Trip Reports - NZ 125 AKL-MEL in Y

5 Jan 06
NZ 125 AKL-MEL
A320

My ticket had only been booked earlier this morning, so I packed and drove off to AKL from Hamilton. I dropped off my rental car, and my car keys to the budget counter and headed of to NZ premium checkin, being a *G. The area was completely empty, not a single passenger in sight. I checked in, received an exit row seat 11D, my 2 bags were priority tagged and off I went. One thing I love about AKL is the immigration officer just for Premium checkin. That way I can bypass all the passengers usually waiting. Up the escalator I checked out what was on offer at duty free. I bought some alcohol and headed off to the NZ lounge. No card needed, they just insert my BP into a reader. There was no wifi signal in the lounge, which was strange. I though I had read online that AKL international had wifi installed. I had a drink and waited till boarding. It was nice and quiet with a small selection of food.

I headed down to the gate and waited till boarding began. I boarded with the Business class and Star Gold passengers. *G passengers are also allowed 2 pieces of hand luggage, at least on NZ according to the sign by the boarding gate. I got to my seat and noticed its limited recline, as well as limited legroom. (well limited in that I’m used to Economy plus on UA, or widebody exit rows in which I have huge amounts of legroom. My next flight will be a NZ 744 so I hope to snag an exit row like last time.

There were headwinds so flight time was 4 hours 15 mins. The flight was uneventful, the movie shown was ‘In Her Shoes’. It was announced Australia has strict quarantine rules due to the foot and mouth virus – since when is it referred to as a virus rather than a disease? And the couple next to me certainly could’ve gotten a room, rather than a flight.

We landed 15 minutes late, and the immigration situation was appalling. The line for foreign passports had 8 agents processing incoming passengers. Meanwhile the line for Australian and NZ passports, which was at least 5 or 6 times longer than the foreign line, and stretched back all the way past duty free, had only 4 agents processing passengers. Go figure. In addition, there were at least 7 or 8 agents walking around behind ‘supervising’. What on earth for, who knows. I’ve never waited so long upon arrival into MEL. Either they should have enough sense to put more workers on to process Aussie passports or send the NZers to the foreigners line. There is no reason why it should take longer to enter the country in the local line, rather than the foreign line.

The customs situation is just as bad. There are usually 2 lines and one working each line either directing you towards the exit, or over to customs for further inspection. This time there was one worker standing, reminding people to have their card ready to show to the customs employee who was standing a few metres further away. Then you got to the end of the line and the person looks at your card to see if you’re declaring anything, but instead of them sending you towards the exit or for further inspection, they send you to one of 2 other customs workers standing a metre or two ahead who also look at your card and decide where you should go. I know it’s a government department after all, but that’s 3 jobs right there that can go.

One last question I have is what is with the FA and GA attire on NZ? Who designed there? The flowing skirts that seem to be matched with anything the FA wants to wear, or the scarf flowing over the shoulder, or the FA, who looks like she’s been the job for 30 years and is almost at retirement wearing such a short short mini skirt, with a hairdo almost as high as Marge Simpsons. But enough of my ranting, overall the service was quite good.

Thanks for the report goodo

The immigration officers standing behind the desks aren't supervising - they are for when someone needs to be checked out more thoroughly so the desk doesnt go unmanned.

Kiwi, be that as it may, I don't think that they need that many waiting for someone that needs to be replaced.

The craziest thing in MEL was my customs experience when I went through the 'something to declare' channel. I had taken some meat with me to NZ, and didn't finish it all and ended up bring a bit back. I declared it, it was still in its original commercial packaging showing that it was from a Melbourne butcher. They took it away from me. I told the officer, that while i didn't really mind that they took it away from me, i thought it was stupid that New Zealand allowed me to bring in such meat, but Australia won't let me bring my Aussie meat back into the country, still in its original commercial packaging. He said that Australia does allow NZ meat, to which I responded that sounded even more stupid. If you're going to ban everything, fine, even if i'm trying to reimport goods i exported the previous week. But to allow meat from NZ, but not allow meat from Australia, thats just stupid. To which he responded, yeah you're right, here you can have it.

goodo

I suspect the 'floating' immigration officers are also there to spot suspicious people in the queue.

Thanks for the report. A fascinating read :)

Kiwi, be that as it may, I don't think that they need that many waiting for someone that needs to be replaced.

The craziest thing in MEL was my customs experience when I went through the 'something to declare' channel. I had taken some meat with me to NZ, and didn't finish it all and ended up bring a bit back. I declared it, it was still in its original commercial packaging showing that it was from a Melbourne butcher. They took it away from me. I told the officer, that while i didn't really mind that they took it away from me, i thought it was stupid that New Zealand allowed me to bring in such meat, but Australia won't let me bring my Aussie meat back into the country, still in its original commercial packaging. He said that Australia does allow NZ meat, to which I responded that sounded even more stupid. If you're going to ban everything, fine, even if i'm trying to reimport goods i exported the previous week. But to allow meat from NZ, but not allow meat from Australia, thats just stupid. To which he responded, yeah you're right, here you can have it.

goodo

I agree the mix of desks vs "floaters" doesnt look to be optimal to me. Good for you on getting to keep your meat - wonder how many folk dont bother arguing the point and lose their food?