Viva Vanuatu

Another day, another early start to get to the airport. At least I wasn't on one of the early flights to Australia so I had the luxury of a sleep in until 4:30am. Not much traffic, but we seemed to hit every red light between the city and airport, thus taking 45 minutes instead of the normal 25-30 minutes (at this time of day - much longer is needed later due to traffic).

I head to the premium check in where I see the same agent who checked me in for Niue is on duty so I head to her counter (there being no pax at this time I had the choice of several counters). It seems I managed to hit the sweet spot again for check in, after the rush for all the early flights to australia and before the other pacific and asia flights.

We have a wee chat and again she moves me from the computer pre-allocated seat way down the back to the front of economy (non-bulkhead as I requested) and I get a seat blocked beside me. Even better my elite upgrade has cleared for the return (I used one of the 2 complimentary elite status upgrade vouchers having long since given up on using them on the longhaul flights that I take with NZ). So for very low price (much less than my recent domestic tickets) I get relative comfort both ways on this medium haul flight. Yay.

I pay the departure tax, quickly clear immigration and make my way to the lounge. After being welcomed back I head inside and grab a much needed coffee. There is a spread of hot and cold breakfast foods on offer. I catch up on some emails including working on yet another itinerary with my TA. The expected boarding time comes and goes. As usual the flight monitors advance through the statuses to gate closed as if the flight is leaving on time. Eventually there is an announcement that the flight will be called in 10 minutes. Great for letting us know - saves leaving the lounge too early.

After a while I mosey on down to the gate - we have the closest one to the lounge, but thanks to the terminal layout it is a 5 minute walk away. Sure enough, boarding hasn't yet commenced but it isn't a long wait. The flight looks to be about half full - no wonder NZ was selling on such a heavy discount through the grab a seat sale so recently. (Incidentally I had planned to take these flights and had booked flexible fares even before the sale - the sale was a nice bonus to save me a lot of money by cancelling and rebooking.)