Originally Posted by
oranjemakker
Personally I think this is the right policy and I think is common around the world to only have lounges for departing pax?
That being said, I think they should work out a way to allow BP passengers access to the Auckland International lounge for arrivals from their long haul flights for showers, quick breakfast etc. I am sure they could come to some arrangement with customs on this. I arrived a couple of weeks ago from LAX and was connecting on the "international" flight to Christchurch and all the showers were available so they do seem to have some capacity for this. After all, not all pax would use the service.
It would be very nice to have acess to the lounge for arrivals however it would be a logistical nightmare. You have immigration and the likes to contend with, they have their sown timetable to work to and someone having a nice long shower and breakfast up in the lounge would show up missing pax. Not to mention your bags wizzing around on the belt..!
The likes of British Airways all have their arrivals lounges after customs and baggage, this removes that problem.. however the main problem here is that akl just does not warrent a dedicated arrivals lounge. Over seas, airlines that I have flown with that offer such service are only open in the morning. The likes of british airways at lhr has dozens of red eyes arriving in the wee hours whereas we have just A handful plus I for one do not fancy a raise in ticket prices to pay for it...!