Dear Sir/Madam I would just like to say how disappointed I am in the customer service we received in December 2017. It started off being the trip of a lifetime. We had saved very hard and so had our adult children to fly to America for 6 weeks. We managed to fly business class and the kids who paid for their own tickets flew premium economy. Two days into our holiday we were informed my father in law had approx 48 hours to live. This was unexpected and my husband flew home almost immediately. He made it back to see his father and say his farewells. The 2 kids and I followed a few days later. Flights were over the Xmas period. When we departed our grandfather/ father in law was still clinging to life. We had a marathon journey. We flew from New Jersey to Los Angeles and then boarded another flight to Auckland and from there we had to travel to Melbourne to finally get on board to fly back to Perth. There were a few dramas and delays on the way. When we got to Melbourne I was informed there was no premium economy on the flight we were to take ( bear in mind we had been travelling over 36 hours by this stage non stop). I asked if I could pay for an upgrade at the counter and was told it had to be done in the business class lounge. I got to the lounge. They allowed the kids to enter with me. I was then informed they couldn't do it as it was an air New Zealand issue. They did give me a number to call which I did and was informed it wasn't an air New Zealand issue. I was told to check in again and pay for it at check in. I had 20 mins at this stage before boarding and check in was such a distance away I would not have made the flight. I called my husband at this time who was also unable to help. My father in law was still clinging to life. Everyone was passing the buck. I couldn't get the kids into business class (even though I wanted to pay). We were absolutely exhausted and on the verge of tears ( I was actually crying at this point). We boarded the flight and the kids got crammed into the back of a full ecomony class and I sat in an empty business class with 3 other passengers who were disgusted with our treatment after I told them our story. Holiday of a lifetime totally destroyed as well as having to eventually deal with the death of a beloved family member. To top it off friends who did a similar trip and only flew premium economy with their 2 younger kids got bumped up to business class for their full flight home from the US.