Air New Zealand Air Points - Two quick Q's re Standby upgrade and Koru visitors

Hi there

Haven't found definitive answers to either of these, but please let me know if my search skills are simply off-target!

1) I am a Koru Club member but my wife isn't. No status with Air NZ other than my KC and her airpoints membership. We booked tickets from HK to LHR for later in the year and had a few points sitting around - so we have booked Standby Upgrades on points. We had to do it separately, as our points are in different accounts, but our booking number for the flight is the same (i.e. our bookings are linked).

My question - will they link the standby upgrade requests as well? I just want to make sure that we don't get to the gate and they offer me an upgrade (due to KC membership) and not her. I presume commonsense would prevail since we're on the same booking, but can anyone confirm this please? Also - I assume that we'll only find out whether we're successful on the day?

2) Can my wife use a visitor pass at the *Alliance lounge in Heathrow on the way back?

Thanks in advance!
NKHK

p.s. one last quick q - would my wife's preference to have a vegetarian meal affect our chances of obtaining an upgrade?

Most of the general 'maximising your minimal chance of an upgrade' advice I've read has recommended not ordering special meals.

I suppose having linked itineraries could reduce your chances. Someone with experience either from your position or a Checkin desk / GA perspective might know better.

OTOH if you manage to get upgraded, this might be helpful for your partner - again, I could be very wrong. :)

PS We are doing the same trip later in the year. I am looking forward to it. If I can ask, is there an arrivals lounge? We have a few hours transit time and would like to try such a lounge if it exists, before trying the lounge of the next airline (TAP).

1) Not sure. AFAIK while there remains only one eticket, the PNRs are split into 2 separate records in this situation. On past experience they remain linked (manage to get seats together) but I don't think that necessarily implies you'll both be upgraded. For example there may only be 1 seat available for upgrade.

If they only offer you an upgrade and not your wife then it is up to you if you decline, take it for yourself or take it and offer the seat to your wife.

2) No. Koru Club guest passes won't provide access. If she is in business class departing LHR, or either of you has *G status, then she can access.

BiziBB - unfortunately NZ has chosen not to offer the new *A arrivals lounge to their passengers :( but in your case you have a departures lounge anyway.

1. The upgrade requests are in the PNR as an OSI comment so the PNR doesn't need to be spilt. The upgrade requests will be sent from the PNR to the dcs check-in as a comment next to your names and will be picled up at the flight editing stage. They will check you into Y and tell you to check at the gate for your upgrades.

Your wife's VGML request will be for Y class, they do not cater for BP special meals for space available/standby upgrades so if your wife gets upgraded she will have to cross fingers for a vege option on the BP menu, or go without, or they may give the option of moving the Y special meal up to BP for her.

If the upgrade request for one pax clears before the other pax, the PNRs are split (unless that process has changed recently).

In my experience, if the standby upgrade goes through relatively early in the piece (say you've checked in early and it's wide open so they give it to you) catering are usually able to supply a J class VL/VGML at short notice.

If not, the crew will send down to steerage for the Y class meal originally loaded for the upgraded passenger and attempt to pretty it up a bit. There's a few resources to do that up front (garnishes, spare salads, etc).

So I would guess that special meal ordered is not taken into account at all when assigning the upgrades - it's simply taken for granted that the passenger will be understanding/gracious due to the last minute nature of the upgrade. I've never had a problem from a passenger about this in all my years of flying.

Thanks all for the input and especially for the insight into how special meals are treated in such cases. The vegetarian option isn't critical - she's chosen it as she'll be almost 6 months pregnant when we fly, and it's the safest option in terms of what she can and can't eat these days.

NKHK

Just a followup on this one in case anyone is interested:

1) The flight over was pretty empty, and they upgraded both of us with no problem. My wife actually ended up eating the normal meals, although they did offer her a few vegetarian options. The FAs were most attentive and helpful in making sure that she had something suitable to eat during the flight - it was really great service.

2) On our return we went to the *A lounge in T1 LHR. To our surprise they happily accepted my Koru card and a guest pass, and they seemed very well versed in doing so. Neither of us have any other status with Air NZ or *A. Spent a pleasant few hours in there - good selection of drinks, not a bad selection of food, although the hot stuff looked a bit peculiar!

Thanks again for all comments and assistance.

NKHK