SeaProf

Keep in mind the standards, and therefore the expectations, in North America are quite different (ie much lower) than in New Zealand.

Kiwi Flyer

Over the years the lounge has gotten more crowded (not in quiet periods as you found), food and beverages less choices and lower quality (e.g. there used to be over 20 different quality beers and many quality wines), lounge staff less able to help out passengers (more restricted in what they can do).

evanaggie

Pretty surprising to us in the States.

When my wife and I booked a last second WLG to NSN due to canceled ferries, we rushed to the airport. Upon arriving, we dealt with the ticketing counter and put our bags up for them to weigh. They gave us our tickets and we turned the corner to see a security guard standing at the entrance to the rest of the terminal. We walked to the left down towards the ground floor and were shocked/surprised to find out that there was no security screening remaining.

I got the feeling for much of my NZ trip that it was a more innocent and trusting country...indicative of the small size. I loved it and wish it could be that way in the USA.

Take something simple like gas pumps. There weren't many I went to that had credit card readers out at the pump. I was buzzed and allowed to pump gas and then went inside to pay.

Contrast that to stories of countless drive-offs after petrol/gas hit $3.50-$4 USD per gallon and it made me chuckle. My wife told me to stop telling Kiwi people that American drivers would have driven off so many times (of course...that's the lowest 2%...who are effectively thieves)

cavemanzk

Depends on we're you are in the country, for example in Auckland most petrol stations are pre-pay apart from an couple.

sbiddle

The key difference between the US and NZ is that most stations in the US have credit card readers on the pump. Compare this to NZ where it's only Z who have a large rollout of these.

I won't visit a petrol station in NZ that's on prepay and doesn't have terminals on the pump, walking inside to tell them you want to fill up (which really annoys them as they can't charge you beforehand), going back out, filling up, and then having to walk back inside to pay is huge hassle. If sites have a problem with drive offs they should install terminals on the pumps.

Because you can't use foreign credit cards at the terminals at the pump in the US (most require a ZIP code for the billing address of the credit card, and verify this) you have to go in and use this process - which on a couple of occasions proved very troublesome as some wouldn't even accept leaving the credit card inside as security while you fill up.

SpannerSpinner

^ Ditto, and the aggressive up-selling of coffees and overpriced candy at the counter is also a pain. Some Gull stations have an express lane where you have to pay at pump, and the price is a few cents/ltr cheaper. Just a pity the gas is watered down with ethanol.

DomesticGoddess

Familiarity breeds contempt

WLGNZ

And in California a number a gas stations will not take credit cards at all!
I get around the zip code at the pump by adding a 0 in front of the NZ zip code and it works. Not for my wife though....

Quokka

And most US visitors will find they can't use their CCs at the pumps of NZ petrol stations. The pumps demand a PIN that most US issued cards don't have.

This can be extremely annoying when you roll into some little NZ towns, low on fuel, late at night (i.e. after 9 pm when all the locals seem to have gone to bed) where the only pump around is a CC activated, completely unattended pump.

TheBOSman

Yep, Timaru airport I think actually is a tin shed . I had this happen on ROT-CHC last year, it was refreshing to not be treated like a criminal simply for wanting to fly on an airplane. Sadly I've had all jet flights within New Zealand on this visit, but NZ domestic security is still far from the onerous process that is TSA in the states.

The WLG Koru club lounge is nice indeed, though I would hardly put it above a lot of the other *A lounges, at least across Asia (the SQ biz lounge at SIN looked better, amongst others). But if UA replaced all of the United Clubs with Koru clubs, I wouldn't stop them! Was in the CHC lounge recently and it was chockers, staff was very busy keeping things in order, so I imagine the WLG lounge is similar outside of January.

DanishFlyer

Whether I use my bank-issues visa card or (preferred, of course), my co-branded with frequent-flyer program master card, I have only once had the system verify the zip code. I normally type in the zip code of a friend in Virginia, works a charm (despite the foreign cards).

And the one time it didn't work, everything was so convoluted with 2 other pieces of id etc at prepay, that I just walked away...

There may be regional differences, this is my experience in Virginia, Carolinas, Alabama and mid-west.

DanishFlyer

sbiddle

That's not just NZ - that's pretty much the entire rest of the world since virtually every country except the US has had chip+pin, most for upwards of 10 years now.

sbiddle

It's interesting to know there are some workarounds.

For security reasons these machines all do a lookup of the zip code of the billing address of the card and if they don't match, it won't work. Since credit card skimming is so prolific in the US it was one a good way of minimising it.

I'd tried random ZIP codes on my NZ card and my OneSmart card and none have ever worked.

moa999

While that is the case, I believe pax and bags are screened if they connect to a large flight in Aust, whereas this doesn't seem to have occured here.

sbiddle

If you connect from a regional flight in NZ that doesn't require screening to a jet service you will always be screened - the design of the airports here that have both services makes it impossible for this not to occur.