A couple from the US state of New Hampshire were charged $8,000 (roughly Rs 662,771) for changing their return flight by a New Zealand airline. The couple found out at the beginning of their four-month long vacation that the wife had roughly four months to live as she was diagnosed with terminal gallbladder cancer.
Todd and Patricia Kerekes, 60 and 75, flew business class from New York to Auckland in January and had begun their 4-month long vacation. However, their plans were upended as Patricia Kerekes was diagnosed with cancer.
When Todd Kerekes called Air New Zealand to help change their return flight and help them book the first available flight, they were told to pay the enormous fee. “Right away on the first call I told them my wife was gravely ill, and we were on holiday and we needed to go back home,” Todd was quoted as saying by Radio New Zealand.
Todd said there was very little help from the airlines’ customer service and he finally paid $8,000 to return to the US.
The amount the couple paid was nearly half of what they paid when they travelled from New York to Auckland.
“Sometimes the people would come back and basically tell me something I didn’t want to hear, like it was gonna cost me $8,000 to change my flight. I was expecting a change fee (but) I was shocked,” Todd told the New Zealand-based news outlet. He further added that he spent four hours speaking to Air New Zealand and clarified to them multiple times that it did not matter where they were allotted seats on the flight.
“They weren’t rude or unkind, but they were simply like, ‘Look, this is the way it is and there’s nothing we can do about it.’ And I was like, it was surprising to me that in a situation where I was that they couldn’t be more helpful,” he further added, lamenting that the airline did not bother to offer “compassionate options”.
He also said that he expected Kiwis (residents of New Zealand) to be much nicer compared to New Yorkers. “I grew up in New York, outside of New York City, and New Yorkers are unfriendly. We just tend to be brusque. But Kiwis are downright nice to the point where people were arguing with us that people aren’t really as nice as we thought they were,” Todd further explained.
Meanwhile, the airline apologised to the couple and gave a full refund to the couple this week after they reached the US. “It’s clear we fell short of expectations and our compassionate care policy was not followed in this case. We have reached out to Kerekes to apologise and issue a full refund for the additional costs incurred to change their original flights,” Air New Zealand general manager Alisha Armstrong said in a statement.
“Once again we apologise for how this case was handled and our thoughts are with Mrs Kerekes at this time,” the statement said.
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