Air NZ customers cash in on $1.36m worth of credit in less than 24 hours

Air NZ customers whose flights were cancelled due to Covid-19 have redeemed $1.36m worth of credit in less than 24 hours using the airline’s new online credit tool. Air NZ’s online credit redemption tool went live at 10am on Monday, for the more than 300,000 customers who held credit for coronavirus-related disruptions. The tool allows customers who bought a ticket in New Zealand dollars from Air NZ to view their credit and use it to book new flights, instead of having to call the airline’s contact centre. Air NZ chief commercial and customer officer Cam Wallace said the airline acknowledged it had not acted quickly in resolving issues around credit and thanked customers for their patience. The issuing of credit instead of refunding tickets cancelled as a result of Covid-19 disruption to air travel has angered many customers, but Air New Zealand was not legally required to refund passengers for many non-refundable tickets. Air NZ chief digital officer Jennifer Sepull said the tool had been months in the making. “We wanted to create a solution that was intuitive and able to manage the large number of customers needing to redeem credit,” Sepull said. Over the next few months the credit tool would evolve to increase its self-service capability, she said.<br/>