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No room in Auckland Lounge
Have just read this in the NZ Herald. It appears that some people have been contacted to say that there won't be room in the lounge for them tomorrow due to high demand. Instead they are being redirected to the Strata Lounge.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/...ectid=12139523 It would be very annoying for NZ customers if they knew that partner airlines' customers would still get access. |
This quote
''I'm disappointed that after paying a substantial amount of money for my membership, and in light of the fact I'm almost always travelling for business, the facilities I pay for may not be available for use,'' the passenger said. So that new lounge on the new pier is really needed if the media can refer to emails of people getting bounced. Is that much more tangible that people just grumping about the lack seats. |
School holidays won't help the situation at all (international or domestic lounges).
I can hardly wait to see the WLG KC on this Friday evening .... may have to try for an earlier flight. |
Originally Posted by nzlilibet
(Post 30293898)
Have just read this in the NZ Herald. It appears that some people have been contacted to say that there won't be room in the lounge for them tomorrow due to high demand. Instead they are being redirected to the Strata Lounge.
And while I am at it, school holidays are carefully modeled into pricing structures so not a surprise. I will accept the Wellington lounge getting a little full when there is a two day gale :-) |
Air NZ have used the Strata lounge frequently in recent months.
I had to fly WLG-AKL return for a few hours on Sunday for work. WLG Koru at 0630 on a Sunday morning was such a pleasant place. :) AKL Koru at 1400 on Sunday was literally worse than a zoo with kids everywhere, some of whom didn't seem the understand the lounge wasn't the playground. At least one parent took their screaming kids outside (screaming as they were dragged out). |
Im flying tomorrow morning, havent been contacted though - think they are bouncing KORU CLUB. I want to Guest a non-member though.
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They better be careful, their Koru members might actually see what good quality lounge food looks like in that lounge |
Seems they're deliberately making a point now after Luxon's email the other week.
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Originally Posted by b1m9t0
(Post 30294694)
Seems they're deliberately making a point now after Luxon's email the other week.
My colleagues did get bumped to the Strata Lounge in September too (without a prior notification), travelling on NZ10 on a Friday night, but they were only Silver using vouchers. To be totally fair, it seems reasonable to me that they offered an alternative. They could have done the classic "no space for vouchers, enjoy the terminal!" instead of course. |
There is no way VA would continue contracting NZ lounges post 28 Oct.
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NZ lounge is not that great and Strata is not that bad.
Outside meal times (Lunch / Dinner), Strata has better hot options. If I was on TT Seat/Bag looking for a good feed, my pick would be Strata. |
My question would be, at the time they are rejecting passengers from there own lounge. How manny passengers from other contracted airlines will be using the NZ loubge? One would hope they got bounced to the Strata Lounge first.
For one I really think in the mean time they need to make it an non-star allowance Gold lounge. |
It would interesting to know the ‘status’ demographics in both international and domestic lounges, such as percentage breakdown of: NZ and *A biz pax Other airline contract biz (are there any?) *A elites in Y/PE (NZ*G/GE and other *G) Koru Club NZ*S and CCrd lounge voucher users Guests of each of the above |
At WLG they have a sign they put up at the entry to the international lounge advising of no guests and no customers on e-vouchers when it's busy.
I haven't been to Australia now since July but in May and June when I had a few flights on Friday afternoons this sign was up on two visits. Anecdotally (from speaking to somebody I knew on the BNE flight on one of those visits) it seemed that proportionately more customers in there were on the VA flight to BNE than the NZ to MEL or NZ to SYD. |
Seems like the NZ airpoints division must be a great profit centre for NZ to sell off lounge passes/status credits etc to the credit card companies. Unfortunately the downside of it is that they actually have to let others in who aren’t actually frequent flyers. Hence their recent actions. I’ve found the NZ lounges so-so lately. They seem to have lost their wow factor. Especially when there’s lots of kids in them. That’s quite a bit of extra capacity they are planning on in Auckland and Wellington. |
Originally Posted by cavemanzk
(Post 30296092)
My question would be, at the time they are rejecting passengers from there own lounge. How manny passengers from other contracted airlines will be using the NZ loubge? One would hope they got bounced to the Strata Lounge first.
For one I really think in the mean time they need to make it an non-star allowance Gold lounge. Like most things AKL-related, it just comes down to bad planning by the airport, with perhaps a little bit of blame to NZ who might have (and should have) pushed a bit harder at the time. |
Another Article in the NZ Herald today:
Air New Zealand Koru Lounge crunch: Passenger felt like 'second class citizen' |
Ha - it does fascinate me the hyperbole around Koru Club issues when people complain in the media. Im not sure there is anything else like it. |
Really it comes down to airports designing enough space. Need a full second floor in departure for lounges rather than the partial second floors you commonly see.
Also for the second AKL international lounge. Why isn't that built already? Shouldn't it have been done while they were building the new pier? So would be ready to go? |
Originally Posted by nzkarit
(Post 30297427)
Also for the second AKL international lounge. Why isn't that built already? Shouldn't it have been done while they were building the new pier? So would be ready to go?
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Originally Posted by Top of climb
(Post 30297550)
Name one thing at AKL that is designed well. It's like someone read a book about airport design that extolled the importance of wayfinding and clear directional layout, and then not only completely ignored it but very carefully did the exact opposite. Practically every route you have to take as a passenger or driver involves looping round obstacles and doubling back on yourself. The entire terminal building is basically bad decision built on bad decision built on bad decision.
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Originally Posted by Top of climb
(Post 30297550)
Practically every route you have to take as a passenger or driver involves looping round obstacles and doubling back on yourself. The entire terminal building is basically bad decision built on bad decision built on bad decision.
AKL is a dog's breakfast of many extensions over the decades. For something proper, only a clean sheet and lots of $$$$ will deliver. |
Originally Posted by Top of climb
(Post 30297550)
Name one thing at AKL that is designed well. It's like someone read a book about airport design that extolled the importance of wayfinding and clear directional layout, and then not only completely ignored it but very carefully did the exact opposite. Practically every route you have to take as a passenger or driver involves looping round obstacles and doubling back on yourself. The entire terminal building is basically bad decision built on bad decision built on bad decision.
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Have any of you flown to CHC recently and noticed all the new seating in the terminal areas, domestic post security and in the public areas upstairs? Its great. A real variety too, from beanbags to seats to these cool par type seats. All with loads of free power ports! When the Koru lounge is full in CHC this is a much more pleasant environment
The problem is AKL in both domestic and international is the terminals are so awful. As mentioned above, the much hooplad "upgrades": to the international terminal are all retail. passenger seating and comfort is an afterthought (like that bizarre extremely uncomfortable looking pit in the main retail area, ... is that!) Christchurch really is such a superior airport. i cant help thinking that management and culture have to be part of this. AKL only seem to care about money |
Stuff thought they better get involved now.
Air NZ and Auckland Airport in stand-off over lounge crowding |
Originally Posted by WLG Base
(Post 30298132)
I'm not looking forward to the zoo (or is it sbiddle's child care centre) tomorrow. |
Originally Posted by edmm
(Post 30298256)
And they are in a "my-fault your-fault type argument". Air NZ have known from day one that the new lounge is not big enough. It's time they stopped blaming everyone else and fix the problems, although Auckland Airport is at fault too.
I'm not looking forward to the zoo (or is it sbiddle's child care centre) tomorrow. |
They could try the UA approach - Air NZ Business Premier "Polaris" type lounges with access only for C passengers flying any *A airline departing that airport. Takes a few 772/773 loads of BP and equivalent pax out of the Koru lounge and with a stricter guesting policy and cutting out *G pax flying in Y or A class...
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Originally Posted by kyanar
(Post 30298443)
They could try the UA approach - Air NZ Business Premier "Polaris" type lounges with access only for C passengers flying any *A airline departing that airport. Takes a few 772/773 loads of BP and equivalent pax out of the Koru lounge and with a stricter guesting policy and cutting out *G pax flying in Y or A class...
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Originally Posted by edmm
(Post 30298451)
Absolutely. We spent much of a day in the SFO Polaris lounge in May. It was great, everything a lounge should be- quiet, spacious, comfortable and good food. You pay huge money for NZ C. It's about time we got value for money.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-...-bp-china.html |
Got an email saying I've received 2 Koru lounge passes from my credit card spend today. Great timing!
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Originally Posted by kyanar
(Post 30298443)
They could try the UA approach - Air NZ Business Premier "Polaris" type lounges with access only for C passengers flying any *A airline departing that airport. Takes a few 772/773 loads of BP and equivalent pax out of the Koru lounge and with a stricter guesting policy and cutting out *G pax flying in Y or A class...
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Originally Posted by edmm
(Post 30298451)
Absolutely. We spent much of a day in the SFO Polaris lounge in May. It was great, everything a lounge should be- quiet, spacious, comfortable and good food. You pay huge money for NZ C. It's about time we got value for money.
The spend required to reach NZ*G/GE status (and *G in most *A programs) is non-trivial, particularly if self-paid. What is the right answer? |
Originally Posted by drajknox
(Post 30298591)
Personally I think NZ would be foolish to try to create a Polaris type premium lounge for Business class passengers only as in many ports it would’ve an underused space in terms of their own Business passengers. I think the Elite guesting should be reduced to 2 guests with Gold and Koru at 1, children should count irrespective of age. I wonder if the answer is:
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I also really wonder how much of a problem the Elite 5 guest allowance is.
Clearly in the domestic lounges at times there are corporate Elite's who will happily guest in multiple people and I've seen this plenty of times. For international lounges it isn't something I've ever seen. The simple reality is that Air NZ clearly has too many HVCs - despite plenty of people in here believing they have the worst FFP in the world! |
I just wonder with the huge increase in tourist traffic if in fact *A users could be a contributing factor given quite a few *A carriers now operate in and out of Auckland
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Let's be honest, if you don't fly NZ internationally (and use the NZ lounge), your alternatives aren't that compelling. Until QF upgrades its lounges, its offering is poor (both the Business and First ones are overcrowded and mediocre at times). Emirates is decent, but unless you are heading Dubai and beyond or Bali (or it is open when a QF flight is operating), it's of little real interest to NZ. Contrast AKL to SYD or MEL, where there are far more choices and NZ isn't a default to attract airlines as a contract lounge, nor is it dominant.
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Originally Posted by ClanJ
(Post 30298682)
I just wonder with the huge increase in tourist traffic if in fact *A users could be a contributing factor given quite a few *A carriers now operate in and out of Auckland
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Have been in heaps of *A carrier lounges in the past 3 months and the most crowded one you guessed it was the Auckland one when we left. As an aside flew from Milan back home with Thai Air via BKK. in J. In the BBK to AKL had a faulty armrest in my seat which I informed them of. They got back to really quick with an apology and 5000 miles to my FF account which was totally unexpected. Great customer service.
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Originally Posted by sbiddle
(Post 30298679)
The simple reality is that Air NZ clearly has too many HVCs - despite plenty of people in here believing they have the worst FFP in the world!
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