A Christchurch mother is considering legal action against Etihad Airways after it mistakenly cancelled her flights, and months later, is still waiting to be refunded over $23,000.
Jessica Roberts booked seven tickets to England in March and later used a customer service chatbot to cancel one of her children's bookings. She was told she'd get a refund and provided new bank account details as she'd switched banks.
Just days before the family were due to fly, they discovered the entire booking had vanished when they went to check their seats.
"We'd been planning this trip for three years and we had a family wedding to go to, there was no way we cancelled those tickets," she told Breakfast.
As two of their group were in the wedding party, they look out a loan to buy new tickets at short-notice, with the assistance of Flight Centre and their bank.
The airline had proved difficult to get hold of and Roberts said she's been unable to speak to anyone who could actually help them and give them useful information about what was happening to their refund.
The family had tried to contact the airline more 30 times.
"We've had one phone call since the whole episode started, and that's when Stuff got involved two weeks ago."
Etihad told her the issue was due to "agent error".
The family want a refund for their replacement tickets, visas, and interest on the loan.
Consumer NZ's communications and campaigns manager Jessica Walker said it believed Etihad had wrongfully terminated the contract with the Roberts family.
"As a result, the family is entitled to claim damages for the wrongful termination. This could include the cost of the new airfares, as well as any interest they’ve paid on the loan they got to cover the new fares. They may even be able to claim damages for mental distress.
"We think the airline also failed to take reasonable care and skill under the Consumer Guarantees Act. This also entitles the Roberts family to claim back any losses they’ve suffered as a result of the airline’s failure.
"If the airline doesn’t pay up soon, we’d recommend taking it to the Disputes Tribunal."
Roberts said the ordeal has taken a mental toll.
"At this point, I'd just like the money back."
Etihad have been approached for comment.
Travel advice
Victoria Courtney of Flight Centre NZ, while not commenting specifically about Roberts' case, said it's a timely reminder that travel doesn't always go according to plan.
"First advice I always say to people travelling at Christmas is to get your passport out and check the validity that you need, triple check that you have the visas you need and transit visas, get all of those well in advance."
She encouraged travellers to "triple check your itinerary" and allocate enough time to get through the airport.
"Especially with young ones, so that you've got a bit more calm rather than rushing," she said. Courtney also stressed the importance of getting travel insurance and utilising a travel agent to "hold your hand" through the process.
"Hopefully if you've booked with a travel agent we can do all the heavy lifting for them and we can work with our airline partners to resolves things quickly, but we have seen things go to the Disputes Tribunal and it adds so much stress to people," she said.
She said that they are seeing an increase in disruptions and airlines having to change bookings, but 12 weeks to wait for compensation is "unacceptable".
"We were able to help Jessica through in the end, but with the original booking we haven't been able to assist with that but it's atypical from what we're seeing," she said.
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