Air New Zealand Air Points - Access to NZ and UA Lounge questions

My wife and I are travelling on United *A awards next week (April 14) from SFO-LAX (in United First) LAX-AKL-SYD (in NZ Biz.). The return is SYD-AKL on April 29 and then AKL-LAX-SFO on May 6. It's our first time on Air New Zealand so I just want to confirm a couple of things. We want to take advantage of the entire experience so any advice is appreciated.

First question. Will we have access to the RCC at SFO? We are ticketed in First on UA for this domestic connection on a Biz. Class Intl. Itinerary.

We plan to use the Koru Club lounge in LAX. Any suggestions for our time there?

We are in 4A and 5A for the LAX-AKL leg. We plan to ask for the flight of wine tasting. Try a bit of them all. Why not.

We'll have almost three hours in AKL so we plan to use the Koru Club there and take showers, etc. Anything else we should take advantage of there?

Upon arrival in Sydney I don't think we'll visit the Koru Club. I'm not even sure we'll have access. Please confirm.

For the SYD-AKL flight we plan to visit the Koru Club before our departure. But we don't plan to use the Koru Club in AKL.

We plan to visit the Koru Club in AKL prior to our AKL-LAX flight on May 6.

Will we access to the RCC in LAX before our LAX-SFO flight which again is ticketed in First? Again, this is a domestic leg of an International Itinerary.

Any advice or suggestions appreciated. We booked this almost a year ago and have been looking forward to it ever since.

First, congrats on grabbing two NZ Biz tickets.

Yes on RCC at SFO, you are travelling on an Biz Intl itin with a domestic leg connection, you are allowed entry. They will ask for NZ BP (will not be issued until LAX tho) but all they have to do is look up your reservation and voila, entry,

NZ Lounge is good at LAX, food, drinks, not that huge of a club but comfortable. Not very much to do within the terminal though, but other than relaxing and reading the paper, thats all u can do there...you could take a shower there before your flight I guess.

Unless they have changed, NZ uses 747's and so 4 & 5 are in the former 1st class portion of the plane and very comfortable and more spacious than the back part of Biz class. You will enjoy.

AKL NZ club is fine, if you have three hours I would probably goto the shops, take a look around the airport before or after you goto the club. There are hot breakfast items etc. I think only 2 showers there but I'm sure not many people using them.

I know your trip is probably already set, and I wish I did this, but why not stopover in AKL for a day or two. You're in the region and it's an awesome place. Looks like you did not engineer yourself a free stopover in ur itinerary and all it takes is a phone call for a date/time change for your AKL-SYD portion of the trip with plenty of availabilty i think. And if not just take the Y seats for AKL-SYD cause the service is amazing and you get to stopover in AKL

In Syd the NZ lounge is on the departures level so no access because it is after Australian Immigration. But on your way back to AKL you will get to use it. Very spacious, beautiful, and great selection of whatever you want.

I highly recommend the Lemon and Peroa found only in NZ, best soft drink Ive ever had.

RCC access in LAX should be ok as u were on a int'l journey but i'm not really sure, it might be up to the lounge dragons who make up their own rules.

You'll love the NZ seats and service, excellent value for your miles.

While you are in Sydney, you should do everything that people recommend, Opera House, etc. Very walkable city and great public transit. the best thing I ever got was a "See Sydney and Beyond" Card.

http://www.seesydneycard.com/

Excellent card that motivates you to see all of Sydney at a good price too.

Good luck and have a great trip. PM me if any other questions!

You will have access to the RCC in LAX as you are on an Int'l business class itinerary. You may need to show them your BP from NZ. If you are a Premier Exec (*Gold) member or higher then you get RCC access on all int'l itineraries

Thanks for the responses.

We actaully did arrange for a stopover in Auckland on the return. We fly SYD-AKL on April 29. Then fly AKL-LAX-SFO a week later on May 6.

Plan to drive up to Bay of Islands for three nights and spend the rest of our time around Auckland and vacinity.

I'll post a report when we return.

thanks again.
Bob

and in Australia now, on the star Alliance biz award tix.

The Koru Club in LAX is very nice - it is a good size club though it is used by other airlines passengers as well. The shower facilities are very nice, much nicer than that at AKL (domestic side). Amazingly, no one used it when we were there. We did use it because we had spent the day in beach areas south of LAX. The shower facilities are very much appreciated. The Koru Club at AKL domestic side can get very crowded in the morning. Decent cold breakfast items, aweful and only one offering of hot item. There are 2 showers (one is for disable) but no one uses them, just like those at LAX. When we were there it was between 7:30 and 8:30am, the club was full of business travellers. We flew CHC to SYD. The Koru Club at CHC International side was rather small, but since there were only 2 or 3 Int'l flights after 12pm (to Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney), it was less than 10 people altogether. We arrived the club around 1pm, there was no one there and we were the last 2 guests left the club for our flight at 4pm. Eventhough there is only one computer, I have been able to use it most of the time.

If you haven't planned any time in the Central part of North Island, you may want to re-consider. Lake Taupo and nearby areas are quite scenic. Auckland is nothing more than just another city, imo. The countryside is far more interesting. You would enjoy Bay of Islands and 3 days are plenty of time.