"Greedy" Disney under fire as it hoists ticket prices

How much would you expect to pay for a ticket at Disneyland in California?

If you pick the wrong day to visit Anaheim then you could now pay up to $194 (that's around $308 in Australian dollars).

Walt Disney Co this week announced it was raising some theme-park ticket prices for Disneyland by up to 8.9%, with the price per ticket on busy days such as holidays increasing to $194.

There is, however, some good news: there was no price increase for a single-day, one-park ticket on what Disneyland calls its Tier 0 days (which are days with traditionally lowest attendances).

That price remains at $104 - which is still $165 in Australian pesos, making the minimum cost for a family of four well over $600.

Not surprisingly, the price increases - 12 months after a previous price hike - provoked criticism of the Happiest Place of the Earth being dubbed The Greediest Place on Earth.

Robert Niles, editor and founder of website Theme Park Insider, told the Washington Post that some park-goers may be incensed.

“Some Disneyland fans and visitors will decide this latest increase is the last straw for them, and frankly, I think that Disney is planning on that,” he said.

“The parks are filled in California, and Disney needs some way to thin the crowd without leaving fans frustrated with an inability to book scarce reservation slots.”

How hospitable of them. 

It just became a lot easier to snag seats on flights to Japan

Good news for Australians wanting to take a holiday in Japan. 

All Nippon Airways (ANA) has lifted its number of flights between Australia and Japan and will extend its Sydney day-time flights to daily frequencies from March. 

That lift is in addition to the Japanese carrier’s daily night-time departures, bringing it up to double daily services between Sydney and Tokyo, Travel Daily reported. 

ANA is set to increase the Tokyo Haneda--Sydney route from seven to 10 flights a week starting from January 22, before increasing services to 14 weekly from March 26 for the northern summer 2023 season.

The airline also confirmed it will restart services between Perth and Tokyo Narita from late October for the northern winter 2023-24 season, with three flights per week. 

ANA regional manager Brett Walsh said the start of sales of Perth-Tokyo sales will be announced soon. 

Passengers slam Air New Zealand for intransigence on refunds

Air New Zealand is under fire from passengers after passengers booked on cancelled flights to Norfolk Island were told they were not entitled to a refund.

Air New Zealand temporarily cancelled all flights from Australia to Norfolk Island to weeks ago after the Australian government suspended quarantine-free flights from New Zealand to Australia (these have since been reinstated).

Due to the changed border restrictions, Air New Zealand said its crew would have been unable to operate the Australian domestic flights without first undergoing 14 days of hotel quarantine.

This left hundreds of Australians stranded and prompted Qantas to operate five rescue flights between Brisbane, Sydney and New Norfolk last week, 

Members hit the Australian Frequent Fyer (AFF) notice board to complain about Air New Zealand's high-handedness. Air NZ was the most-complained-about company in Aotearoa last year.

An Air New Zealand spokesperson confirmed to AFF that customers booked to Norfolk Island were orginally offered either a travel credit or to change their travel dates, but that the airline has since decided to offer refunds to passengers booked on the cancelled Norfolk Island services as a “gesture of goodwill”.

This is a good outcome for those affected passengers but Air New Zealand maintains that it is not legally required to refund passengers where a flight is cancelled for reasons outside the airline’s control.

The airline argues that events such as the recent Norfolk Island cancellations are due to Covid-19-related restrictions, and are therefore beyond their control.

Since last year, this policy has left many tens of thousands of Air New Zealand customers with cancelled flight bookings unable to access refunds. Many of these customers have instead been issued with flight credits that will expire by the end of this year.

According to section 15.5 of Air New Zealand’s conditions of carriage, the airline is entitled to issue a credit instead of a refund under some circumstances.

Air New Zealand's website says that passengers can “book with confidence”, as the airline is waiving change fees or offering credit vouchers for any flights booked until March 31. But that doesn’t guarantee a refund.

Unlike Air New Zealand, Qantas’ policy is to offer refunds for any flights cancelled by the airline, industry expert AFF reports.