Lounge access question
 

Hi guys,

I will be traveling from Bangkok to Auckland in business class with Thai Airways, then connecting to Queenstown in economy (no business class available) with NZ. I have a Etihad Gold status (if it even matters). Am I allowed to use the lounge in Auckland? Thanks.

Is the connect flight from AKL-ZQN part of the same booking or a separate ticket? If a part of the same booking you *might* be able to gain access to the domestic lounge but I suspect not), but if separate tickets then no access for sure. The domestic lounge at AKL is in a different terminal to to international - it takes 10-15 mins to walk between them - the pathway is very well marked. Or you can take a free shuttle bus.

You will not/cannot get access on arrival to lounges in the international terminal.
International arrivals & departures are physically separate and lounges are in the airside departure area after emigration/security.

As post above, if eligible you may get access to the domestic departure lounge.
I have had domestic AKL domestic lounge access when travelling Air NZ international business and then Air NZ domestic economy all on 1 ticket.

EY status not applicable to Air NZ.

AKL thread (needs a wiki) https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ocea...transport.html

Hi guys,

Thanks a lot for the reply. It is on a same ticket. Anyone has any experience on that? Thanks.

As my post above, has worked for me, but I was travelling Air NZ on both flights (on 1 ticket)

I am *G, coming into AKL on UA with a same-day connection to TRG. I see that AZ has a domestic lounge and a regional lounge at AKL, which one can I access?

Both. Main lounge means clearing security though, whereas with the regional you don't (there is no security screening on regional aircraft in NZ).

Good to know. Thanks a bunch!

Both. The domestic lounge (on the right hand side of the domestic terminal as you approach) is larger, and has toilets and showers, and requires a quick security checkpoint clearance to access (never a longer wait than 5 mins usually, often 2 mins). The regional lounge is next to the gate point for flights to TRG (on the left hand side of the terminal), and is smaller, but has food, barista coffee and wifi. I find heading to domestic first off a long-haul flight is good for a shower, then I might go down to regional closer to the time of my flight - it can get very congested in the mornings in the regional. Regional is a good place to kill 10-20 mins before walking straight through the gate point nearby for boarding, but I wouldn't spend hours in there - the lack of toilets is a pain, as you have to exit and re-enter the lounge. Remember that you need to walk/bus to the domestic terminal from international to access both of these, but you can recheck bags on the right hand side from exiting customs control in international, so you do not have lug checked bags to domestic (provided you are rechecking bags more than one hour before departure).

My guess is that you won't. I had an interesting situation recently. I was on a business class ticket Christchurch to Atlanta with Virgin Australia. For my flight Christchurch to Sydney it was codeshared with Air NZ that do not have business class for those flights, so my ticket was the "maximum" is possibly could be (The Works Duluxe). When I went to enter the lounge on it, they denied me access. Ultimately, I have *G with Air NZ so they switched my status on the ticket (previously had been credited to Virgin) which gave me entry.

I think that you could possibly find a lounge attendant that would let you in (my attendant agreed it was an awkward situation and I should probably have access), but it's not official policy.

You were flying on a VA ticket as part of a VA itinerary. Technically you were ineligible for access which is why it scanned red. You were obviously just lucky somebody was willing to bend the rules for you.

This is a completely different situation to the OP above who is fully entitled to access.

Incorrect.
OP will have access to both lounges at AKL domestic.

Clearly you didn't read my post before getting excited that you can post a snarky reply, since as I stated, no one bent the results for me. We switched that ticket leg to Air NZ.

I didn't, but I found out later that the lounge attendant must've kindly switched them back since I was credited with VA and not Air NZ. She had definitely switched it to Air NZ originally because my ticket scanned green after previously scanning red.

What is the correct rule till October on TT arrival ?
 

What is the correct rule (till october) for Virgin lounge access on arrival (with no onward Virgin travel) when flying TT from NZ to Australia for a Airnz gold?
The scanning machine rejected the boarding pass (on a Virgin arival the machine automatically allows access)
The staff said there is no access for Airnz gold but access for Virgin gold (even when the Airnz flight is credited to airnz)