taupo

Yes, the walk is not what it was but still doable. I did the bus scrum ONCE then chose the obstacle course walk.
As a regular user of Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounges, Koru food choice is divine. My bar is low.
I agree, the lounge is crowded at times

LyingFlat

The Insta crowd need to get their money's worth for their $400+ Koru membership that gets used no more than half a dozen times a year...

brucelee

The only airport I have been to with an arrivals lounge is the Cathay lounge at Hong Kong International airport.

Top of climb

And that is now closed. (Closed pre Covid.)

gratn

In the early 2000s I got to use the BA F Arrivals lounge at LHR a couple of times. A shower was welcome after long haul flights, but I’m not sure I’d bother again these days. I certainly don’t see this as something NZ is likely to do - too much cost for too little benefit.

drajknox

I visited a Plaza Premium arrivals lounge in Hong Kong a few years ago using Priority Pass - was great to have a rest and a coffee after early morning arrival while waiting for accommodation checkin time. I see it’s no longer available in Priority Pass.

bce1

Virgin has an arrivals lounge in LHR.
Access if in Virgin J or ‘NZ J’ if coming off the NZ codeshare from SFO.

SeaProf

For an alternative opinion, I was absolutely delighted that was the case the last time I used the NZ international lounge in AKL because every option was gluten free.

I cannot tell you how many times I have tried to eat hot food in a lounge/buffet and not been able to because some careless or inconsiderate person (often out of ignorance) either 1) used the serving spoon for one item in a different item or 2) reached across one item to get another item and ended up spilling some of the item they wanted in the other item (as happened in the Air NZ lounge in Rarotonga last month). As someone who is coeliac, that immediately means I cannot eat the food because of cross-contamination.

Having all gluten free items means I don't have to worry about cross-contamination because of careless or inconsideration on the part of other guests. And given the reaction I have when I am exposed to cross-contamination, I usually have to skip meals entirely when traveling. This is problematic as the supposedly gluten-free meal on board is often compromised and cannot be trusted. If I cannot eat in the lounge or on board, it makes for a very difficult day food-wise, especially when AKL is not my original departure city.

ieuan1

As well as all of the LHR arrivals lounges (BA/AA), CX had pre-covid, an arrivals lounge at FRA.
I agree that the showers at AKL domestic lounge are pretty underwhelming.

nzkarit

Will need interesting to see how many showers Qantas puts in during their longue refresh

oranjemakker

Thank you, I stand corrected! Good to know its back up and running

prp343

In your opinion what is the minimum number of times it should get used to justify such a payment?

nzkarit

When I paid I was less than $20 a visit. My thinking is it saving having to think about dinner when flying home after a day work etc. And how much grabbing a quick ready to eat from the super market or something. Before I got gold think was down to about $12 once included plus ones.

LyingFlat

There probably isn't any... By the time you take enough flights to make it worthwhile you'd probably end up qualifying for Gold anyway. The Koru programme is a cash-cow for NZ as they know people won't travel enough to make it worthwhile.

Let's look at a one year membership. The joining fee is $255 and the membership fee is $629. This is a total of $884 for a year. Even a person doing 20 flights a year is still paying $44.20 per visit (dropping to $31.45 per visit in their second year assuming 20 visits due to no joining fee) to access the lounge (assuming they actually use the lounge for each visit - I myself seldom use the lounge for domestic trips). On each visit they will probably consume no more than $20 of food and drink.

The maths works out better for those with qualifying credit cards such as the ANZ Airpoints Platinum card ($484 for the year with no joining fee). However, assuming 20 visits a year, you'd still be paying $24.20 per visit to consume cheap food and drink.

Obviously there's other benefits as well such as an extra piece of luggage, free seat select, priority check-in, and priority luggage. Let's break these down:

• Extra luggage
  • Only available on NZ-only itineraries. In all my years of travel I've hardly ever taken an extra bag. Even when flying BP I usually only take one piece of check-in luggage (including on multi-week trips). I expect many Koru members would be similar in not often needing extra luggage. Even if a non-status member needs an extra bag the pre-paid amounts are fairly reasonable.
• Free seat select
  • Fine on longhaul trips but usually much less of an issue on TT and domestic flights. Seat select for a non-status member on domestic flights is only about $5 (exit row is about $10).
• Priority check-in
  • Nice to have but not critical. With the move to kiosks for most places (excluding a few offshore destinations) it's usually faster to use the non-premium check-in area. This is especially true for domestic travel.
• Priority luggage.
  • Again, nice to have but not critical. As an Elite I've found this benefit to be very hit or miss.

Outbound24

Koru membership can also be paid for with Airpoints, so if paid that way no actual cash cost.