I flew NZ146 today. I put in a recognition upgrade from E to BP about four months ago which didn’t clear immediately (I’m Elite, but there was no R class availability). The flight was heavily booked and the BP cabin was eventually fully sold a month ago. I swapped my upgrade to a E to PE option about 3-4 weeks ago. This didn’t clear immediately or a T-7 or T-1, despite two seats remaining available for sale. Today it didn’t clear at check in, and finally cleared in the lounge about 45 minutes from departure, after I had asked the lounge attendant what was happening.

Interesting aside. When I got called to the desk in the lounge to be told the upgrade had cleared, there was another passenger also being called up. He was processed first, and was told his recognition upgrade to BP couldn’t clear, but that he could be offered PE. I thought that was interesting, as it showed Air NZ proactively offering the lesser upgrade. The passenger definitely hadn’t asked for this, as he turned down the upgrade and elected to retain it for future use.