My 2c worth The OP just wandered off and booked themselves onto another flight, lines were to long for then to wait for NZ to do the same, yet they expect NZ to foot the bill. Sorry i dont agree, if you cannot allow a business time to fix an issue and resolve it in a timely manner ( and 45 minutes would not be nearly enough time to fix this up ) then you must be responsible for your own actions ie pay your own way on this occasion.
From how I understand the OP's version of events - they later/subsequently found out that the diverted pax ended up staying in MEL overnight at Air New Zealand's cost and were put onto flight(s) the next day, not sure if original aircraft or crew flew the next morning or if re-accommodated on other domestic carriers and flights. We would just be guessing about when the other pax found out about this, whether urgent paxs were offered other options/alternatives or not, and how long it took for this decision to be made.
Further to this, was the OPs real reason for taking off and buying a ticket so quickly actually just to Que jump and ensure they got a seat before anyone else?
That's an interesting question. Some would argue that given the OP's necessity to be in SYD that this was smart thinking, depends on the urgency of getting to SYD and the amount of pfaffing about that NZ put other pax through would be a consideration. In this case - obviously the urgency of the need to return to SYD trumped the potential loss of the last minute walk-up cost of the VA flight from MEL-SYD, so the OP did that and now it has we have the issue as to what, if any, compensation is fair or reasonable.
So if most people agree that despite the weather diversion being outside NZ's control, they did have an obligation to reacomodate/adjust their operations or make alternative arrangements to get the pax to their desired destination in a reasonable amount of time.
I would think that if airlines were obliged to compensate disrupted/delayed passengers in line with the last minute 'walk up' airfares of booking an alternative carrier to the intended destinations then I would be betting airlines response to delays and disruptions/diversions would get a whole lot quicker, efficient and more effective that they sometimes are now.
Sort of goes to the issue raised in several different threads like this that sure - air transport is subject to unexpected random things like mechanical breakdowns, weather, diversions, aircraft substitutions, delays etc etc plus all the self inflicted ones such as strikes/industrial disputes, dumb gate allocations, baggage and other ground delays, tight schedules, overselling practises etc etc there seems to be a consistent theme that some airlines don't value the time of their customers very much by not warning pax of foreseeable delays, being very slow and reluctant to reaccomodate pax on other carriers, clinging to strict check-in and cancellation policies and T&Cs and yet write fine print T&Cs along the lines of vague promises to transport the passenger at some point in the future at an unspecified date and time that may be very different to the original purchased ticket and schedule.
But we also have to keep a sense of perspective that unexpected delays and diversions happen every day with nearly every airline with the majority of them sorted out with little or modest inconvenience to the passengers.
Will be interesting to see if any gesture or compensation in the form of $$, vouchers, points or other things come out of it.
