Air New Zealand Air Points - NZD 45 for Australian ETA

What's up with that? UA processes your ETA (visa) to Australia with a few keystrokes at no charge.

Air NZ apparently charges NZD 45. The agent had the gall to lie about the matter -- that the charge is levied by Australia.

well we have to pay 20 ozzies - did yesterday for mine

Why do you assume that the agent is lying, rather than being genuinely mistaken?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by jongar:
well we have to pay 20 ozzies - did yesterday for mine</font>

You only pay if you get it processed via the Oz Govt ETA website, but it's not a fee for the ETA, merely a processing fee that that particular site charges.
Airlines worldwide process them for you FOC in about 50 seconds flat. (Unless things have changed in the past week or so!)
Agents can process them for you in their CRS's as well, although I believe many of them now charge their own "processing fee".
Cheers/Regards.


[This message has been edited by Al B (edited Jan 28, 2004).]

Yes, why does AirNZ now charge for ETAs? They used to be free, and most other airlines don't charge you. They certainly don't make you leave check-in and queue up at the sales desk for 20 minutes, pay $45 and then go back to check in with a couple of stickers stuck to a flimsy print out. The money certainly isn't going to Australia.