• What's ticked?
• Accolades
• Contact us

c o l u m n s

• Cheap Charlie
• ChrisCrossings
• Err Travel
• Leocha
• Travel Notes
• Archives

s u b s c r i b e

• Elliott's E-Mail, a free weekly newsletter, is your insider resource for moneysaving ideas.

First name

Last name

E-mail address

Subscribe
Cancel

• Like what you see? Now you can become an underwriter.

a l s o

• Ticked e-mail
• Visit Tripso
• Referring sites
• Home

s e a r c h

• Find a story.



(c) Elliott Publishing.

Cancel2K Crisis
ChrisCrossings · November 11, 1999

Q: My wife and I booked two tickets from New York to New Zealand over the Christmas and New Year's holidays on Air New Zealand using Travelocity. Now I can't go (due to being told that I shouldn't leave work for three weeks because of Y2K and the fact that we have put an offer on a new home). Air New Zealand says that we can't get a full refund even though it is their peak flying season and I am giving three months notice. They are saying that the terms of our tickets (which we never saw when we booked them) allow us two really poor options: To take a credit for a year that can only be used on Air New Zealand; or, only get 50 percent back What can we do? I feel deceived and they have been sitting on my money for four months already. Are there any attorneys out there who will help us sue them or are there federal agencies that we can lodge a complaint with?

--Michael Roche-Kelly

A: Air New Zealand is doing you a favor by offering to refund half your money. The tickets you purchased came with a number of restrictions, so whether you flew during peak season or shoulder season is irrelevant. The airline doesn't have to give you a penny back.

It is no doubt making a special allowance because of Y2K worries and should be commended for giving you two options instead of none, which is exactly what you'd end up with if you were flying on one of the domestic airlines.

Travelocity isn't liable for anything, either. It merely acted as an intermediary between you and the airline. You mention that you didn't see the terms of your tickets when you booked them, but on Travelocity, you can view the terms as you book the ticket. Perhaps they aren't as prominently displayed as they ought to be, but that doesn't incriminate Travelocity. The burden is still on the buyer to be aware of all the restrictions, and an air traveler in the know always assumes that a reasonably-priced airline ticket comes with onerous restrictions.

If you're going to take someone to court, make it your employer. Why? You're being asked to not leave work for three weeks due to the Year 2000 problem. Didn't your employer grant you vacation time before you made plans for the holidays? Doesn't taking that leave time back mean your employer is liable for the money you'll lose?

The issue of closing on a house around about the beginning of 2000 is even more troublesome. I would think that no one in their right mind would want to do any major business at a time when the computers might go haywire.

I'm not a real estate specialist, but I'd recommend waiting for the dust to settle on this millennium business before buying a house. Take this vacation issue up with your employer, not Air New Zealand. Don't waste the government's time with a grievance like this one.

If Air New Zealand decided to cancel all of its flights around the start of 2000 -- and then refused a refund -- then you'd have a case. But there's no need to check the carrier's contract of carriage or to trouble the Federal Aviation Administration with your problem. This is between you and your boss.

Christopher Elliott's column appears on Thursdays. All e-mailed questions to ChrisCrossings become property of Ticked.com and may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion. You may reach Elliott at christopher@elliott.org. Or visit his home page at http://www.elliott.org.