It's 1700 Christmas Eve and I'm on NZ8 to SFO at 1930. My daughter is arriving at AKL from WLG about 2100 and wants to use my car. She's flying in on JQ (poor girl!!).

Easy ... leave car at international terminal valet parking, ask them to take it over to domestic and she can pick it up there.

Thought I'd check at domestic before I went to the international terminal just to be sure it would work. Lady there (didn't get her name) says very sorry but, being Christmas Eve, they are closing at 1900. We discussed options, she even offered to come back later and give the keys to my daughter. I thanked her but declined the offer and said I'd talk to someone over at international.

Drove over to international and said to the lovely lady there "I have a little problem". She replied "you must be the guy whose daughter wants to pick up your car ... I just had a call about it".

She checked when the JQ flight was due and whether it was on time. She said she would keep an eye on it and when it landed she would phone my daughter and meet her in the car park with the keys.

You really can't beat service like that.

Thank you Josephine and the lady at domestic from a very happy frequent flyer.