Interrogated for MR
 

Apparently one outside of reservation expenses, sometimes do also pay another price for embarking on MRs - at the expense of Interrogation. Last week while doing doing DEN-SFO-(via SYD)-AKL-(via SIN)-ZRH-ORD, the folks at AKL apparently had an incredulous take to my motive for a 1-night stay was collecting miles. I was interrogated by New Zealand immigration for almost two hours where the lady who cross examined me asked about my profession, my marriage status and went through every single inch of my luggages, carryon, laptop and went back and forth between her supervisor about my state. She found it impossible that I would endure a long 14+ hour transpacific run, only to stay one night without knowing anyone here having only a passport, hotel/car rental reservation and then leaving immediately the next day for Europe. She would go on and on that I was lying to her about collecting miles and wanted me to distort my story when I have no other ones and was simply being 100% honest. She and her supervisor even called the SQ AKL office to verify that I was a booked passenger on the next day's flight. The lenghty interrogation at one point became very tedious that I feared that this would be the first time that I'd be refused entry into a country. Though after the whole ordeal, they finally let me out and said that the reason for my interrogation was the fact that I fell into the criteria for being high risk.

Well next time I'm doing an MR via NZ, I'd make sure I have a same day connection enabling me to immediately transit airside and avoid having to pass immigration. I'm not a heavy MR person but I have done several MRs in the past with short stays of country/continent hopping and last week was the first time I had been severly grilled and sent to scrutiny. I had no problems at ZRH BTW despite only staying 2 nights.

Anyone else been interrogated for MR itineraries?

The Swiss are used to visitors just staying for one or two nights, but it usually isn´t about miles :)

I recently did a transatlantic (no MR) and just stayed for a weekend and got some extra questioning, but fortunately no grilling as you did.

I would have just logged on to FT and spent a couple of minutes in the MR forum showing them that, yes, there are lots of people who do exactly what you were doing!

I, too, had the exact same experience upon arrival in AKL about two years ago, during a MR. Though I had a two night stay booked there, it was difficult for them to believe that I would come all that way from SFO for two days just to go right back to SFO. They, then, spent two hours going through every single item in my one carry-on including going page by page through my travel diary asking detailed questions about its contents! They even checked to make sure every tylenol tablet in my travel size tylenol bottle was actually tylenol by calling the pharmaceutical desk to verify pill size, shape, color. Every 5 minutes or so during the screening, they offered me the opportunity to "come clean" as to why I was really only there for two days and told me the magistrate would be more lenient if I were to admit to it then!

In the end, they told me that I fit the profile of a drug-trafficker....

Not a very welcoming way to start my entry to NZ and left me feeling like a criminal.......

putongo

True. AKL is a nice MR spot if you don't have to "officially" enter the country. If you do forget about it. I've had to undergo similar cross examination for MRs that I have done requiring overnight stays there. NZ immigration & customs apparently do not understand the definition of an MR and a practice of such will severly raise their eyebrows. For god's sake, I'm a Brittish passport holder with a stable job with no criminal record and I never bring food, plants so why on earth would they be overly suspicious that I would cause harm & damage in the country?

Even if I don't get sent to secondary inspection, the biosecurity process at customs exit with X-ray doesn't make the entry any smoother. Either way, it is an unfortunately painful process to enter a great country filled with friendly people and beautiful sceneries.

Yet another thread on this .. :P though it is always nice to read the experience of others and provide advise to us on where and what to expect when doing an MR.
I can understand that countries like NZ and up to a certain extend Australia (i think they got a taste of MR's this year with the drop in prices between US and Australia) can be a bit skeptical about people claiming that they are doing MR's. I think the reason is that because it is so far away and can't believe that prices could be that low to make it attractive to a MR.
Even in the US, not all main hubs are yet used to reason of travel is collecting miles/status...as I mentioned sometime ago, this year I was held nearly 3 times when doing an MR from Europe to US for a weekend stay. Luckily over in the US, some officers are already used to these madness..:D so that helps too.
It will take some time before the border officers around the world will understand this madness.. :P Maybe they should start introducing it into their training :P

:)

I had the same problem at BNE
 

I was in Brisbane for one day (not MR) for a business meeting and was held for over an hour and a half two weeks ago. Part of my problem was one way from LHR - SIN - BNE (SQ)and then out the next one way BNE - SYD - LAX (UA).

On top of that, I had an unopened bag of gummy bears which I did not know needed to be declared... That 99¢ bag of candy cost me $109 fine. Not sure what the difference is between gum, mints, and gummy bears, but they didn't fine me for the mints and gum.

Moral to the story - Declare ANY and ALL candy!

StarFeat - you may have gotten someone new at AKL.

Yes they routinely target MRers as having suspicious activity, even NZers. However, normally if you get an experienced officer they quickly catch on and there is a relatively painless 30 minutes going through your bags, form filling and on your way.

Sometimes you get someone new and yes, 1-3 hours is unfortunately normal in those cases.

The agriculture x-rays are needed in Australia and NZ because of the heavy dependence on agriculture in the economy (especially NZ) and many pests & diseases found elsewhere are not present. NZ is stricter than Australia - every bag must be x-rayed or manually searched (whereas Australia does allow some pax deemed low risk to bypass these checks).

That is it exactly. Longhaul fares from NZ are relatively high, travel times are long and the local programs (NZ, QF, DJ) are not very generous so even those familiar with FFPs have a scepticism about MRing. I have spent many hours educating many of the immigration & customs people at AKL on mileage & status runs. However there is active turnover (they frequently rotate people between locations and shifts) and so it is a never-ending education process.

Australia wants arriving pax to declare anything which can be put into the mouth. A bit annoying when you forget about the couple of mints you put in the pocket of your carryon.

Australia and NZ have an unfortunate case of geographical and historical xenophobia.

6 years ago, barely a MR as we stayed there in AKL for 3 days, both of us endured the same unfortunate interrogation by the nasty immigration officers there. I swear I wouldn't want to step my foot again on that beautiful country just because the way they treat foreigners at point of entry...

YET, there were people coming with boxes and being waved away...

Which is the reason that many agricultural diseases that plague the rest of the world don't exist in either Australia or NZ.

Quite well evidenced, when Australian (and NZ) beef was being imported into many countries when Mad Cow Disease was endemic in many beef producing countries.

Also the same reason why Australian (and NZ) chicken was very well accepted during SARS and other similar Chicken based endemics.

I'll let you draw your own conclusions - but the rules are there for a purpose, and it isn't "geographical and historical xenophobia".

BTW - why does the US require fruit being delivered from Hawaii to be certified and/or screened??? Surely this is a similar form of "geographical and historical xenophobia"...

Oh, and I've had my bags x-rayed when entering the great old U.S... I would have loved to see their faces if I commented that they were doing it for "geographical and historical xenophobia" reason - and especially if they found something they didn't like.

As stated above, it isn't just foreigners which are targetted.

I bet I have spent more time in secondary at AKL than anyone else the past several years.

Really? I have had worse experiences in LAS and SFO than I have in any foreign country. Sounds like you got caught up in an overzealous agent. Perhaps it was a slow day at the airport? ;)

Is that what it is?

NZ immigration can be particularly rough, from my experience. I've been taken "aside" 2 out of the 3 times I've entered the country, and I was never coming for just 1 night!

They give you kind of an odd first impression of the place, totally contrary to what Kiwis are really like. (Even the ones here on FT ;) )