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A Queenstown woman says her plans to surprise her daughter in Australia with a visit on her birthday have been ruined by a last-minute decision by Qantas to cancel the flights it introduced for the one-way travel bubble through Tasmania. .
To make matters worse, the woman has been told it could take up to four months for her $ 1,700 in airfare to be reimbursed.
Starting Friday, New Zealanders who have not been to a designated Covid-19 hotspot in the past 14 days can travel to New South Wales and the Northern Territory without needing to go into quarantine.
Following news of the bubble, Qantas said it would operate six Sydney-Auckland flights per week and four Sydney-Christchurch flights. Its Jetstar subsidiary would offer three Sydney-Auckland flights per week.
READ MORE:
* Covid-19: what we know, and what we still don’t know, about the Australian travel bubble
* Qantas and Jetstar quickly begin selling flights from New Zealand following news of the trans-Tasman bubble
However, Qantas canceled its Christchurch service and reduced its Sydney to Auckland flights to just two next week and four a week after that.
QANTAS
Qantas is operating a service from Auckland to Sydney on Friday.
Dale Paterson said that when he saw flights for sale a few weeks ago, he booked a Queenstown-Auckland-Sydney return flight with Qantas through the Mix and Match travel agent to visit his daughter and granddaughter whom he had not seen since January.
He had hoped to surprise his daughter on her birthday Wednesday, but now that Qantas had canceled flights, he was unable to arrive in time, he said.
“I find it completely frightening,” Paterson said.
“They opened the border, they put flights, specifically for us to get on, and then they canceled them. It doesn’t make any sense to me. “
In early October, Qantas began selling New Zealand-Australia fares for the first time in six months.
Paterson said he made the reservation on October 8 to fly on October 21 and return to New Zealand on October 28.
She said she was prepared to spend two weeks in controlled isolation upon her return and that she had enough knitting and reading material to keep her busy.
“It sounds absolutely outrageously crazy, but I miss my daughter and I miss my granddaughter and I wanted to do that.”
He said he would be looking to book on another airline in a few weeks.
“I will never fly with Qantas again, never.”
Air New Zealand has continued to fly to Australia during the pandemic, with services from Auckland to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
Your first flight as part of the New South Wales safe travel zone, NZ103, is scheduled to depart Auckland International Airport at 10.40am.
Next, Jetstar flight JQ204 is scheduled to depart Auckland at 12pm followed by Qantas flight QF146 scheduled for a 4.15pm departure.
