Kiwis booked on flight home the day after semi-final

[UTK]

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/300734118/world-cup-organisers-book-kiwis-on-flight-home-the-day-after-semifinal-against-kangaroos

Same story as the Australian-based Irish by the looks of it, claims the organisers have predicted everyone's finishing positions pre-tournament and have had to fork up an extra 10k after Samoa upset Tonga in the QF.

[Dirkgee]

4 minutes ago, UTK said:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/300734118/world-cup-organisers-book-kiwis-on-flight-home-the-day-after-semifinal-against-kangaroos

Same story as the Australian-based Irish by the looks of it, claims the organisers have predicted everyone's finishing positions pre-tournament and have had to fork up an extra 10k after Samoa upset Tonga in the QF.

Maybe the organisers are trying to jinx the Kangaroos. Might as well give it a shot

[JohnM]

Presumably it doesn't mention they've also been booked on flights after the final, too. It's called keeping your options open.

[Whippet13]

All good if it helps fire up the Kiwis for Friday night.

[Man of Kent]

54 minutes ago, Whippet13 said:

All good if it helps fire up the Kiwis for Friday night.

'If' (!)

[Guest]

You never know - if might be called a flexible ticket.

 

i don't think they booked Greece flights till after the final either.

[dkw]

So the organisers have planned ahead and provisionally booked flights for teams, oh my god that's terrible, what are they playing at etc. etc...blah blah....

[Spidey]

Hopefully they’ll just transfer the seats to the Aussies if everything goes well

[Davo5]

10 minutes ago, dkw said:

So the organisers have planned ahead and provisionally booked flights for teams, oh my god that's terrible, what are they playing at etc. etc...blah blah....

Yeah because booking 30+ people & equipment on a flight to the other side of the world is so straight forward & easy.

[RP London]

10 minutes ago, Spidey said:

Hopefully they’ll just transfer the seats to the Aussies if everything goes well

hopefully its a flight to aukland and the aussies have to make their own way from there.. 

[RP London]

1 minute ago, Davo5 said:

Yeah because booking 30+ people & equipment on a flight to the other side of the world is so straight forward & easy.

with 1 days notice it probably isnt that easy.. i'm pretty sure England Football charter a flight but i would expect they have one scheduled for the day after every knock out stage of this world cup.

[Guest]

I'm sure the losing side would be choking to hang around in Leeds for another week after a long season and tournament.

[iffleyox]

5 minutes ago, RP London said:

with 1 days notice it probably isnt that easy.. i'm pretty sure England Football charter a flight but i would expect they have one scheduled for the day after every knock out stage of this world cup.

quite - it's all very well that it looks like the organisers have decided 'you're going home then', but far more likely that they have to cover the options - if they *are* suddenly going home then they're quite likely to want to get on a plane, and it's not a case of just whistling one up.

Really don't think there's anything to see here. Apart from a plane, if you like that sort of thing.

[Copa]

It’s worse if they lose and they haven’t booked flights as they might take a while to find space on another flight so quickly.

[Ragingbull]

1 hour ago, JohnM said:

Presumably it doesn't mention they've also been booked on flights after the final, too. It's called keeping your options open.

Don't you be coming on here and letting facts get in the way of a good story!  

[David Shepherd]

Not sure why this is news.  The logistics of getting a group like that half way around the world are a bit more complicated than booking a week in Benidorm for you and the Mrs on jet2.com.

It'll be an open ticket too, so they'll be able to change it in about 90 seconds.

[Sports Prophet]

This is a travesty.

If NZ win, they can’t be expected to fly all the way home, then back to England again in time for the final. They would stand no chance and the sport would be mocked!

What the hell are the organisers playing at! Forget appointing neutral referees, we need neutral organisers!

[gingerjon]

1 hour ago, dkw said:

So the organisers have planned ahead and provisionally booked flights for teams, oh my god that's terrible, what are they playing at etc. etc...blah blah....

They seem to be playing at doing things really badly if, as is claimed on this thread, it's open, flexible tickets and, yet, if the report is true, it's £200 per ticket to change the flight.

Maybe they are just not very good at things.

[Sports Prophet]

11 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

They seem to be playing at doing things really badly if, as is claimed on this thread, it's open, flexible tickets and, yet, if the report is true, it's £200 per ticket to change the flight.

Maybe they are just not very good at things.

£200 change per person… to book individual tickets after a team was knocked out would cost much, much, much more than that wouldn’t it?

Just a nothing story as far as I am concerned.

Edited November 8, 2022 by Sports Prophet

[gingerjon]

3 minutes ago, Sports Prophet said:

£200 change per person… to book individual tickets after a team was knocked out would cost much, much, much more than that wouldn’t it?

Just a nothing story as far as I am concerned.

The downplaying suggestion is that surely they've just booked an easy, sortable, open, flexible ticket. Except they haven't - if the report is true. Hence the fees.

No, it's not a major story.

But it does seem to be another example of something that could have been done better being done worse.

Whilst some RL fans rush to say it's all fine and what should we expect.

[Sports Prophet]

4 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

The downplaying suggestion is that surely they've just booked an easy, sortable, open, flexible ticket. Except they haven't - if the report is true. Hence the fees.

No, it's not a major story.

But it does seem to be another example of something that could have been done better being done worse.

Whilst some RL fans rush to say it's all fine and what should we expect.

I would have expected booking 30 flexible tickets would be more than £200 a head as well wouldn’t it?

I hazard a guess, the organisers have avoided extortionate up front costs by estimating the knock out of each nation, or avoided prohibitive costs by booking after teams were knocked out.

[JohnM]

Maybe the story is not actually true.

[gingerjon]

Just now, Sports Prophet said:

I would have expected booking 30 flexible tickets would be more than £200 a head as well wouldn’t it?

No idea. Not a travel agent.

Actually *cogs whirring* did we even get a travel logistics partner for this tournament?

[Sports Prophet]

6 minutes ago, JohnM said:

Maybe the story is not actually true.

Please John, all you are doing is fueling this distrust and unhealthy paranoia of the media. 

If we can’t trust the ever credible journalists of “Stuff NZ” media short for “Stuffed if I Know”, then who can we trust?

[St Reatham]

If it was “”planning ahead”, why haven’t the Aussie team been booked on flights after the SF too?