The program, conducted in Australia and New Zealand via the sites travelfree.com.au and travelfree.co.nz, saw two competition winners each day awarded free domestic flights with Ansett and Air New Zealand.
Since Ansett fell into the hands of administrators last week, Air New Zealand would only donate tickets to winners who chose to fly on existing Air New Zealand routes, travel.com.au CEO David Tonkin said.
Contrary to the initial conditions of the arrangement, travel.com.au would be forced to pay for tickets awarded to winners who wanted to fly on all routes not serviced by Air New Zealand, he said.
For winners wishing to fly on those other domestic routes, travel.com.au would purchase tickets from rival airline Virgin Blue, Tonkin said.
He said travel.com.au expected to pin down another domestic carrier to sponsor the promotion within two weeks.
It's a small cost to us in the meantime, in the low thousands," he said.
When the Travelfree promotion was launched earlier this year, travel.com.au issued a statement that said the prizes were -made possible through strategic business alliances with well established partners."
Currently, a message on the Travelfree Web site reads: -These are interim arrangements and are subject to further change and modification."
