Auckland to Wellington (AKL-WLG) on Air New Zealand 737-300 in economy space plus
I rushed off to immigration to beat the hordes and to try and make my onward flight. I'd booked a 90 minute connection, which normally would be fine. It would be very tight to make the gate before it closes, if it is on time. But I was so annoyed from the previous flight I just wanted to get out and complete my journey.
I had about 20 minutes to hike to immigration, get through customs, get to the domestic terminal and through security to the gate. With no checked bags and an e-pass tag I could just turn up at the gate and board. That was the plan. I made it to the gate just as the last passenger was boarding - phew made it before it closed only to get a red light at the reader. Apparently Air NZ was confident none of the 20-odd (or about 19 plus one very odd) passengers from Japan that were connecting to this flight would make it and had rebooked us on later flights, not even the very next one in 30 minutes time. Since the flight was not full the gate agent switched me back, but I'd long lost the space plus seat and instead got 23E or something similarly ghastly. I knew E meant a middle seat but is there really that many rows in this aircraft? It had been a very long time (several years at least) since I've sat further back than about row 10 on a domestic Air New Zealand flight.
The flight itself was the usual 45 to 60 minute hop and uneventful/unmemorable.
Thus ends part one of this trip report.