New Zealand Air

[sharkalopodous]

Hi,
I am having some trouble figuring out what to do with NZ Air. We are flying from Toronto to Vancouver via Air Canada, then Air NZ from vancouver to auckland and then to christchurch.

Air NZ only allows 1 piece of checked baggage. I think this is absolutely ridiculous. I will be coming with 2 infants and a stroller and playpen will take up their baggage right there. Has anyone ever been able to get extra luggage. We were fine with the 2 bags each and then they changed it.

Also Air Canada has very strict height restrictions about stroller heights in terms of a stroller you can carry around the airport. Does anyone know would I need to adhere to Air NZ's policy and just have an umbrella stroller, or do I have to adhere to Air Canada's umbrella stroller with a very short height? I'm very confused, thanks!

[sophiedb]

From what I've read here, it's a good idea to call each airline 3 times each to confirm their policies via more than one source (in the sense that not all customer service people actually know what they're on about..).

Failing that, if flying via more than 1 airline you will probably have to either stick with the lowest common denominator as far as weight, bags etc are concerned or pay extra for luggage above and beyond that which each airline allows. I've never heard of an airline refusing extra baggage if the customer pays the extra money, but it's obviously worth checking the cost of doing so.

Regards buggies, I've never been hit with a fee for transporting one by air yet. Most airlines (including Air NZ, but I have no idea about Air Canada) will allow one "essential" child item per child. This is usually considered to be a buggy or a car seat. Some will allow 2 - depends on the airline. I'm not sure that they'd go for a playpen though, something else worth checking with the airline direct.

[Duncan74]

Check the rules, pretty sure it says strollers aren't inlcuded, in the luggage limit. Also their additional bag charges are very reasonable.

[James 1077]

Also if you booked before the change in rules (sometime in May I think) then you still get the old limits.

[JandM]

Hello and welcome.

[James 1077]

Looking at the Air NZ website - strollers and car seats are free of charge so you don't have to worry about the stroller taking up one of the luggage allowances.

With the playpen it could make more sense to just buy one here when you arrive. They aren't too expensive and so it may be cheaper to do that than to pay excess baggage and take it. It costs Can$55 for an extra piece but that is only for the Vancouver flight - you may need to pay more for the Toronto leg.

The best thing to do, if you are worried, is to give Air NZ a call to ask them. I found their call centre to be really helpful when we called about what we could take on for our 4 month old twins (and what was available on board) - it was actually a complete shock to talk to a useful and helpful call centre operator who spent some time chatting to you throughout the call!

[4togo]

My 2 cents (and if I get this right): If you are planning on flying by yourself with two infants, you may be heading for trouble with both airliners. Usually online booking does not restrict this. However, as far as I know you do not have to pay for infants but you also are expected to share your seat with your child. Two infants on one adult will likely cause problems with airline policies and IATA regulations.

You can reserve (a) bassinet(s) with airlines on at least long haul flights (at no cost but based on availability/first come, first serve). I would call both airlines to confirm.

Don't want to get your tension level up, but I would hate for you to discover this when too late...

[Margarita]

Ohhh you saying that reminds me of an episode I saw on one of those airport show. Woman had twins and they wouldn't let her fly alone with them because there was no way she could have both on her lap for take off and landing they also said it was against some regulation as she wouldn't be able to get both off on an emergency. Really made me wonder what single parents of twins were supposed to do. Obviously never travel until both are able to look after themselves.

Sorry slightly off topic there but it's quite a good point if your children are really young and you haven't checked it out already.

[bluesky]

Ohhh you saying that reminds me of an episode I saw on one of those airport show. Woman had twins and they wouldn't let her fly alone with them because there was no way she could have both on her lap for take off and landing they also said it was against some regulation as she wouldn't be able to get both off on an emergency.

The emergency issue was probably around oxygen masks. Obviously if you and your child are sharing one seat, you need to have two oxygen masks available. There are extra masks for this purpose, but their location varies, and as far as I know there will be no more than one extra for each row / side of plane, and in some cases it's only certain rows that have them. So one adult will never be allowed to travel with two kids with only one seat, and even if there are two adults with two kids using two seats in total, they won't be able to sit together in the same row.

[4togo]

Did you figure it out yet? Please share any info on this for future reference (I am sure needed some time).