Guide to Groups This Guide to Groups gives you an overview of booking groups of 10 or more passengers on Air New Zealand operated services with hints and tips to make booking your groups easier than ever before. For more information and the booking process for New Zealand interline group bookings, please refer to airnzagent.co.nz/group-sales
Why book my group with Air New Zealand We provide a personalised service where you can pick up the phone and discuss your client s needs with a trained Agency Groups Co-ordinator. We are here to help! The main benefits of booking with Air New Zealand Groups are: The ability to hold space as early as 350 days prior to departure. Receive indicative pricing outside of system range, to allow your client to budget for an upcoming conference or incentive trip. Delay payment until as late as the below (prior to departure). Domestic Tasman/Pacific Longhaul (Air New Zealand operated only) Longhaul (Interline*) 30 days prior 45 days prior 45 days prior 60 days prior Ability to name change up until 5 days prior to departure this is a real benefit when all names are not known at the time of booking, for corporate customers who may have staff member changes or a sports team to allow for injuries and substitutions. Same price across the board for all passengers. *Refer to airnzagent.co.nz/group-sales for more information on interline group bookings. How to get the best price for your group Advise Agency Groups if the group has time/date flexibility or is cost conscious. We may be able to move the group to a larger aircraft or be able to split your group over several flights to bring down the costs. Can the group avoid peak travel times (e.g. school holidays or a special event) and travel at a quieter time? Is the route flexible? e.g. can group fly via another city rather than direct? Let us know the details, pricing and any special T&Cs of any other airline group quotes you have received - the more information we have about your group the better we can assess how we can help you to secure the booking. Negotiate any extra requirements upfront. For example, is an extra 2 pieces of baggage going to secure the business or would a FOC ticket help win the business (e.g. groups of over 50 passengers). How to claim a group PNR Ensure correct IATA number and GDS is advised at time of booking request. If claiming via Galileo, ensure group name matches the Air NZ booking exactly. More information can be found at airnzagent.co.nz/signing-over-entries.
How to request seating SHORTHAUL We have introduced a policy (excluding Domestic) to trial group block seating for the following group types, once the agent has claimed the PNR. Permitted Groups Applicable Fare Type Group Type to select on Booking Form** School Group Young Travellers Group seat+bag** and theworks fares seat+bag** and theworks fares Students Family Group theworks fares only Family As applicable i.e. Sports Team Agent to note Add YTH in Group Name Conference & Incentive Group theworks fares only Incentive or Business/Corporate Min 20 passengers required **We are reliant on you selecting the applicable group type when requesting the booking via our online form LONGHAUL We will request group block seating for all groups with Air NZ international segments, once the agent has claimed the PNR. Points to note: Group block seating SSRs may not be visible in your GDS but can be overriden by requesting individual seat SSR after you add names. This will drop out the group block SSR and put all seats back into the inventory of the segment, so it is important that you divide off passenger(s) who wants individual seats before you request an individual seat SSR (incl. Elite/Gold/Koru members to be on HVC area). Any seating preferences within the group block will need to be requested by the Group Seating Request Form, prior to 72 hours before departure. Our Airport team will try and seat passengers based on your request working off the seat block that is already in place. If you make any change to PNR you may lose group seats held. It is recommended to check with us after you make changes to ensure seat block SSRs are retained. How to request a date change If 10 pax or more are requesting to change, please email Agency Groups. If less than 10 pax wish to amend, you can divide off the relevant number of pax from the group PNR and once a new Air New Zealand reloc has generated, request new flight using the below guidelines: Shorthaul If changing after deposit then you must rebook to the same fare class or higher (same as the group PNR) regardless of current availability. If changing prior to deposit you may change to best available fare on new flight excluding Sale fares and P class. Longhaul New flight must be the same or higher fare level as the main group PNR. How to add names Air New Zealand system can display maximum 28 letters including spaces and title in the tickets. If a passenger name is too long, it is recommended to remove the middle name(s) to enable any EMD to be attached correctly when requested. Passport detail SSR is mandatory for all international group PNRs. You need to add full names including middle names in the SSR.
How to add Frequent Flyer Details FF details must be name related (not sector related). If sector related and divided later, all passenger s FF SSRs will be carried to the divided PNR, which could result in displaying incorrect names on your customer s Air New Zealand mobile app. How to avoid an ADM Diarise to cancel any unwanted seats prior to deposit non-refundable date. Please email groups with Air New Zealand reloc for any seats cancelled after Deposit Guarantee Form (DGF) is sent to us. If you wish to cancel a seat where we are already holding Full Payment Guarantee (FPG) Form on file, please divide off passenger, ticket the PNR and let us know before cancelling the seat. We will need to enter a note into the PNR otherwise you may receive an ADM for loss of deposit on top of the forfeited fare (if the fare is non-refundable). Enter Group Deal Code on all group tickets: this way our auditors will audit against group rules rather than standard published fare rules. If you require a refund on refundable tickets please email Agency Groups with the Air New Zealand reloc before you cancel seats and process refund on GDS. How to tag a PNR (Shorthaul only) Tagging service is offered for Shorthaul bookings only, and for a maximum of 3 PNR s, with a maximum of 4 passengers per PNR. If you have more than 3 additional PNRs these must be requested via Agency Groups, who will create additional group PNR(s). Create a PNR in your GDS and email to Agency Groups with both the main group PNR and the new one. The team will then add in the relevant details and remove the auto cancellation TTL. Tagging cannot be done after ticketing. Tagging cannot be done for any Longhaul bookings. Please request additional PNRs by contacting Agency Groups. How to request a Special Meal Shorthaul Special meals can only be requested after ticketing and must be on a minimum Works fares. Longhaul Special meals from the approved list can be requested at any time, after you add names. No meal requests can be made within 72 hrs of departure or on other carriers. If you request within this time unfortunately your passenger s will not get their SPML. You must request a SPML from the pre-approved list i.e. VGML. If you request anything different we are not able to provide this and your client will not get their SPML request. All CHML and BBML must be requested via your GDS. We are unable to provide this meal unless you request it regardless of SSRCHLD being in the PNR.
How to use the Group Deal Code It is essential that you enter your Group Deal Code into all group booking tickets to avoid ADMs. This code allows our system to identify that the booking is subject to the beneficial group terms and conditions i.e. an extended TTL.The code starts with GRP and is then followed by 6 numbers eg: GRP100000. The Group Deal code is advised by email as follows: Domestic & Shorthaul on the booking confirmation email. Longhaul on the fare advice. The group deal code must be entered into either Endorsement or Tour Code box on all tickets relating to the group booking. If your customer has a corporate contract with Air New Zealand, please ensure you enter both the tour code for corporate discount (in the tour code box) and the Group Deal Code (in the endorsements box). Important information Booking multiple PNRs of 9 passengers on the same journey is not permitted and can lead to PNRs being cancelled without warning. Once a group booking is confirmed do not rebook to a lower class. If you see a sale fare and you can issue the tickets within the sale period, please check with Agency Groups to see whether the group can obtain the fare. The correct procedure must be used when dividing seats/ passengers to ensure an Air New Zealand reloc has been generated. Full details can be found on airnzagent. co.nz/dividing-seats. SSR and remark field messages are commonly used as a means of communication. These messages should be regularly monitored to ensure any appropriate requests are actioned. Contact us If you have any Groups queries, please don t hesitate to contact your friendly Groups Consultant who will be only too happy to help! Email: agencygroups@airnz.co.nz Phone: 09 336 3780 (Auckland Agents) 0800 247 687 (Agents outside Auckland) For further information refer to airnzagent.co.nz/group-sales