Auckland to Sydney on China Airlines A330-300 in business (AKL-SYD CI C)
I had a long transit in Auckland from the domestic flight, much longer than I prefer. When on a single ticket I like the connection to be about 2 hours - this is ample time to change terminals and refresh in the lounge if all goes to plan, and also allows for a moderate delay without risking a misconnection. On separate tickets, as I am travelling today, I like a bit longer buffer - say 2.5-3 hours. Today I had a ridiculously long transfer because I'd booked the trip only a few weeks ahead of departure at which time all the afternoon flights were nearly full fare. For the sake of a few extra hours I saved hundreds of dollars.
On arrival at the Auckland domestic terminal I grabbed a free computer terminal to check messages and weather before heading into town to do some things. When I finished my stuff I returned to the international terminal about 4 hours before departure hoping check in might be opening soon. It was shut with no sign of an imminent opening so I took the chance of a break between showers to walk across to the domestic terminal and back to fill in the time.
Check in opened right on 3 hours before departure. Since I'd booked this ticket directly with the airline I had to show my credit card before I was checked in. I collected a boarding pass and a lounge invite card. I'd hoped to collect the onward boarding pass but was told it was unable to be printed for security reasons - bah.
Upstairs to the ritual carry-on weighing at the entrance to immigration. This annoys me no end, as usual. The airport has staff checking the weight of any carry-on that "looks heavy". In practice this means any rollaboard is weighed while backpacks are not (unless they appear massive). The pre-cleared immigration passengers (premium and elite passengers on some airlines like Qantas, Singapore daytime departure but not nighttime departure and Emirates) do not get this treatment, and nor do Air NZ premium passengers who have their immigration facility via the premium check in lobby. So my carry-on that weighs maybe 5kg gets weighed every time when I fly certain airlines, but not when I fly other airlines. This despite having generous carry-on allowances and passing through very frequently (it wasn't overweight when you checked it the last 3 weeks either). I shouldn't let it bother me because it only takes 30 seconds (most of which is spent waiting for the person in front of me). But it does. Every time.
That unpleasantness dealt with I pass my departure card to the agent, proceed through smartgate and join the security line. Today there is only 2 lines open so it takes a while to get through. I manage to avoid the "random" pat down and head for the lounge.
Air NZ lounge is the contract lounge for many airlines at Auckland. However generally, when not flying star alliance, you need to collect an invite card at Auckland check in. This is the case even if you've checked in at another airport. Naturally this is annoying, because the first time you find out of this requirement may be when you're at the lounge entrance having already cleared immigration and then been told that you can't enter the lounge without the invite card.
