Booking terms and conditions
These are the terms on which KiwiFlights NZ Limited sells you an airline ticket. They apply every time you book with us, whether online or through a consultant. Please read section 2 in particular — it explains that we act as your agent, and what that means when something goes wrong.
On this page
01Who you are contracting with
In this document "we", "us" and "KiwiFlights" mean KiwiFlights NZ Limited (NZBN 9429 0512 8874), of Unit 205, 26 Morningside Drive, Morningside, Auckland, 1025, NZ. "You" means the person making the booking and every traveller named on it.
By making a booking you confirm that you are at least 18 years old, that you have the authority to accept these terms on behalf of everyone travelling on the booking, and that all the information you have given us is accurate.
How your booking is protected
We are registered with IATA's Travel Industry Designator Service (TIDS), which identifies us in airline bookings. TIDS is not a bonding or financial-protection scheme, and New Zealand does not operate a statutory travel compensation fund. Your ticket is issued by the airline into its own system in your name, so it exists independently of us. Paying by credit card gives you chargeback rights with your card issuer, and we strongly recommend comprehensive travel insurance for anything money cannot otherwise recover.
02We act as your agent, not as the carrier
This is the most important term in this document.
We sell you a contract of carriage between you and the airline. We are not the airline, we do not operate any aircraft, and we do not become a party to that contract. Our role is to advise you, find and hold the fare, issue the ticket, and act for you in dealing with the airline.
Once your ticket is issued, the airline's own conditions of carriage and fare rules govern the flight itself — schedules, delays, cancellations, denied boarding, baggage, and the airline's liability to you. Those conditions are available from the airline and we will provide a copy on request.
What we are responsible for
We are responsible for the services we provide: giving you accurate information, booking what you asked for, issuing the correct ticket, and handling your money properly. Where we get that wrong, we are liable for it, and nothing in these terms limits that.
We are not responsible for the acts or omissions of an airline or other supplier that we did not cause and could not reasonably control.
03Prices, currency and what is included
All prices are quoted in NZD and include airfare, all taxes, airport charges, carrier-imposed surcharges and 15% GST where it applies. The total shown to you at the earliest stage of the booking is the total you will pay for the items selected at that point.
Optional extras that you add — seat selection in cabins that charge for it, additional baggage, travel insurance, lounge passes — are shown separately with their own price, and the running total updates as you add them.
Our service fee is included in the total shown to you — it is not added at the final step, and it is never a surprise. The all-inclusive price you see at the start of the booking already contains it. Where a consultant-arranged itinerary attracts an additional professional fee (complex multi-city routings, group travel, or research on a trip you do not proceed with) that fee is agreed with you in writing before any work begins.
Card payments
We do not apply a surcharge to payments made by debit or credit card. Where a payment method genuinely costs us more to accept, any charge would be disclosed as a separate line before you pay, never absorbed into the fare or added at the final step.
Price changes before ticketing
Airfares are live inventory. A fare is not secured until the ticket is issued and payment has cleared. Between you selecting a fare and us issuing it, the airline may withdraw or reprice it.
If that happens we will contact you before charging you, tell you the new price, and give you the choice of accepting it or receiving a full refund of everything you have paid. We will never charge you more than the price you agreed without your express consent.
After ticketing, the price is fixed. Airlines cannot and will not repossess a validly issued ticket because the fare has moved.
04Fare quotes and how long they hold
When a consultant sends you a written quote it will state a hold date. Until that date and time, the price quoted is the price you will pay if you accept.
A hold is a commercial commitment from us, not a reservation with the airline, unless the quote says a seat has been physically held. If it does say that, the airline's own ticketing deadline applies and is stated on the quote.
After the hold expires we will re-check availability. Prices may be higher, lower or unchanged. There is no cost or obligation in letting a quote lapse.
Quotes are given on the basis of the information you provide. If the passenger count, dates, names or cabin change, the quote no longer applies and we will re-quote.
05Passenger names, passports and documents
Names must match your passport exactly
Airline tickets are issued in the name on your passport. A misspelled name can require the ticket to be reissued at your cost, or can be refused at check-in outright. Check the spelling on your confirmation the moment you receive it and tell us within 24 hours if anything is wrong.
You are responsible for holding valid passports, visas, transit permits, and any health documentation required by every country you travel to, through, or over on your itinerary. This includes countries where you only make a connection.
We will tell you what we know about the requirements for your itinerary, and we take that duty seriously. But requirements change without notice and are ultimately a matter between you and the relevant government. We cannot check or guarantee them on your behalf.
Current New Zealand Government travel advice is published at safetravel.govt.nz. We recommend you read it for every destination and register your trip.
Where you are refused boarding or entry because a document is missing or invalid, the fare is not refundable by us and generally not by the airline.
06Changes, cancellations and refunds
The airline's fare rules decide what can be changed or refunded, and at what cost. Those rules are shown to you before you pay, and are recorded on your confirmation exactly as they stood on the day you booked.
Full detail is set out in our Cancellations, changes and refunds policy, which forms part of these terms.
A "non-refundable" fare is not the whole story
The Consumer Guarantees Act gives you rights that operate alongside the fare rules and cannot be contracted out of where you are acquiring the travel for personal use. Where a flight is cancelled, or a service is not supplied with reasonable care and skill, "non-refundable" in the fare conditions does not by itself extinguish your entitlement to a remedy.
Tell us what happened and we will pursue it with the airline for you at no charge.
07Travel insurance
We strongly recommend comprehensive travel insurance, taken out on the day you pay your deposit rather than close to departure. Cancellation cover generally only responds to events that occur after the policy starts.
A premium cabin fare is a large sum of money exposed to illness, family emergency and airline failure. Neither your card issuer's chargeback rights nor the Consumer Guarantees Act substitutes for insurance, and none of them cover you changing your mind.
If you decline insurance we will record that you were offered it. Any policy you buy is a contract between you and the insurer; we are not the insurer and do not advise on the adequacy of cover for your circumstances.
08Our liability
Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies any right or remedy you have under Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 and Fair Trading Act 1986 that cannot lawfully be excluded, restricted or modified. Any term that purports to do so has no effect to that extent.
Subject to that, and to the extent the law permits:
- we are liable for loss you suffer that is caused by our own negligence, error or breach of these terms;
- we are not liable for the acts or omissions of an airline, hotel, insurer or other independent supplier, whose services are provided under their own terms;
- we are not liable for loss that was not reasonably foreseeable, or for loss of profits or business opportunity where the travel was booked for personal purposes;
- where we are liable and the law permits a cap, our liability is limited to resupplying the service or paying the cost of having it resupplied.
Airline liability for death, injury, delay and baggage on international carriage is governed and limited by the Montreal Convention 1999 as given effect by the Carriage by Air Act 1967. Those limits apply to the airline regardless of anything in these terms.
09Privacy
We collect and handle your personal information in accordance with Privacy Act 2020 and the Information Privacy Principles, and in accordance with our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these terms.
Booking a flight necessarily involves disclosing your personal information — including passport details — to airlines, to global distribution systems, and to border authorities in the countries you travel to and through. Many of those recipients are overseas and are subject to foreign law. By booking, you consent to those disclosures. They cannot be avoided if you wish to fly.
10Complaints
If something goes wrong we want to hear about it first, and we have a published process for handling it: see Complaints and dispute resolution.
If we cannot resolve your complaint you may escalate it to the Citizens Advice Bureau, to the Commerce Commission New Zealand, or to the Disputes Tribunal.
11Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of New Zealand. You and we submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of New Zealand.
Submitting to that jurisdiction does not deprive you of the protection of any mandatory consumer law of the place where you ordinarily live.
If any term is found to be unenforceable, it is severed and the rest continue to apply. Terms in a standard form consumer contract that are unfair may be declared so under the Fair Trading Act 1986. We review these terms against that regime.
§Contacting us about this document
KiwiFlights NZ Limited · NZBN 9429 0512 8874
Unit 205, 26 Morningside Drive, Morningside, Auckland, 1025, NZ.
support@kiwiflights.co.nz · +64-800-700-093 (within New Zealand) · +64-800-700-093 (international)
This page describes the New Zealand trading entity. If you booked in the other market, switch the jurisdiction above — the contracting entity, currency and governing law are different.
Something trickier than a return flight?
Multi-city trips, groups of nine or more, flying home from a different city, or dates that need to move — a search box gives up here, a person doesn’t. Ask us to price it. It costs nothing and usually comes back cheaper.
We’ll watch the fare for you
The best seats sell 3–6 months ahead, not in a last-minute sale. Leave your email and we’ll tell you when a good fare opens up on your route.