Huge fee for flight date change.

My sister is taking 9 of her family in Business Class with Air. NZ to Honolulu. She has a family requirement to try to change her flights from June to April. The bookings were done through a Travel Agent and the total for 9 pax just to change the date was $ 22,300 AUD. That's bloody ridiculous!!! How can anyone justify that much just to change the dates and there were still more than 9 seats showing on Air. NZ's web site? Unbelievable!! Anyway as can be guessed she refused to pay that and has to stick with the original booking. Seems terribly unjustified to me !!!

It would probably be travel agents fee + airline change fee if not on a flexible Business ticket, + fare difference if she's flying in a more peak/expensive period. Multiply by 9 and yes it's quite a big cost.

Unfortunately that's just the way it is, part of the fare rules for whatever fare she booked, plus the terms and conditions of the airline and travel agent.

Unjustified and ridiculous are good words. Would love to see the breakdown of all the chargers

I am curious as to what the TA is charging out of this.

Maybe get some advice from ACCC they recently said they'd be watching airlines for unreasonable fees. Or at least mention that to the TA, see if that helps.

Business class fares to NZ seem to start at around $4,500. Most dates in April now cost $7,000. Multiply the fare difference by 9 and there goes your $22,300 change fee. Buying for 9 people would probably also mean that only the more expensive fare buckets (with availability for 9) would be available.

I agree with anonymous, the cost per PAX is $2477, the agent and most probably nor is AirNZ changing a change fee, from experience for J class they wave that.

It's just because its for 9 people in what is probably a small cabin and given the short time between now and April they are charging what is available. Maybe calling Air NZ to see what they can do might help, however I'm not sure how they will act if it is booked through a TA. I use a person within Air NZ to book all my flights so it is never a problem.

All in all it appears reasonable and what I would expect to pay to upgrade a fare at short notice.

Without knowing exact fare details it's pretty hard to comment but looking at it the fee it seems pretty reasonable.

Firstly it's not possible for you to know if there are more than 9 business premier seats available by looking at the Air NZ website so I'm not sure how or why you think there is.

steveb Thanks for your and others input. I did a flight search on Air NZ web site on the days my sister wanted and there were 10 seats left on the B787 which is the most limiting so there were enough. I do get your point about the lower fares obtained through travel agents, whom they did book through and that it costs an arm and a leg to change them as the next fare tier that's available is always quite a bit higher.. I always book directly with the Airlines and even though it does cost a bit more there is some flexibility and its a hell of a lot cheaper if one needs to change. It all boils down to how much you want to pay up front and I prefer to book directly with the Airline. Unfortunately in this trip I'm not going and did not make the booking. My sister regrets not asking me to do it but that's history now. All that being said it still does cost a lot to change bookings either way. The only way to avoid this is to be sure and not change the dates!!! Easier said than done when there's 9 of you.

Sister tried to change to a school holiday period. While 10 seats may have been available, they may have been the last seats and the most expensive in a higher fair bucket. An ANZ 787-9 only has 18 business class seats and you are wanting half of them. Booking with the airline wouldn't have made much of a difference in this case. Without all the facts, it is hard to do much more than guess. Was the original based on sale fares? How old was the booking before it needed to be changed? In any case with the information provided, I can't see how your sister has been treated unreasonably.

More information required....

TAs are up there with real estate agents in the incompetency and dishonest stakes. I think that’s part of the lesson here.

People still use travel agents?