on Qantas Airlines in the future. Perhaps they will value my business more.

To the airline's credit, I have no issue with the flight attendants. The inflight service was very good. However, it was the airline's complete post-flight washing its hands of responsibility that have irrevocably disappointed me, and which are the impetus for my crusade to share the truth with other passengers who regularly fly between the US and New Zealand.

I am a kiwi living in the UK and recently flew home for a visit. On the return flight from NZ to UK I got a broken chair which reclined at random times by itself. I was promised the offending chair would be fixed at the Hong Kong transit. It wasn't. I was then given the option to re-locate to a worse seat which I did. It was a 26 hour nightmare. But the worst thing was the service after the flight - none. I sent 2 complaints to Air NZ via their own feedback pages on their website - both were not only unanswered, but actually expired!! My third complaint (to a customer service (I use the term loosely) email address) was met with a £50 compensation offer. I think this is outrageous. Half of my expensive round-trip flight was uncomfortable and I get offered £50 back!!! Fly with Thai or Singapore to and from NZ. Their aircraft are nicer, their attendants are nicer and their customer service is better!