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I booked two tickets for Air NZ LAX to Auckland for travel on 13/01/25. Because of the fires I contacted their chatbot, Oscar, to see what the situation was as i could travel out of San Fran if it looked like flights out of LAX were likely to be cancelled. I was transferred to 'Maggie'. We agreed to leave the booking as it was as once at LAX we would be the responsibilty of Air NZ. On arrival at LAX 13.00 for our 8pm NZ5 we were told our flight had been changed to go out of San Fran and that we had been a 'no show'. The Air NZ flights were full so we were put on a delta flight leaving at 10.53pm and the cost of our stretch seats refunded.

Can I claim for being bumped? We were booked on the flight, arrived in good time and were denied boarding out of the US. We arrived in Auckland more than 3 hours after our original booking. Air NZ took control of removing our booking from the flight. No emails notifying me of the change was received, no requests for money, i.e. nothing at all until we arrived at LAX. Surely a feral chatbot needs to be investigated and the airline held to account?

Claire Winfrey
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2 Answers2

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Ignore the chatbot for now.

Just tell the airline "I didn't make that change to another flight". The onus is then on them to show that you did. Or maybe they changed it for their own purposes, in which case tell them you didn't get that notification.

If you didn't actually make the change then they will be unable to show you communication proving you did. If they claim you did it through the chatbot ask to see the transcript of the session. (The chatbot probably sent you a transcript as well - go through it and make sure nothing unexpected happened.)

If the transcript doesn't show you authorizing the change then they are back to the situation when it was them who made the change without your authorization.

DJClayworth
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If you're asking if you can claim involuntary denied boarding compensation under 14 CFR 250, the answer is probably "No," regardless of who is at fault for the change in your ticket. This regulation only applies

to passengers who are denied boarding involuntarily from an oversold flight

14 CFR 250.5, emphasis mine

If you were actually rebooked due to an oversell, they wouldn't have changed your point of origin to San Francisco. It sounds like there was simply some confusion during your contact with them regarding the fires and someone made a mistake, rebooking your ticket accidentally.

It sounds from your question like you were rebooked onto a Delta flight to New Zealand at Air New Zealand's expense and reimbursed by ANZ for the price difference between the seats you paid for and the equivalent of what you flew in. This is most likely all of the compensation that you are owed unless there are some additional details surrounding your circumstance that aren't mentioned here. Sometimes airlines will provide additional compensation, especially in cases that were due to a mistake on their part (as it sounds likely to be the case here,) but that's entirely a voluntary goodwill gesture on their part, not something that is required by law.

The only places I'm aware of where flight delays or cancellations are owed compensation beyond either a refund or ultimately getting you to your destination are the countries which have adopted EU261 or equivalent rules (which are the EU countries, plus the UK, Iceland, Switzerland, and Norway, as far as I know. Edit: As jcaron mentioned in the comments, there are also a few other European countries listed here which have equivalent rules.)

reirab
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