Civis was recently alerted again when a couple planned to fly from Invercargill to Brisbane via Christchurch. They were shocked to discover the Christchurch leg cost more than a Queenstown to Brisbane alternative. No prizes for guessing what they did.
Last year, Consumer NZ published horror reports of soaring prices, even for tickets bought well in advance.
In one example, a Christchurch–Dunedin return trip booked with a five-week lead-in cost $123.60 in 2020. The same flight in 2023 cost $344.
Resentment remains in Invercargill and Dunedin about last year’s cutbacks in services — with engine issues being blamed. Many who periodically travel to Wellington are affected by inconvenient flight schedules.
Air NZ, with 86% of the domestic aviation market, exploits its near monopoly.
Civis noted this week, from the ODT, that Air NZ added 36 extra flights into Dunedin from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch between Monday and February 23.
While that’s impressive, beware of prices if you haven’t already booked.
The cheapest Air New Zealand flight (checking on Thursday morning) from Auckland to Dunedin for next Friday (February 14) was a 6.25am departure at $644 (carry-on only).
Jetstar had one $449 seat left, leaving at 9.25am.
The Jetstar alternative from Auckland is easily overlooked. Civis found it cheaper last year to abandon a "flexichange" fare and fly Jetstar. That was cheaper than the difference between the early and late Air NZ booking prices.
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"They" and "them" meaning one person seems singularly disliked.
Chris Handley emails that the Scrabble Wordlist offers "ze" as an alternative. Chris has also heard "che", "cher" and "chis" for he/she, him/her and his/her respectively.
Chris has a collection of other language peeves with which Civis has some sympathy. There’s "like" instead of "such as", and plural words (usually of Greek or Latin origin) such as fungi or algae.
His irritation with the missing "that" is sometimes debatable, and Chris still prefers to use "whom" according to traditional grammar rules. Civis wonders if "whom" has faded, as has the injunction not to end a sentence in a preposition.
Civis thought twice about using the old-fashioned "with which" two paragraphs back. "Which Civis has some sympathy with" sounds more natural.
Chris will not be alone in being exasperated by the incidence of "incidence" when meaning "incidents". Ben Liley regrets we went from two titles for women to three when "Ms" emerged, prompting even more confusion as to which title someone might prefer. He is pleased we can now safely use Ms without the risk of offence.
He would have liked us to have moved to a single gender-neutral title when you don’t know the addressee.
Ben notes it can be difficult to infer gender with many names, even given in full.
"We have instead slipped into what once seemed rude, or at the very least disrespectful — to address someone you have never met by first name. The presumption is especially offensive to those of us who go by a name other than the first."
Ben suggests we more often adopt "kia ora" as a greeting that doesn’t need a name to follow it.
He’s another who dislikes the ambiguity of "they" or "them" in the singular. Again, he finds an answer in te reo.
The pronoun "ia" means he or she as well as him or her. Very handy.
Part of the magic of languages is that they embody different ways of thinking. While Civis doesn’t pretend to comprehend the interesting ways of Māori pronouns, the gender-neutral tona and tana for his/her change according to a respectful or casual/neutral context. There are also changes for plural possession, plus special cases.
Te reo solutions would struggle to gain traction across the wider world. Any alternatives to they/them would also need to be embraced first from the Māori world and/or LGBTQIA+ communities.
