Air New Zealand Air Points - Advanced passenger information

Okay, the Esta's have been done for November & BP seats sorted but can anyone tell me if you still have to submit the API prior to flying?
I can't see anything on the ANZ UK website as to where I can do it online.
Can someone point me in the right direction?

I've never given the information to NZ before travel (its not Ryanair or BA trying to save their staff time and effort...) but they appreciate if you have the address and so on written down at check-in at LHR or AKL.

I always thought it was something you had to do prior to flying via the USA & it was their wasy of seeing if there were any undesirables on the flight.
I presume the ESTA has done away with this then?

I think the ESTA pre-clearance is another layer to the same process. Or is it a parallel process?

My understanding is that the address where you will stay/country of residence API data is required by the US authorities before the aircraft reaches US airspace - hence the one or two flights you hear about being turned back somewhere over Greenland when they discover an 'undesirable' on the list. I believe it is also checked against the data you provide on the green visa waiver form (hence the repeated reminders to make sure the addresses match)

Correct indeed. You must provide a US address at check in - I always have my address book in close proximity at check in and just had it over and point to the address I am staying at. Very simple.

Earlier this month I travelled LAX-xHKG-AKL-LAX-LHR on NZ in BP, a trip which I have done several times. A few years ago I became a British Citizen and got a British passport. Since then I have travelled to NZL at least once a year, and each time I have used my UK passport to depart from the UK, and on arrival at AKL I have produced my NZ passport. This avoids having to get into that long queue for non-Kiwis. (Mind you, the NZ passport line is not as exclusive as I would like it to be). I leave Auckland on my NZ passport and then, for the rest of the journey, which includes a night or two in the US, I use my UK passport which means that I can join pleasingly short queues at LHR Terminal 1. And, no arrivals form to be filled in.

On my recent trip, I had applied for, and received instantaneously, an ESTA for my UK passport. All went well until I was leaving AKL. The man at the NZ desk noticed that I didn’t have an ESTA for my NZ passport, and applied for one by email then and there. I explained what I was doing and he said that it’s OK to switch passports as long as I used the same passport to leave a country as I had used to enter it.

AT LAX the Customs and Border Protection Officer accused me of having two passports and demanded to see my other one. He perused and compared them carefully. “Will I have to produce both passports every time I come to the US” I asked. “Yep” he said, and then wished me well and hoped that I would have a nice stay in his country….

Has anyone else had this experience of having to produce more than one passports?

Has anyone else had this experience of having to produce more than one passports?

A few years ago I arrived in the US, used my Canadian passport to enter (no visa waiver form to fill in) but then showed my NZ passport to the Air NZ check-in staff on departure - just not thinking. So you could imagine the frown when I arrived back six weeks later and produced the Canadian one again.

Other than that one time I've never had to produce both my passports. Two months ago the US immigration guy told me just to use the Canadian one to enter and that it didn't matter which one I'd used to leave NZ. He did remind me to use the same one to enter and exit the US.

You always have to produce API at the latest for check-in. Have never had to produce both Passports (UK and NZ) in US but I would never have got ESTA in a passport I was not using to enter US.