Air Niugini

Not Verified | Port Moresby to Hong Kong in December 2019. I was overweight on luggage. But the airport treatment I got, was traumatic. The power was off. The internet was off. I either had to pay $800 or leave my bag behind. I wanted to pay the fine, but the power was off for hours. I could not change currency. I could not pay the customs, because they could not give me a receipt. I almost missed my flight.

Not Verified | My itinerary was Manila - Port Moresby - Honiara - Port Vila - Fiji (plus some domestic). Several flight was with Air Niugini First they cancel my flight from POM-HON, which they of course never told me anything about. After today I realised that I shouldn't even have expect that. I then after that realised that I would have to stay 2 weeks in PNG to be allowed to go to Honiara after visiting the Phillipines because of the coronavirus. My next plan is to book a flight direct to Vanuatu. The flight is listed as direct but at the last step I notice a 50 min stop in Honiara for dropping of / unloading passengers. (No disembarking.) I decided to contact air niugini just to make sure this wouldn't become problem. 9-10 days later I still dont have a answer after emailing with 5 people via 8 different emails in 3 different countries. And yes, of we tried to call but never a clear answer. One even said we would be fine but another one said not possible. When checking in at Manila airport for the POM flight I'm almost denied boarding since my onward ticket is cancelled and I couldn't book my next flight because I never received an answer about transit rules. When arriving in POM I ask the Air Niugini office (they are actually friendly when explaining that they cant help you with anything.) They printed loads of the IATA travel restrictions rules that I already have on my phone and I was explaining them about. They said I would not be allowed to have any kind of transit in Honiara. (The Virus is a new thing so that most likely the reason we received so many different answers and no answers from most of them. Then I decide to just skip them both and go to Fiji. I have to choose the more expensive option to stop over in Brisbane. With Carry on 7kg I dont need any tra sit visa since I'm not leaving international gate. My backpack is 9kg. Checking it in (free) results in leaving international gate for re checking since they dint ha e sharevmcode with the next flight and this would result in me having to get a transit visa that obviously would take 8-12 days according to my application. I then asked the counter during one of my domestic flights if they could be so kind to let me go with 9kg and the entire problem would be solved and the guy said ofc, after all this trouble that should not be any problem. Just go over to the sales counter and get it confirmed. Nope, big no. Of course I couldn't bring a 9kg carry on. So now I'm stuck here forced to throw away 2kg of personal stuff to be able to get out of here. I recommend to pay a bit more for another airline.

Not Verified | What a joke, i had just arrived from Perth via Brisbane to land in Port Moresby for my connection to Rabaul. When i arrived in Port Moresby i proceeded from the international terminal to the domestic to check in for my next flight to find out i had been bumped onto the flight tomorrow due to the plane being downsized from the Fokker 100 to a Dash 8. They were not willing to compensate my accommodation costs for a night in Port Moresby, even though they have now just cost me my transfer and first nights accommodation in Rabaul. So demanded to be placed on standby for the flight in case nobody showed up on the flight. The check in staff had the worst attitude i have ever come across in aviation. I got lucky and was able to board the flight for it then be diverted to Hoskins, we then had to wait at Hoskins for Air Nugini to organise accomodation for our flight, this took them nearly 2 hours. I wont fly this airline again unless absolutely required.

Not Verified | Fly from Brisbane to Port Moresby with Air Nuigini in Economy class today. Leg room in economy was a pleasant surprise! Food was first class. Cabin crew were very friendly & helpful. Let's be honest, no-one really likes flying economy, but it's so much cheaper than Business Class! But over all, I thought the trip was excellent! The only 2 negatives I have are: 1: Only 3 check in staff to book in a plane load of people. (There were 2 customer service staff working, well one was working & the other was surfing the web) 2: Excess baggage charges. You get a 30kg limit in Economy, but if you go over that they charge $21.00 per kilo.

✅ Trip Verified | So we first had some trouble as the airline told us that we wouldn't be able to get our original flight but after some over the phone conversations with a very helpful woman in the Air Niugini base in Cairns we were able to get on another flight which was a day earlier. We were desperate to make it to Honiara so we agreed to taking this flight although it meant staying overnight in Port Moresby before going to Honiara on the original second leg of the journey the next day. We arrived in Port Moresby a bit confused and unsure as the what was going to happen, luckily we met a lovely woman who works for the Air Niugini airport team in Port Moresby airport. She was incredibly helpful, she sorted out our free overnight accommodation in the holiday inn which included two free meals and a very nice room and also shuttles to and from the airport. She helped us get out some money and advised us on how much we would need. She even helped us see the town because we wanted to have a look to see what was there so her friend showed us round in her car. Thank you! The flights were very nice with TV's and food and drink served on a flight as short as two hours. This was a plus but was unfortunate that we were delayed on the way there and that our flight got cancelled on the return journey.

Not Verified | I was so looking forward to traveling with Air Niugini and not having to transit via Australia to get to the Philippines from Vanuatu. Unfortunately it turned out to be the worst airline travel experience to date. First our flight was cancelled after sitting at the boarding gate for 2hrs with no info other than 'there is an indefinite delay'. Then the flight was rescheduled for the next day, no info on our connecting flight was given until we arrived in Port Moresby from Vanuatu. The flight from Port Vila to Port Moresby was on a very old looking ATR aircraft, with no entertainment. Aircon was turned off for the 30 minute stopover in Honiara. Promises made by the Air Niugini ground staff to rebook my connecting domestic flights in the Philippines were not honoured and I was only advised of this after the scheduled domestic flights were missed, and only 5 minutes before boarding to Manila. No compensation was offered for the missed domestic flights or even an apology for providing the wrong information. Our baggage was then lost on arrival in Manila. 23 days later, there is still no sign of it and no compensation for lost bag to date. No response recieved to complaint email sent via website. Also no answer on phone numbers listed on website. Another complaint sent via agent in Vanuatu and response was simply 'fill out a form about your baggage' and 'our contract of carriage was only for Port Vila to Manila, no interline agreement'. So why did the staff advise otherwise? After losing baggage, buying new clothes and domestic flights (approx. $500), we requested an upgrade on return flight to have some positive experience with Air Niugini to look forward to. There was no response to this and the request at check in was rejected despite half of business class being empty. The airline also rejected the carriage of my traditional lanterns because Air Niugini exceptionally does not accept the carriage of any items that contain lights that aren't LED lights (I've successfully brought these lanterns in to Australia, USA, Vanuatu - never a problem). I requested they hold them until relatives could collect them the next day and was advised no storage space was available. After spending half a day driving to purchase them, I had to throw them away at the airport (another $100 lost). Air Niugini, you were such an epic disappointment and your poor service ruined our vacation. I understand flights occasionally get cancelled, baggage sometimes gets lost but your responses to customer issues relating to these things were inconsistent, incorrect or inadequate. In the future, I will avoid Air Niugini unless there are really no other options available. Don'tempted by their cheap prices! Like me, you could end up paying more than the cost of flying with a decent airline and have the added frustration and stress of having to deal with an airline that has no interest in resolving customer issues when at fault.

✅ Trip Verified | The outbound journey was delayed 10 hours in Port Moresby. The delayed flight was organised to leave at 2am, however no ground staff at airport were organised, so we sit on tarmac until ground staff arrive at 5am. The return flight from Pohpei was supposed to leave Pohnpei at 2 am and actually left 9.45am. I turned up to airport at 2 am and found out the flight was rescheduled to 9.45am. I contacted AirNuigini twice via email prior to departure to confirm that no changes had been made. I received an email saying that your servers were not working. I was not contacted about this change, but others on the flight all new about this change a week before, as they had booked flights only a week earlier. Therefore, you new about the changes a week earlier, did not advise me or even book me on the forward leg of the journey. The flight leaves Pohnpei at 9.45am, but we are not booked on the continuing flight from Port Moresby to Brisbane. This flight leaves half empty, and several passengers are not booked on this flight because Quants reservations are not open on Sunday. People who booked the week earlier are however on the flight. We were then sent to Sydney Airport and a connecting flight arranged to Brisbane. When we land in Sydney, Qantas advise us that Air Nuigini connection to Brisbane is illegal because there is less than an hour between flights. The checkin had closed and there are no more flights that day. We are then stranded at Sydney Airport with no contact available from either Quantas or Airi Nugini. We then go to Flight Centre and are told there is only one flight left to Brisbane at a cost of $800. Some passengers take this option, but I don’t trust the airline to compensate me. So I am stranded with nobody to contact In Sydney at 7pm at night. Luckily some stranger took pity on me and let me sleep on their couch for the night. I contacted your airline in the morning and I was rebooked to Brisbane at 11am with Qantas. Qantas then advised that my 2 bags of 15kg were subject to excess baggage fee of $70. Eventually I got home at 12pm in Brisbane.

✅ Trip Verified | Bali to Madang via Port Moresby. The domestic side of this airline is an absolute joke! I spent 12 hours in the POM airport yesterday after arriving on the red eye from Bali. There was little to no info given and now I am back at the airport at 4am this morning and have been waiting for an hour with no check in line available yet.

✅ Trip Verified | Hoskins to Port Moresby. Waited 2 days for our cancelled flight to be reinstated even then we had to continually ask ground staff what was going on or for information. Eventually told 6 hrs later our plane arriving from POM was experiencing technical issues which was a total fabrication and lies, I received a phone call from a pilot friend who said they didn't have a captain available. I have been flying in PNG for 30 years and this has been the worst experience. By the way PNG Air managed 5 trips into Hoskins in a 10hr period and all their customers are enjoying Christmas with their families. Guess who I'm flying with in future. Way to treat your valued customers.

✅ Verified Review | Singapore to Port Moresby. Given the limited choice available on the market to reach Port Moresby (only Qantas and Air Philippines travel there) I was forced to take Air Niugini. It was a very pleasant surprise. Plane was not too old, cabin was very decent, clean, entertainment somewhat limited but of reasonable quality. Food was ok, plane is almost always empty, which means lots of space also in Economy. Board personnel is not as shiny as you could see on Emirates or Qatar, but kind, gentle and professional. A surprise.