AIR N.Z. REPRIMAND

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33521, 30 April 1974, Page 15

AIR N.Z. REPRIMAND

(N.Z.P.A. Stafl Correspondent) WASHINGTON, April 28. Air New Zealand has been reprimanded by the International Air Transport Association for discounting a first-class ticket on its South Pacific service from the United States, according to the bi-weekly magazine of the American travel industry, “Travel Agent.”

The magazine records over two pages a case in which the airline handed over nine full-fare, first-class tickets after receiving a cheque for eight tickets. The person to whom it gave the tickets was acting on behalf of I.A.T.A. inspectors checking that ticketing rules were being complied with on South Pacific carriers, the magazine said.

The incident occurred in February last year and resulted from investigations after complaints that certain South Pacific air carriers were giving discounts.

I.A.T.A. compliance officers based in Los Angeles wrote to South Pacific carriers in the name of a fictitious organisation and asked for discounts, the magazine said.

The only carrier to give a favourable response was Air

New Zealand, which had been asked to quote for eight first-class fares from Los Angeles to Sydney and to say whether it would be prepared to grant free transportation to the organsation’s secretary. An intermediary was sent to the Air New Zealand office in Los Angeles and spoke to the sales manager for North America, who had replied to the initial letter, saying: “I would be very interested in discussing this with you, and believe some arrangement could be made for you and your members.” The intermediary told the I.A.T.A. hearing that on his first visit he was advised to send the full fare for eight tickets — $13,144 — with a list of the passengers names and that the sales manager would meet him at the airport on departure and make arrangements to get him a ticket at no cost. TOUR GUIDE The sales manager told the intermediary that what he (the intermediary) wanted was to go along with the group as a tour guide, the magazine said.

Eventually the airline’s ticket office manager at Los Angeles airport issued the intermediary with nine firstclass tickets after receiving a cheque for eight tickets. This meant there was a discount over the whole transaction of one first-class fare — $1640.

The magazine said that Air New Zealand admitted the facts but said that an invoice had been raised against the intermediary on the date of purchase of his own ticket. The airline said that discussions had taken place between the sales manager for North American and the intermediary concerning possible entitlement to a reduced fare of free transportation as a tour conductor under I.A.T.A. rules and that it had been agreed a ticket would be issued at the correct fare in the event that requirements of the rules were met.

The report said that the airline declared its ticket office manager was instructed to write the ticket but not to deliver it unless and until the correct fare had been paid. It said he inadvertently I omitted to comply with his i instructions aijd delivered the

[ticket to the intermediary in error.

The airline had acknowledged responsibility for carelessness on the part of its employee in delivering the ticket.

An Air New Zealand spokesman said in Auckland that the case history was correct and that an airline employee in Los Angeles subsequently was severely reprimanded by the airline, the Press Association reported. TRIVIAL’ “While the matter was considered to be trivial in the context of the vast number of fines levied against I.A.T.A. members for such offences, it concerned our airline greatly,” the spokesman said. “We vigorously enforce a strict policy against this sort of thing.” I.A.T-A. records a long list of airlines which are charged with this, and similar offences each month. Fines range up to nearly $40.000.