Air NZ vs Jetstar: Which airline should you fly with?

My experience flying with Air New Zealand vs Jetstar

Flying with Air New Zealand always felt relatively seamless, staff were friendly and attentive, comms were pretty good, and I’d get a cookie and a cuppa to boot.

But being a budget-conscious frequent flyer, I started looking into the price differences between the two airlines when booking flights. Often, I couldn’t justify forking out a whole lot extra to fly Air NZ. So, when there was a decent savings to be had, I booked Jetstar and have been pleasantly surprised.

I’ve taken 13 Jetstar flights so far this year (both domestic and international). There have been a few minor hiccups along the way and boarding can sometimes take a bit longer. But I’ve always got to where I needed to be on time and haven’t had to spend a fortune in the process. In fact, I reckon I’ve saved well over $1000 this year by choosing Jetstar over Air New Zealand.

My experience flying Air New Zealand hasn’t been as good. Of the nine flights I’ve taken with Air New Zealand one was cancelled and four were delayed.

What the data tells us about flight reliability

I asked the two airlines for their average cancellation rates between January and September 2024.

Jetstar said its average cancellation rate was 0.9%, an improvement from 4.2% for the same period in 2023. Air New Zealand was “unable to provide this information”.

Yet, since July this year, the Ministry of Transport has collected and published performance data from the airlines. The data reports on the main trunk lines between Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin and Queenstown where the two airlines compete.

The reports show Jetstar cancelled slightly fewer flights than Air New Zealand between July and September. It had an average cancellation rate of 1%. Air New Zealand had an average cancellation rate of 1.5%.

In terms of on-time arrivals (i.e. arriving within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time), Jetstar improved 6.6% between July and September, reporting 80.6% of flights arrived on time in September. Air New Zealand also improved 1.9% over the same period and reported 82.1% of flights arrived on time in September.

The Ministry of Transport data confirms there’s now very little difference between the airlines’ on-time departures, arrivals and cancellations.

However, neither airline has a squeaky-clean reputation, and we’ve called out both for various shortcomings over the years.

Air NZ was slow to provide refunds for US flights cancelled due to covid

In 2020, we lodged a complaint with the Commerce Commission about Air New Zealand’s refusal to comply with the law and provide refunds for flights in and out of the United States that were cancelled due to COVID-19. The airline eventually saw the error of its ways and started providing refunds, in accordance with the law.

While passengers flying to and from the United States were entitled to refunds when their flights were cancelled, unfortunately, most other passengers were not entitled to the same protections under New Zealand laws. Instead, they were generally only entitled to a credit from Air New Zealand.

It still irks me that Air New Zealand is sitting on around $90 million worth of credits from these cancelled flights. What’s worse, these credits must be redeemed by January 2026. After that our national carrier presumably intends to pocket this money, providing nothing in return. An Air New Zealand spokesperson said it continues “to regularly communicate to customers who hold credits to ensure they are reminded to utilise them ahead of their expiry.”

Trans-Tasman flight prices increase during the school holidays

We’ve also recently called out Air New Zealand for ripping off parents during school holidays, with its dynamic pricing model.

Dynamic pricing means that, when demand is high, consumers pay through the nose. For example, a colleague had to stump up $1600 recently for return flights for two from Wellington to Timaru for Christmas simply because demand is high over the festive season, and there’s no competition on that route.

We’ve written to the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Andrew Bayly urging him to commence a market study into the lack of competition in the New Zealand aviation sector.

Card payment fees are too high

Another issue I have with Air New Zealand is its card payment fees. Unlike most other merchants, Air New Zealand imposes fixed per-person, per-sector card payment surcharges, rather than a percentage fee. So, if you snaffle a bargain $69 one-way fare on Air New Zealand and want to pay by credit or debit card, you’ll be stung with a card payment fee of $2.80 per person per sector. That’s more than 4% and well above the 2% maximum surcharge the Commission says you should be paying. Obviously, the higher the fare, the lower the fee will be as a percentage. But I don’t think it’s fair that people purchasing lower priced fares should have to subsidise the card payment fees of people purchasing pricier fares.

We think Jetstar mislead customers about their rights under the law

As for Jetstar, it hasn’t been above reproach either. We believe the airline has been attempting to limit its liability to passengers when cancelling or delaying flights for reasons within its control. In 2022, we lodged a Commerce Commission complaint about the airline misleading customers over their rights under the Civil Aviation Act.

The Commission announced it has decided to prosecute Jetstar. Since then, the airline has issued a public apology for letting customers down. It is also encouraging anyone who feels they haven’t received adequate compensation for a flight disruption to contact the airline.

Although Jetstar isn’t perfect, it feels like it’s trying to lift its game. While it keeps its fares reasonable and gets me to where I need to be, it will continue to have my support.