ajnz

It wasn't too bad. It had gone from a sure thing upgrade on Wednesday (10 seats available) to business being wait listed for purchases on Thursday morning. I don't know for sure, but I don't believe ANY upgrades cleared on the flight, except maybe some *E.

The flight only had ~5 or so Y seats empty, and other than the typical annoying passengers, I've had worse flights. Meal was OK -- choice of lamb with veges, or a chicken penne pasta. Movie was Aeon Flux, which turned out to be not what I was expecting when compared to the cartoons, so that was disappointing. The service was OK but not great, and they did run out of wine reasonably quickly.

Got a few hours sleep, then arrived in WLG and went to the KiwiFest wine trail. Apparently the flight the day before which some friends were on had absolutely terrible service, so I guess I didn't do too badly.

I was hoping to try the SQ lounge and compare it with the QC, but due to the door-firewall that didn't happen. The hours plaque outside did seem to indicate it would be open, but maybe they've changed their hours and not updated it. Either way, the QC lady didn't have a problem letting me in as *G with a guest.

mad_atta

Does not compute!?! Sounds like my idea of a nightmare flight!

ajnz

Indeed. I'd primed myself in the QC before getting on the plane, and being at the front meant that I had the widest selection before they ran out. And they still had plenty of vodka....

Kiwi Flyer

I have that flight coming up. Perhaps I should check how much booze they intend to load?

cur

Worst view award goes to UA RCC JFK T7. Although you see some of the JetBlue action, the windows are lined with that see-through plastic stuff, kinda like those full-out bus ads.

WellingtonFF

Currently in the UA/NZ lounge in MEL saying a not so sad farewell.

The new lounge opens in a week and sounds great from what I am told - it actually has a window out to the airport, even though it is on ground level, and it faces the new A380 gates.

Formal opening to be with the new NZ MD as the Kiwi Commonwealth Games team leaves.

Will be thru MEL again in about three weeks, so will report if someone doesn't before

everywhere

I can now see I must think of a reason to visit MEL next week.

WellingtonFF

The Commonwealth Games!

Even though Melbourne is my home town, I have to say it looks magnificent.

The symbolic fish in the Yarra representing all the participating countries is very well done, and the rest of the city looks great.

WellingtonFF

I should add that one positive thing about the UA/NZ lounge is that there is a free SQ wireless network available. I used it yesterday and it was great. ^ I hope the new NZ lounge has the same availability.

WellingtonFF

ntddevsys,

You should go over for the opening ceremony of the Games. There are apparently still about 10,000 seats still available (the MCG capacity is 100,000), with lots of good seats still around.

Try to get seats in the members area - it is a new stand and the facilities are impressive. I was there for the Boxing Day Test for four days and can vouch for it. Even the famous Long Room is "clean" and open to the public

everywhere

Alas as nice as that sounds WellingtonFF, I should really have made myself clearer - I'm looking for a Business reason, though I guess networking could do it...

WellingtonFF

Networking is definitely the way to go @:-)

WindFlyer

WLG domestic: very nice lounge ^ Lots of room, and excellent views (even if the outside of the windows were a little dirty making photo of the surfing action at Lyall bay a little dicey). Food and beverage were decent. My laptop detected a WiFi signal, but was unable to connect... 2 PCs were available in the business center, though (so I was able to finalise a couple of travel plans I had cooking).

AKL international: decent lounge, if a bit of a trek to the gates. I thought it somewhat small, and then I saw an 'overflow' room which wasn't getting used—it wasn't very crowded anyway, as this was before a 7AM departure. To be fair, I didn't spend much time there to take a very good look around; I was busy finishing some postcards and getting in a quick nap before that wretched early flight...

SYD international: great lounge, good food, great beverages, clean showers, and free WiFi ^^^ can't ask for much more (the general lounge blows the doors off the UA IFCL ). The reception agent confirmed that the FC room is used strictly by TG.

...FWIW, there was no lounge in GIS that I could see (though I was in a hurry to get out to a couple of wineries and the Eastwoodhill Arboretum )

Kiwi Flyer

No lounge at all at GIS.

The NZ domestic lounges are:

Koru Club (= full *G priveliges) at
AKL, WLG, CHC, DUD

Regional Koru Club (= no guest access, less facilities) at
HLZ, NPL, NPE, PMR, NSN, ZQN, IVC

Link

WindFlyer

Thanks ^

I didn't expect there'd be one... after all, I flew in on a Beech 1900D--the one with the open cockpit