Air New Zealand Air Points - Upgrades clearing for GOLD..

Yup... curiosity has been aroused by the GE clearance thread...

Still in my first year of Gold status.... have flown on NZ metal 10 times since G qualification - with a Standby u/g requested each time....

I have NEVER tried calling in advance to see if it had cleared... (wouldn't know how to or even if it is possible)

Had a couple of Trans tasman u/g obviously clear "early" as got Biz BP at check in, others at the Lounge and IIRC some even at the gate.......

On long haul (AKL-LAXvv) have normally been told by lounge staff to come see them "an hour before departure" (mainly Y+>BP)..

...different on the one AKL-HKG flight I've done (Y>BP requested!!) where my initial inquiry led to a new BP... in BP...:D

Is it as "random" as my experience would suggest? (no complaints about that mind you.. they ARE Standby requests of course:D)

Any Golds call and ask??? Or is it truly the waiting game?;)

P.S. All 10 did clear...... Happy little vegemite am I.

Hey Trooper,

On long haul flights call 3 days ahead and if there is space, it will be confirmed.

Tassies are odd...sometimes at check in, lounge or gate.....depends what airport.

I have had a 99% success rate with u/g

You can call Air NZ and if the upgrade has been confirmed then the res agent will be able to tell you straight away. If it hasn't been confirmed yet then the res agent has to call flight ops supervisor at the departure airpoint and manually check with them IIRC.

As Mr Sydney has mentioned, upgrades for Gold's are able to be confirmed 72 hours before departure. This usually only happens if the the loads aren't that great at T-72 hours but call NZ around then and see if it has cleared.

Great advice guys.. thanks... I wasn't aware of these "details"...

Be a bummer to call and be told "NO" of course....:D

Advantage of leaving it is that one can "live in hope"...:rolleyes: ..and yes, I realise that sounds completely naff!!!!

I've found mine are clearing in advance less and less. My last three upgrades (AKL-HKG Y->BP, HKG-LHR Y->Y+, LHR-HKG) have confirmed at the AKL lounge, at the gate, and at checkin, respectively.

Be a bummer to call and be told "NO" of course....:D

A no at T-72 doesn't mean it won't clear at all. Just that loads are sufficiently high that they haven't cleared yet.

I've found mine are clearing in advance less and less. My last three upgrades (AKL-HKG Y->BP, HKG-LHR Y->Y+, LHR-HKG) have confirmed at the AKL lounge, at the gate, and at checkin, respectively.

Broadly matches my experience. Back when I first u/g'ed on NZ the requests would often clear months before departure. Now it is usually at check in or the lounge (at LAX, I didn't ask if it had cleared but the agent recognised me :o), and this time at the gate.

That was Saturdays flight? Well done!!:D

I was thinking a NO was a NO... clearly at 72 hours out then it is more of a "not at THIS stage"....

Good to know...... ^

"the agent recognised me" and dug out the new BP?... THAT belongs under the heading of "Indications you fly too much!!!" :D;)

Brilliant!

I'm not gold this year, just silver (slow travel year last year) but the last trip went like this.

Booked PE AKL-LAX at 3 pm Friday to fly on NZ2 9.30 pm same day. Requested comp silver u/g to BP via NZ website site about 4 pm. It had cleared when I checked in just after 7 pm.

Returning on NZ5 Saturday a week later, had requested AP u/g to BP. Checked in late at LAX (just on 60 min before departure) due to late connection on UA. Was told to check u/g at lounge in about 45 min .. go figure that one out! Walked through security, which was pretty much deserted at that stage, and into lounge less than 10 minutes after checking in. Asked about u/g when I entered lounge and was told it had cleared. There were only 12 pax in BP.

That smells of "can't be bothered" on the part of the check in agent ... but then that's NZ at LAX. :rolleyes:

I'm not gold this year, just silver (slow travel year last year) but the last trip went like this.

Booked PE AKL-LAX at 3 pm Friday to fly on NZ2 9.30 pm same day. Requested comp silver u/g to BP via NZ website site about 4 pm. It had cleared when I checked in just after 7 pm.

Returning on NZ5 Saturday a week later, had requested AP u/g to BP. Checked in late at LAX (just on 60 min before departure) due to late connection on UA. Was told to check u/g at lounge in about 45 min .. go figure that one out! Walked through security, which was pretty much deserted at that stage, and into lounge less than 10 minutes after checking in. Asked about u/g when I entered lounge and was told it had cleared. There were only 12 pax in BP.

That smells of "can't be bothered" on the part of the check in agent ... but then that's NZ at LAX. :rolleyes:


Nz at LAX , huh what a joke , this si possibly the worst expewrience we can have of our beloved flag carrier, i was late from a us airways and then had a disrupt, the way it was handled was appaling 3.5 hours for GE to be heandled, the old excuse that its the airports fault is just not good enuff , the staff attitude mostlky sucks IMHO

"the agent recognised me" and dug out the new BP?... THAT belongs under the heading of "Indications you fly too much!!!" :D;)

Probably. The worst one is when a FA remembers me from a recent flight. It can sometimes take quite a while to work out which flight(s) it was. (This happened today actually.)

Nz at LAX , huh what a joke , this si possibly the worst expewrience we can have of our beloved flag carrier

You not flown NZ through SFO, rich5011? :eek:

On two occasions I have been very impressed with LAX staff... Go figure...

A lady of Fijian origin... friendly, helpful and severelycompetent!! And a young guy - checking us in under supervision as he had just started doing that.... He was working in the Lounge later... and tracked me down to give me the new BP when the upgrade cleared...

davidrnz.. well done on the Silver comp upgrade!! I thought they were restricted to trans tasman/Pacific island!!!

davidrnz.. well done on the Silver comp upgrade!! I thought they were restricted to trans tasman/Pacific island!!!They used to be restricted wrt US routes, but that was dropped a while back. Never been restriction just to tt/pacific islands though.

I have to be fair and say that I have found the NZ lounge staff at LAX to be excellent.

I believe they are employed directly by NZ, rather than by a US contractor. Therein lies the difference.

They used to be restricted wrt US routes, but that was dropped a while back. Never been restriction just to tt/pacific islands though.

They don't need to be restricted as they are last to clear.

On two occasions I have been very impressed with LAX staff... Go figure...
A lady of Fijian origin... friendly, helpful and severelycompetent!! And a young guy - checking us in under supervision as he had just started doing that.... He was working in the Lounge later... and tracked me down to give me the new BP when the upgrade cleared

I have always found the staff at LAX to be excellant. I have come across the Fijian lady several times and she is very competent indeed. The young bloke is very friendly. My fav person in the lounge has to be Phillpe - the French bloke

Most of the NZ staff at LAX are not employed by NZ but by a contract company. However, there are a few staff that are seconded from NZ in AKL.

The quality of service has improved dramatically through the years. Some of the staff circa 2000 were just dreadful.

Air NZ employ a few interns each year who have been recruited straight out of uni. Mainly tourism grads but also other commerce grads as well. A lot of those interns are seconded immediately to LAX where they are trained and work at the ticketing desks, lounges and gates. This probably means that check-in staff are US contractors, but I'm not too sure on that.

I have encountered a few of the interns and they do everything: check in,lounge,gate.etc.

You not flown NZ through SFO, rich5011? :eek:


oh dear...i am on nov 3rd should i go prepared LOL

I have always found the staff at LAX to be excellant. I have come across the Fijian lady several times and she is very competent indeed. The young bloke is very friendly. My fav person in the lounge has to be Phillpe - the French bloke

Most of the NZ staff at LAX are not employed by NZ but by a contract company. However, there are a few staff that are seconded from NZ in AKL.

The quality of service has improved dramatically through the years. Some of the staff circa 2000 were just dreadful.


both of you are correct this fijian lady i recall as being the only one who could manage to figure where everyone needed to go, she got us a very good ticket with the woirst carrier (uA) and she did it wioth great ease so my comment was a little unfair. If these staff are contarct then why would NZ not take great care in managing this as this is our shop window and forst impressions count!

I have always found the staff at LAX to be excellant. I have come across the Fijian lady several times and she is very competent indeed. The young bloke is very friendly. My fav person in the lounge has to be Phillpe - the French bloke

Most of the NZ staff at LAX are not employed by NZ but by a contract company. However, there are a few staff that are seconded from NZ in AKL.

The quality of service has improved dramatically through the years. Some of the staff circa 2000 were just dreadful.


both of you are correct this fijian lady i recall as being the only one who could manage to figure where everyone needed to go, she got us a very good ticket with the woirst carrier (uA) and she did it wioth great ease so my comment was a little unfair. If these staff are contarct then why would NZ not take great care in managing this as this is our shop window and forst impressions count!

oh dear...i am on nov 3rd should i go prepared LOL

Read this (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showpost.php?p=9612074&postcount=21)and reach your own conclusion, rich :)

On my recent flights HKG-AKL, AKL-HKG in July, my comp upgrades from PE to BP cleared after I emailed the gold airpoints desk 2 days out. Also I have had AKL to PER clear also 2-3 days before the flight (this was a flight shortly after Christmas last year). Other TT flights or the former SIN-AKL/AKL-SIN flights have cleared at check-in. So far I have had 100% upgrade clearance.