Possible 787 Order on the way
Oct 19, 2016, 8:57 pm
#16
Join Date: Dec 2015
Posts: 367
You're not wrong there! About 12 planes yesterday evening. Worst friggin lines I've ever seen at customs in my life!! People missing domestic connections left right and centre. Someone said the EK flights were late in 
then you had the NZ wide bodies returning from Oz. Anyway I keep looking at the planes parked up and it's certainly very congested even without yesterday's anomaly (at least I hope it was an anomaly).
then you had the NZ wide bodies returning from Oz. Anyway I keep looking at the planes parked up and it's certainly very congested even without yesterday's anomaly (at least I hope it was an anomaly).
Oct 20, 2016, 12:32 am
#19
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: New Zealand (most of the time)
Programs: Air NZ Elite *G, Honors Gold, IHG Platinum Elite
Posts: 6,115
Oct 20, 2016, 1:13 am
#20
Join Date: Feb 2007
Programs: NZ Koru
Posts: 6,414
Trying to think of how many other great airports handle bus ops as bad as AKL, every other airport I've used buses its been quick and fast, AKL in the other hand...
Oct 20, 2016, 6:23 pm
#22
Join Date: Oct 2012
Programs: NZ*G, United.
Posts: 194
I've had one really bad bus from gate to plane experience. Heathrow of course. There is something about inter terminal buses (Heathrow and Sydney for example) that I dislike. Usually the cumulative stress of other passengers on tight, or not so tight, connections plus I would usualy rather walk a transfer and stretch my legs.
Oct 21, 2016, 5:41 pm
#23
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Auckland NZ
Programs: NZ Gold Elite, AS, AC, QF
Posts: 748
There are two problems that can be fixed concurrently: bus gates for widebody flights and arrivals congestion. Why NZ continues to schedule up to 5 international wide body flights arriving in the same early morning baffles me. Having to bus to the terminal after a 13 hour IAH AKL flight is very very annoying. Then the baggage claim area is chaotic and the queues hideous.
Oct 21, 2016, 6:38 pm
#24
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: New Zealand
Programs: NZ*S plus various hotel programs
Posts: 945
Oct 22, 2016, 5:40 am
#26
Join Date: Dec 2014
Programs: NZ*Elite *G, QF*G, SPG*Platinum, Accor*Platinum, Hilton*Gold
Posts: 1,006
It costs a lot to have a plane parked at the tarmac, the likely scheduling minimises the arrangements by utilising the planes for TT , plus kiwis think it is acceptable to depart between 2300 hours and past midnight for long haul. Which could be fine, if you are not on Y class and arrive fresh and get to complete a business day prior to heading to the airport. NZ also doesn't have a day + night schedule on NZ metal/non codeshare on all routes.
Oct 23, 2016, 5:50 am
#28
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: SYD
Programs: Too many golds, no plat: OZ*G, AC*G, NZ*G, VA Gold, QF Gold, HH Gold, Bonvoy Gold
Posts: 5,350
I had never had the bus experience at AKL until a few months ago, and I have to agree it was handled incredibly badly. It seems that there is only room for one bus to be loading and unloading at once, and it took an absolute age. Thankfully we were on a loooong connection and it was only an irritation rather than threatening our travel plans, but I would have been *very* unhappy if an on-time arrival turned into a missed connection thanks to poorly designed bus handling and queues at immigration/MAF.
Last edited by mad_atta; Oct 24, 2016 at 4:55 am