Koru club and fast track at AKL
 

Hello,

I'm new to Koru club and am wondering if there are any fast track immigration privileges in AKL when I travel WLG-AKL-HKG this weekend, all flights being in economy on Air NZ.

Thanks in advance.

Yes. Take the lift up from premium check in area. Air NZ ticketed flight still applies

Thanks dadig!

The last newsletter mentioned premium check in was closing 1st may for an upgrade? Not sure where the interim area will be but there is still an express lane if you have to use the main escalators to go up instead of elevators. It's on the far right to clear security etc

That explains why last week the customs counters had been removed after the lift, and there we're now shared with other airlines.

I wonder the the premium check-in area will disappear completely? I notice recently that Qantas premium check-in has now become there Y check-in zone.

Priority airport check-in is a Star Alliance gold benefit - http://www.staralliance.com/en/gold-status. So Air NZ shouldn't really be removing it totally.

That changed months ago. When the new smartgate exit machines were installed (the one step ones), premium immigration lane for other airlines was moved from the left hand side to the right and shared with NZ.

Unfortunately the new system isn't working properly. Last week there was only one officer on the shared premium immigration and she directed all non-NZ pax to join the regular immigration lane (non smartgate). Thus actually slower than just going directly to the regular lane or to using smartgate.

Which make me wonder why they couldn't just install a couple of Smart Gates in the premium immigration area? the latest version were you just insert your passport are pretty quick, and if not quicker than the officer at the Premium Desk.

A couple years back there was one of the new model there as a trail and it was great.

While its an benefit, it doesn't say what it has to look like e.g. doesn't say it needs to be an massive room seperate from the rest of check-in.

The way it looked last night when I walked past was the premium check in was going to be to the right of the existing automatic machines, no longer inside a separate room, should have taken a photo to show what I mean.

They aren't exactly cheap, and it's difficult to get airports to foot the bill for SmartGate.

I guess Air NZ is looking to save cost yet again rather than having dedicated premium check in area. I see it is as a value add product differentiator but guess bottom line maters

Be careful... The last time I quoted listed *A benefits I was accused of the most heinous act of DYKWIA known to human kind!

Was this in the Koru Club newsletter or elsewhere? I must have missed it.

May be the first *A Gold Track airport down under?

I vaguely remember there being a couple of SmartGate looking machines airside in the foyer before the entrance of the old AirNZ lounge at AKL when it was opposite Qantas. Haven't noticed them of late. Were they for pre-clearing immigration for Australia or something?

Monthly email.

Correct they we're for pre getting your SmartGate ticket for Australia, they went about 2 years ago. At the same time OOL Smart gates we're upgraded to ticketless.

Yes they were for Australia, the first stage of smartgate processing that gives a card to use in the smartgate itself. Long gone.

Premium checkin auckland
 

Went past today and the staff said refurbishment of the premium area will take about 8 weeks

So is there currently any premium check-in/emigration at all for NZ at AKL?

(Flying back to MEL tomorrow.)

Yes, there's signs right next to general check in indicating premium area. Use kiosks then line up for bag drop, they had about 3 bag drop counters open but there is a bit of a line, and the lady upstairs at security seems to like directing everyone to the general line so make sure you've got that little express lane sticky on your BP.

I also was told 2 months til reopening but these things always seem to run behind schedule so I'm expecting longer! But hopefully worth it. :)

Just used the area to check-in; guy indicated another 9 weeks.

Used machines and asked for and received Express sticker for BP.

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Just to clarify - are the express stickers for *G/E? Original poster was Koru which is slightly different.

Do they have anyone controlling the entrance to this temporary area? The main check-in area can be an zoo at times, what to stop it spilling over into the premium check-in?

Serfty those pictures are completely weird purely for the fact there are NO passengers!! Not even counter people.

I'd presume it would be express stickers for the same people that had access prior to the previous area closing. They've not stated otherwise.

I didn't notice anyone checking the entrance.

There was at 2pm yesterday. it was quiet, but people entering were being checked.

White sticker about 4cm long with "EXPRESS LANE" - it was stuck to upper left of my BP.

(Similar to the old Pre-Cleared stickers one used to get with QF.)

That's what happens when you take a photo at about midnight. :)

Went through today. It was an absolute zoo. 4 of the check in machine didn't allow me to print a baggage tag (5th time lucky), asked for a departure card and the lady said "Uhhh no they're all upstairs" and stood in line for 20 minutes to drop off my bag.

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Maybe I'm spoilt with how the premium check in was before but I sure can't wait for it to reopen!

I'm just thinking Air NZ ground staff are never good at crowd control, it looks exactly like that when boarding TT with everyone all over the place and worse when the priority boarding lane isn't there

You should send that picture to [email protected] along with your thoughts about the management of this 'premium' check-in.

I suppose this is true if correct but why are airports footing the bill at all? After all, is this not what we are paying for in our airfare taxes?

Do you think they will care? Don't want to waste time writing if no reply. Put it on twitter and got no response from them.

In fairness they do respond to flight comment. Just the level of quality of the response can sometimes be off putting

Have they sorted the bag drop for domestic xfers yet? When I was there at the end of November you had to queue with the same pax who were queueing for the intl bag drop. Took me 15 mins to get to the front of the queue (I couldn't get out due to the queues and the people barriers). I then had to get my passport out of my bag again as she wouldn't accept my bag without seeing it "it's the rules".

When I flew through in Jan I noticed the xfer queue sign had moved but wasn't sure if it just went to the same area or not. It was far simpler to just walk to domestic with my bag and drop it there.

My thoughts exactly just wheel the bag to domestic is quicker and less painful

Worked as Koru. I would imagine that would be for anybody who via Koru/Status/ticket would have access to previous Premium Checkin - otherwise would be decrease in benefit.

The daft thing was that after using the kiosk had to go to the counter to bag drop and there was a queue with delay while they had to check passport, boarding pass ... - I suppose they need to check identity of person dropping bags but surely a separate bagdrop would be better than using queue at counters.

I normally do as I often change to an earlier flight. I think it might have been raining that day which was why I did it.