It is almost a month since Air New Zealand announced upcoming changes to their shorthaul products.

Since then there has been lots of communication with some of their customers, but also lots of confusion due to incomplete and mixed messages from Air NZ.

I think the underlying cause is that Air New Zealand had decided they needed to make changes but were unclear how well received they would be. Thus they decided to trial changes on the Christchurch to Sydney route. This makes some sense as it is not the most important route on the network (so an experiment is less disruptive than on some other routes) and also has some of the fiercest competition thanks to Jetstar’s focus on Christchurch and Pacific Blue being based in Christchurch (both low cost airlines).

However it is now clear that some details haven’t been fully thought through yet. Sine they have already embarked on communicating with their customers the upcoming changes, any changes in how it works creates complications and difficulties in keeping on message.

While infrequent flyers may not even be aware of the confusion and odd messaging, for frequent travellers this is a surprise. In recent years Air NZ has done very well with marketing – their nothing to hide campaign got instant worldwide attention, as did their launch late last year of new longhaul products (which commence operation November 2010).

So far Air New Zealand has been silent on the inconsistency between “nothing to hide” and the new smorgasbord pricing. I wonder if/when we’ll see Qantas or Emirates trumpet this?

Much of Northern and Western Europe airspace is again closed, for the fourth day running, as the ash cloud slowly drifts south and east.  Current eruptions are not lifting ash high enough to affect continental European airspace, so these effects are from material ejected a few days ago.  Assuming the Eyjafjallajokull volcano continues to slowly quieten, flights are anticipated to resume in a few days time.

In the meantime, millions of people have had their travel disrupted. Airlines, land transport and accommodation are being affected worldwide. Once the ash clears it will take several days at least to clear the backlog of passengers.

As posted previously, a volcanic eruption is an “act of god” and thus airlines are not liable to provide compensation. However in some jurisdications (such as EU regulation 261/2004 for EU-based airlines and all flights from EU), airlines may be responsible for duty of care (ie providing accommodation for stranded passengers).  Travel insurance should also help out, as long as it was purchased before 14 April 2010.

This is part of a series of blog entries on how to get to countries and places. Here is a link to the index. I plan to eventually cover every country and some other places. If you have a request for a particular country or place please use the Contact link at the top, or leave a comment.

Republic of Macedonia

Source: Vladimir Stoykov

There are buses and trains from all neighbouring countries except Greece (use taxis to & from the Greece-Macedonia border).  Airlines flying to Republic of Macedonia include:

• Star Alliance – Adria, Austrian, Croatia, Swiss, Turkish
• Oneworld – Malev
• Sky Team – Czech
• Selected other – JAT

TIP There are no low cost airlines flying to Macedonia, however Thessaloniki isn’t too far away.

As promised, I am answering some of Wendy Perrin’s readers’ frequent flyer questions. This batch of questions deals with miscellanous questions covering the best ways to accumulate frequent flyer miles, award availability difficulties, geographical challenges for frequent flyers, changed terms, Europe in spring, flying with family and DVT. Phew, very broad.

Read More…

Flying with Fish has a nice recap of why volcanic ash is so dangerous to aircraft.  Here in the Pacific frequent flyers are somewhat used to cancellations or route detours to avoid ash clouds – especially around Indonesia but also throughout the “ring of fire”. In Europe it is more unusual.

The impact on flights from the Iceland eruption is becoming widespread as the ash cloud spreads.  Reykjavik in Iceland remains open but much of Northern Europe is affected or is expected to be over the next day or so.

Currently airspace is closed in Ireland, UK, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, France.  Neighbouring countries from Spain through to Russia are also being affected.

This can change with the winds and developments in the eruption, so if you are travelling to or through Europe in the next few days at least keep an eye out for disruptions.  While airline compensation does not apply due to “act of god”, airlines still have a duty of care responsibility to travellers (eg EU 261/2004 covers accommodation for affected passengers).

For those who haven’t yet commenced their trip, most airlines are allowing free date changes.

Edited to add – links to airline specific news and information as posted on Flyer Talk can be found here.

Yesterday the bmi website suggested that Diamond Club is closing 16 May.  Today a bmi official lurker posted on Flyer Talk that only Diamond Club members in some markets (the ones they no longer serve) are being transferred 16 May.

However, I think this is only a temporary reprieve. Clearly Diamond Club is in the process of being closed. Transferring members to Lufthansa Miles and More, changes to some partner offers (eg branded credit cards) and promotions are not signs that the program has long to live.

If you have lots of bmi miles then my advice remains to use them before they get significantly devalued.

Edited to add: Reports from those who are in the process of being transferred is that bmi Silver is being matched to Lufthansa Frequent Traveller, bmi Gold is being matched to Lufthansa Senator, but the Lufthansa status is valid until February 2012. This means to requalify they need to do so either in 2010 or 2011 calendar years.

When I saw an email header of amazing awards available now my suspicions were raised. Opening it I saw it was promoting a frequent flyer shop where I could waste my miles on such things as a bar of soap fo 2,300 miles. Unfortunately it wasn’t 1 April.

I suppose the only good thing that can be said about scams such as this is that it may hold off devaluations for the awards I really use and value, at least for a little longer.

Some stray pages (now gone) on the bmi website suggests the generous bmi Diamond Club frequent flyer program may be closing in a month’s time with a forced transfer to Lufthansa Miles & More.  Last year Lufthansa bought bmi and ever since the frequent flyer program, a favourite for many people on Flyer Talk for it’s generosity, has been on borrowed time.

Since miles will almost certainly be transferred across 1:1 (as they were for Swiss a few years ago), it is a good idea to book some awards now before the miles devalue substantially (and before the Diamond Club call centre gets overwhelmed with requests).

When Lufthansa bought Swiss they gave several months notice of the closure of that program, transferred miles 1:1 at the end date and lined up the status levels.  Given bmi Gold (Star Alliance Gold) is much easier to attain than Lufthansa Senator status (Star Alliance Gold) it will be interesting to see if they do a straight match or only those earning bonus miles above 55k will get Senator. I think the former is more likely but the latter can’t be ruled out (not least because Senator status lasts for over 2 years).

Edited to add – the stray pages are still there.

According to the Centre for Asia-Pacific Aviation, airline fees and other charges are expected to cost consumers US$58 billion (with a B) in 2010.  To put that another way that is 12% of total airline revenue.

All those extras sure add up.  At what point does the unbundling become too much and unreasonable? It certainly makes price comparisons harder and thus a form of anti-competitive behaviour, although the airlines argue it gives travellers more choice and transparency around costs.

What do you think?

This is part of a series of blog entries on how to get to countries and places. Here is a link to the index. I plan to eventually cover every country and some other places. If you have a request for a particular country or place please use the Contact link at the top, or leave a comment.

Central African Republic

Overland travel is not simple with some borders closed (eg the one with Sudan).  There are buses from Cameroon and boats from Brazzaville.  The few airlines flying to Central African Republic include:

• Star Alliance – none
• Oneworld – none
• Sky Team – Air France, Kenya
• Selected other – Royal Air Maroc, TAAG

TIP As with many places in central & west Africa, fares tend to be high.  Thus an award or around the world fare to Bangui is a good option.