Air New Zealand Air Points - Overnight Transit at AKL?

Have used some of my partners expiring Airpoints to book a trip to Fiji in May (MEL-AKL-NAN). Catch is we land at Auckland at midnight, and depart again at 7am. Wondered if anyone can answer a couple of questions:

1) Can we transit overnight airside at AKL? (I have platinum on QF, so assume the QF lounge would open 90 minutes or so before the 5:25 LAN departure). My main problem with leaving the airport is that it's going to be 1am getting to hotel and have to leave again around 5:30-6 am so hardly seems worth it.
2) I assume the luggage will be through checked, so won't have to wait for luggage or recheck it. Would this be correct?
3) Have stayed at the Ventura before, any other hotels closer or around the same distance?

thks

I believe there is no problem staying airside overnight at AKL. The airport operates all night (no curfew) and there are a number of movements throughout the night. I've never done it as I live in Auckland.

Whether your bags get checked through depends on what airline(s) you are on. If you are travelling in and on the same airline or on two airlines in the same alliance, no problem. Otherwise you will find you have to clear customs and immigration, collect your bags, come land side, check in, and go back through customs and immigration. :td:

If both flights are on NZ, no problem with bags but I don't think you'll get into the QF lounge, even with Platinum.

The Ventura is the closest accommodation to the airport.

Great thanks for that. All on NZ so no problem there. Also no problem getting (business class) lounge access on QF once it's open as don't need to be flying QF to access with Platinum status, have done so before (although I do prefer the NZ lounge, which I do have access to, but probably wouldn't open as early as QF I assume).

Great thanks for that. All on NZ so no problem there. Also no problem getting (business class) lounge access on QF once it's open as don't need to be flying QF to access with Platinum status, have done so before (although I do prefer the NZ lounge, which I do have access to, but probably wouldn't open as early as QF I assume).

http://www.airnz.co.nz/airpoints/koruclub/loungedirectory/international_lounges.htm#

Shows the the AKL lounge opens at 5am

Don't forget that with your QF WP, by May, you're likely to access the J QF lounge only, not the F section. Having said that, the F section at AKL isn't that much different from the J section...

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=751636&goto=nextnewest

Don't forget that with your QF WP, by May, you're likely to access the J QF lounge only, not the F section. Having said that, the F section at AKL isn't that much different from the J section...


Yep aware of that, but it will affect me more at the MEL end than in AKL, because as you say there isn't much different at AKL.

NZ lounge opens at 5am (:td: when check in opens much earlier leaving elite & premium pax standing around outside the door).
QF lounge opens at 4-4:30am depending on day of week. If LA flight is late (as it often is) then the QF lounge will open later (as late as 5am).

I think your biggest issue with staying airside is that you will be trapped on the arrivals level until morning. The latest departure is around midnight and thus transit security is normally closed when the late night flights arrive. On the arrivals level there is no seating.

Once security opens up in the morning (around the time LA flight lands) then you can go through (showing either BP if you have it or onward ticket). If you don't have onward BP then get this at NZ lounge. I haven't tried it but QF lounge might have an issue if you enter without a BP.

think your biggest issue with staying airside is that you will be trapped on the arrivals level until morning. The latest departure is around midnight and thus transit security is normally closed when the late night flights arrive. On the arrivals level there is no seating.


Thanks, sounds like at the very least we should go through customs/immigration, whether staying in a hotel or not, and the go back through later when they open. Staying in arrivals does not sound like fun at all.

Landside there are a couple of slightly less uncomfortable chairs up at the observation area (above departures)

Have used some of my partners expiring Airpoints to book a trip to Fiji in May (MEL-AKL-NAN). Catch is we land at Auckland at midnight, and depart again at 7am. Wondered if anyone can answer a couple of questions:

1) Can we transit overnight airside at AKL? (I have platinum on QF, so assume the QF lounge would open 90 minutes or so before the 5:25 LAN departure). My main problem with leaving the airport is that it's going to be 1am getting to hotel and have to leave again around 5:30-6 am so hardly seems worth it.
2) I assume the luggage will be through checked, so won't have to wait for luggage or recheck it. Would this be correct?
3) Have stayed at the Ventura before, any other hotels closer or around the same distance?

thks

I did this a few years ago (SYD - AKL - NAN, one ticket, all on NZ) and we slept at the chairs at the landside arrivals/departures. My flight to AKL was the last flight in (1130pm) and we were NOT ALLOWED to check in our lugguage all the way to NAN from SYD and have 2 boarding passes issued. So I had to go to landside with all our lugguages and sleep on the chairs overnight (with all our luggages) until I can check in again from AKL - NAN. A number of other people does this as well.

We see almost no point of staying in hotel as I probably ended up being late to the airport with the comfy beds .....

Can anyone confirm that NZ won't allow us to check through our bags on overnight AKL connections?

We're going SYD-AKL-PPT and have around 20h in AKL on the way over. It's still be nice if we could check the bags through to PPT though. Alternatively, is it possible (like in FRA) that you can check in your bags in AKL the day prior to your flight? I'd assume that NZ check-in is always open (especiall the *Gold section). So, I could collect bags and go through immigration and then check-in for the AKL-PPT flight the day before.

On the return we only have from midnight to 7am, so around 8h in AKL. I can honestly not believe that NZ would refuse to check bags through to SYD. Why would they not allow this? Who needs their bags for these 7h anyway? All you want is a quick nap in a nearby hotel. Again, has anyone tried to check-in say around midnight for the 7am departure to SYD? At least it would buy us some time in the morning if we don't have to check-in so early.

Just to make sure, all flights are on one ticket. Maybe staff in PPT is a bit more approachable and would actually allow the through check. When I called NZ in Sydney and they said it won't work from SYD at least. :td:

You should be able to through check bags both ways. While the airport officially remains open 24/7, various services do not (such as check in, lounges, shops, etc).

If you aren't already checked in for AKL-PPT then you will not be able to do so on arrival because the flight will not yet be open for local check in. (I expect you will not be able to check in at SYD for this flight because you are checking in at SYD more than 24 hours before the AKL-PPT flight departs). Local check in will open about 4 hours before departure.

On the way back - there is no check in open at midnight. You might be able to check in at PPT for the AKL-SYD flight. If not then check in opens about 4am. Since you can use the premium check in lobby I'd turn up around 5-5:30am.

Sorry, just to clarify. You're saying that we should be able to check through our bags both ways even for SYD-AKL-PPT but we probably won't be getting boarding passes for the second leg?

That's probably all I care about. Don't think I need the boarding passes for the onward flights but it would save us from having to queue for customs with our bags both ways. Or actually, would it? If we only have carry-on bags is there a shorter way through customs in AKL so we can maximise sleep time on the return flight?

That's probably all I care about. Don't think I need the boarding passes for the onward flights but it would save us from having to queue for customs with our bags both ways. Or actually, would it? If we only have carry-on bags is there a shorter way through customs in AKL so we can maximise sleep time on the return flight?

At the xray que take the middle line, sometimes its faster. Currnetly 100% of bags are xrayed so no fast exit like in Aussie. Although this is changing towards the end of the year.

If you are remaining airside for PPT-AKL-SYD then no need to clear immigration or customs, just transit security. This is quick and painless (just remember not to buy duty free liquids >100ml at PPT on departure or AKL on arrival, but on the departures level post security at AKL is okay).

We often have to do this on the RAR-AKL-BNE route, it's not a problem as long as you don't have any liquids, not even liquids purchased at other duty free shops. I saw one lady lose a very expensive bottle of perfume, she was NOT happy! There are always several people in the airside area usually in transit to one of the islands.