Megan Singleton: BloggerAtLarge.com writer with her travel hacks for dealing with delayed or cancelled flights

Megan recently tried to fly to Hawke's Bay, but her travel plans ground to a halt after rolling sea fog stopped the flight in its tracks.

Air New Zealand requested that the passengers line up and get booked on new flights, but Megan checked on her Air NZ app and found a way forward - on a flight that left later that day.

She revealed her latest travel hack - so everyone else could be prepared.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks atb Travel with Wendy Woo tours Where
the world is yours for now?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Megan Singleton, good morning, good morning. Right you had a
bit of a hiccup at the airport with a bit
of fog this week?

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yes, I did, so, I flew down It was actually
last week. People might remember if they're from the bay.
I flew down to Hawk's Bay. Well at least that's
what I tried to do from Auckland and there was
this rolling sea fog. It was quite apparently quite a
strange day. So we circled and circled late toldport and
the captain said, you know, we're not going to be

(00:48):
able to do this much longer. We might run out
of petrol. So we kept circlar and we're like, he says,
we've got five minutes before we're going to have to
make the call, and we're all on board, going please please.
When I had dinner at Craigie Range to get to
any who, no, we had to make the call. We
came back to Auckland, so everyone's like, you know, heads

(01:09):
to the back of their seats, so we come back
to Auckland. And then basically we're just told, all right,
everyone made their way in to collect your luggage, back
off the carousel, line up at desk one in the
check in area, and you'll be rebooked on other flights.
And meanwhile, so here's here's my hack for listeners. Meanwhile

(01:30):
everyone's getting on their phones staying to their friends and family. Sorry,
we're not making it, La la la, We're back in Auckland.
I sent my mother a quick text and said back
in Auckland, be in touch. In a second, I jumped
onto my Air New Zealand app and I found that
they had booked me for six point thirty the next morning.
That wasn't gonna work for Greggie Range, was it? So

(01:50):
this is my hack. I jumped into the Air New
Zealand Help and Support area on my app that opens
an AI chat bot called Oscar. So I requested chat
with a human. So I got a human and I
said to Andy, I said, is there any chance of
getting me on a flight later today? And they said, yep,

(02:13):
once just come up at five point fifty pm. Do
you want it? We haven't even taxi to the terminal,
yet I'm saying, yes, please go get that one booked
me on that. I was rebooked, And meanwhile, down at
Desk one, they were fifty people deep trying to get rebooks.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Of fact, you went to the chet oscar, the chat
box came up, you requested to drip someone in particular,
but you were still talking to Andy via the chat box.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
By the chat is texting texting, so Andy Andy was
real and Andy Andrea. Andrea could see that there was
a flight that came available, and she just quickly booked
me on it as soon as I said yes, So
by the time I even got off the plane, I
knew i'd be down there that same day. I still
went to Desk one, like really up to the Actually

(02:55):
I shouldn't have, because those people were desperate just to
see if I could get on a wait list for
it earlier. But absolutely there was no way. But you
know the galling thing, of course, is that why like
Mom texted and said, oh, FOG's gone now, why couldn't
we just refuel, turn around, get everyone down there. The
crew needed to be positioned down there anyway and just
arrive an hour late.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
But no, it doesn't work like that and obviously Topoor
has an airport, but it's not big enough to land there.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
And well, I don't know, maybe it was the year,
wait for how long, the refueling, who knows what pilavas
that could have been. But yeah, that would have been ideal.
We kind of all hoped for that, and you know,
you could even get a bus from there. But I
suppose the logistics of organizing everybody up from there, yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yeah, okay, so much. But you mentioned that when you
when you landed and you went into your you had
they had actually already rebooked you on a flight those
So that's at least that was quite proactive. So everybody
on that plane, when they knew that it wasn't going
to land today, somebody had gone, let's rebook these people.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
Now.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
Now I don't know if that's everybody, okay, because otherwise
why would they be lining up at a desk one
and look, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
Maybe they were feeling a little uppity Meghan and wanted
an earlier flight.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
No, they didn't know what I'd done it.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
I didn't breathe a word. So I've just thought of
busted my chance of ever doing this again.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
But that's really good advice, because I think we get
a bit lazy with the chatbotch and things and I think, oh,
there's no point doing that. I'm not gonna get to
talk to someone that's not going to solve my problem.
But clearly it is. And good on Andrea, because I
tell you, what, if you've had dinner or lunch at
Craigie Range, that is not something you want to miss.
That is quite spectacular that restaurant. So I'm glad you
made it, Meghan, Thank you so much. Of course you

(04:38):
can read more from Meghan at blogger at large dot com.
My favorite, very quickly, my favorite the travel story of
the week was there was a social media post about
a gentleman who owns a large warehouse building near Sydney
Airport and he wrote on with massive letters on the roof,
welcome to Perth. And apparently it's been causing quite a
bit of distressed airline passengers flying over her looking down

(05:00):
thinking holly moldly, I'm in the complete wrong coast. Anyway,
blessed the Aussies and the sense of humor.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to news Talks A B from nine am Sunday,
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