Air New Zealand Air Points - Connecting at Christchurch/Transporting Wine

I did I quick search for Christchurch in the forum, but couldn't find the answer. I'm flying Narita-Wellington vis Christchurch and would like to know if I need to clear immigration and re-check my baggage at Christchurch like at Auckland. Also are the immigration queues as hideous as at AKL?

Another question if anyone knows the answer. I'll be travelling quite light but will have my 30 kg allowance for (unfortunately not Premier) Business Class. Does anyone know if Air NZ will let me check a case of wine? Quite keen on bringing back some Wairarapa Pinot back home with me.

I did I quick search for Christchurch in the forum, but couldn't find the answer. I'm flying Narita-Wellington vis Christchurch and would like to know if I need to clear immigration and re-check my baggage at Christchurch like at Auckland. Also are the immigration queues as hideous as at AKL?

Another question if anyone knows the answer. I'll be travelling quite light but will have my 30 kg allowance for (unfortunately not Premier) Business Class. Does anyone know if Air NZ will let me check a case of wine? Quite keen on bringing back some Wairarapa Pinot back home with me.

Yes you will have to clear immigration and re-check baggage at CHC. It's a pretty compact and efficient airport so that shouldn't be difficult. I've never experienced big queues there but I'm usually arriving on a much smaller a/c (A320) so it could be different arriving ona 767 or 747. CHC doesn't get many international flights so you'd probably have to be quite unlucky to be arriving just after another one, so given that you're in J you should be fine as long as you don't dawdle getting out of the aircraft.

Not sure about the wine - I very much doubt NZ would let you check a case of wine for free. Do you have any *A status that would get you extra allowance?

I regularly check in file boxes and woulkd htink that a case of wine should be fine provided you sign for liability as it would be deemed insecurely packaged.

I regularly check in file boxes and would htink that a case of wine should be fine provided you sign for liability as it would be deemed insecurely packaged.


Thanks for the info mad_atta & ntddevsys. I plan to have most of my clothes in my carry-on and I think a case usually comes in a about 20kg, so even if I have another 10 kilos of luggage I should be fine.

Can I just sign for liability at check-in? (Bearing in mind I'll be checking in at about 6 am at Wellington...)

Can I just sign for liability at check-in? (Bearing in mind I'll be checking in at about 6 am at Wellington...)

Yes, you can. They just make you sign the back of the baggage tag going on the item and stick it to it. I regularly have to do this when checking in boxes of PCs.

Although they're a bit hit and miss - they didn't ask me to sign the waiver when checking in with a $35K Sun server, but they did when I was checking in with a decommissioned $500 server. Not that they could tell the difference, but it was amusing.

aj

Thanks for all the advice. I was able to check in half a case of Pinot which arrived in tact.

Excellent. I assume you had already gotten through the other half of the case before checking in?

Excellent. I assume you had already gotten through the other half of the case before checking in?

Kiwi Flyer, you old lush. After drinking your way around the world on various aircraft and at sundry FT dos for a month I thought you might be advocating a bit of moderation, just for a change! :p

mcg1000 glad the wine made it safely. Villa Maria reserve anything is reliably fantastic. Their best kept pinot secret however is a called Northrow, which is a new boutique Villa Maria Marlborough label, which from memory only makes pinot and chardonnay at this stage. It recently won best pinot in the Cuisine tastings, and best of all it's under $30 which is fabulous value for NZ pinot at it's current fashion-driven prices.

The bad news is that it's limited quantity and difficult to find - I got some at the winery but I don't know how widely it is distributed elsewhere. So if you see some, be sure to buy! :)