'Stranded' in New Zealand: Singapore tour group blames travel agency for flight cancelled by airline

Being stranded in a foreign country is probably the one thing that travellers fear the most.

Unfortunately, a Singapore tour group on a guided tour with Chan Brothers Travel said that they went through this while holidaying in New Zealand. 

In a Facebook post on Monday (Dec 12), a tour group member, Faith Tan, shared that they were "stranded" with no return flight. 

The group of 16 was supposed to fly back to Singapore on Dec 11 via Air New Zealand. However, the airline cancelled their flight at the very last minute.

Their trip was supposed to be from Nov 30 to Dec 12. 

In a series of WhatsApp messages, Tan and her fellow tour group members were seen asking their travel agent leader from Chan Brothers Travel about the flight.

The tour group members also said they were unable to access their flight details as the airline could only release the information after the travel agent leader contacted them personally. 

When they voiced their concerns, the tour guide responded with answers like "wait for the airline to reply" and "if the airline [has] good news, they [will] call your room". 

This frustrated the travellers, who continued to badger him for answers. 

"It is the tour guide's responsibility to take care of the tour members and not leave us in limbo. We are joining a guided tour and not free and easy," remarked one of them. 

In updates to the same Facebook post, Tan shared that Chan Brothers Travel helped the tour group confirm return flights for Wednesday via Malaysian Airlines, with transit at Kuala Lumpur. 

Group members with chronic health conditions requiring prescription medication were flown back on Tuesday at midnight. 

"Not the most ideal as we paid for Air New Zealand tickets but better than nothing I guess," Tan wrote. 

She added that some members of the tour group also flew back "[at their] own expense" on Tuesday.

AsiaOne has reached out to Tan for more details. Her Facebook post has been taken down at the time of writing.

[[nid:590261]]

Not deflection of responsibility: Chan Brothers Travel

In response to AsiaOne's queries, a spokesperson from Chan Brothers Travel said that the tour group's flight was cancelled by Air New Zealand "due to operational requirements as indicated in the airline's official notice". 

The travel agency was only informed of the flight cancellation when checking in the tour group at Auckland airport. 

"Our tour leader at the frontline and our team back in Singapore have been working tirelessly round the clock to connect with Air New Zealand on the matter, requesting for a resolution for our travellers since then," said the spokesperson. 

"It was not a deflection of responsibility on our part but a standard operating procedure to always check in with the airline who issued the tickets especially when they were the one who cancelled the flight." 

According to Chan Brothers Travel, Air New Zealand also did not respond to queries in a timely manner. 

"Despite the domino effect on subsequent scheduled flights as a result of the cancelled flight and the scarcity of available seats during this peak travel season, we managed to secure seats to fly back the first group of travellers one day later and the rest one day after." 

The travel agency added that the tour group members were well taken care of in New Zealand by the tour leader on the ground.

"This may not be the case if travellers have booked the flights themselves, as they will have to first call through the flooded hotline and then liaise with the airlines directly while having to worry about accommodation and meals among other concerns in a foreign land amid the distress of the flight cancellation," he said. 

While the issue was being resolved, Air New Zealand provided accommodation and meal vouchers to the affected passengers, he added.

In September, another Singapore tour group found themselves stuck in Japan after their flight back home was delayed for nine hours. 

The group of 55 tourists were supposed to depart from Tokyo on a Singapore-bound Scoot flight. 

Just minutes before boarding the plane, they were told that the flight would be delayed for an hour. However, the departing time was later pushed back numerous times.

Scoot later told AsiaOne that a technical fault caused the delay. 

melissateo@asiaone.com

No part of this story or photos can be reproduced without permission from AsiaOne.

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.