New Zealands response to Covid-19 [was Soft closing of NZ Border]

Old Jul 7, 2021, 2:08 am
  #106  
 
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Has anyone got any real world experience with MIQ as in successfully getting a spot and then successfully getting their booked flight to stick without getting bumped or forced to pay huge amounts to upgrade to J or F in order actually get home?

Are any airlines safer than others?
Should I avoid QR as they stop in BNE?
I will be flying from Europe so it looks like SQ, EK and QR are my options.

Thanks.
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Old Jul 7, 2021, 2:34 am
  #107  
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Originally Posted by Croupier
Has anyone got any real world experience with MIQ as in successfully getting a spot and then successfully getting their booked flight to stick without getting bumped or forced to pay huge amounts to upgrade to J or F in order actually get home?

Are any airlines safer than others?
Should I avoid QR as they stop in BNE?
I will be flying from Europe so it looks like SQ, EK and QR are my options..
As the MIQ slot and flight are separate/independent have seen no reports of people being bumped from flights to NZ. Very different to flights to AU, where the airline effectively auction the govt quarantine slots. You have 48hrs after slot confirmation to upload flight number & PNR. I booked a slot - flight in Jan without issues (later cancelled due to TT bubble opening). If the flight changes the airline & MIQ work together. Happened to my booking. Had a email from MIQ about the 1 day change before the email from Air NZ,

The NZ Govt seem to have (recently) closed MIQ to bookings until end of Oct. But there are~2000 rooms unused. Used to see occasional opening, probably when people cancelled
https://allocation.miq.govt.nz/portal/
https://www.miq.govt.nz/travel-to-ne...e-free-travel/
https://www.miq.govt.nz/travel-to-ne...ged-isolation/

SQ may be more reliable (fly to CHC and AKL).
The QR flight sells as DOH-BNE and DOH-(BNE)-AKL. Will be plenty of seats, as only about 30 pax (to be soon ~15 pax) into BNE. The risk with QR is they may cancel due to low (allowed) numbers into AU.

Good luck trying to get a slot. Keep looking.
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Last edited by Mwenenzi; Jul 7, 2021 at 2:40 am
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Old Jul 7, 2021, 4:34 pm
  #108  
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Originally Posted by Croupier
Has anyone got any real world experience with MIQ as in successfully getting a spot.......
MIQ for Nov 2021 seemed to open last night (NZ time`~12hrs ago) and is now fully booked. November MIQ was not online 14hrs ago
MIQ is geo dependant. See different availability depending on your location :- https://allocation.miq.govt.nz/portal/

Link--->One Way to New Zealand using Avios
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Old Jul 7, 2021, 8:52 pm
  #109  
 
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Originally Posted by Croupier
Has anyone got any real world experience with MIQ as in successfully getting a spot and then successfully getting their booked flight to stick without getting bumped or forced to pay huge amounts to upgrade to J or F in order actually get home?

Are any airlines safer than others?
Should I avoid QR as they stop in BNE?
I will be flying from Europe so it looks like SQ, EK and QR are my options.

Thanks.
I have many friends who have flown back home. All of their flights stuck and they flew in economy. They all had to book MIQ months in advance. Last month my friend decided to come home from England and the closest MIQ time slot she could get was late October.

Most flights get bumped because they transit through countries that close to the country you are flying out of. To maximise the chances of getting home it is smart to limit transit locations to a single transit country and to pick a country unlikely to close to outside countries.

For example right now if I was flying home from England I would be looking to transit through Dubai rather than Singapore. Dubai have embraced covid much more so than Singapore.
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Old Jul 7, 2021, 9:01 pm
  #110  
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Originally Posted by kiwifrequentflyer
...For example right now if I was flying home from England I would be looking to transit through Dubai rather than Singapore. Dubai have embraced covid much more so than Singapore.
Agree the transit country can make a big difference. Qatar has been reliable transit as at for the complete pandemic. QR have never stopped flying. But they had trouble with getting into UK for a while.

From the linked thread above
Originally Posted by Colossus
.....In terms of the MIQ, it all went in apparently 30-45 minutes, however they are now releasing in batches, so what was released today, was only part of the total MIQ availability for November. Also some likely booked multiple slots until they work out their flights, so Id expect more availability soon.
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Old Jul 8, 2021, 4:55 pm
  #111  
 
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Further proof that the sentiment on this forum that the borders being shut is a terrible travesty is not shared by the general public: https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/polit...pening-borders

Asked if they felt the country was going in the right direction, 75 per cent said they agreed. A further 12 per cent said the country was going in the wrong direction and 13 per cent were not sure.

​​

Last edited by kiwifrequentflyer; Jul 8, 2021 at 5:00 pm
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Old Jul 8, 2021, 5:38 pm
  #112  
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Originally Posted by kiwifrequentflyer
Further proof that the sentiment on this forum that the borders being shut is a terrible travesty is not shared by the general public: https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/polit...pening-borders
​​
The reasons:
  • people are alive
  • compared to the rest of the world have lived close to a (preCV19) normal life

Total cases/1M population
USA..102,024.70......(1.00 USA rate)
UK......73,770.20......(1.38 USA - UK rate)
AU.........1211.89.. ...(84.19 USA - AU rate)
NZ.......... 573.39......(177.93 USA - NZ rate)

Deaths/1M population
USA 1,831.46 ......(1.00 USA rate)
UK.. 1,893.84........(0.97 USA - UK rate)
AU.......35.69........(51.32 USA - AU rate)
NZ.........5.39........(339.79 USA - NZ rate)
Source for July 07, 2021
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
https://ourworldindata.org/explorers...US~NZL~NAM~RUS

Australia would be close to NZ rate if the VIC state government had not failed to manage hotel quarantine last year

Last edited by Mwenenzi; Jul 8, 2021 at 7:45 pm Reason: 2 significant value
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Old Jul 8, 2021, 11:41 pm
  #113  
 
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I just won the MIQ lottery.
I've never been so happy than to spend $3000 to be locked in a room for 14 days.

Hovered over the site when I thought the 48hr deadline might be up and I managed to get 10/10/21.
Fingers crossed that I pass a PCR test within the 72hrs before departure.

Praying that everything will go smooth, wish me luck, will be on NZ90.

Yayeeeeeeeeee.
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Old Jul 9, 2021, 4:29 am
  #114  
 
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Originally Posted by Mwenenzi
Australia would be close to NZ rate if the VIC state government had not failed to manage hotel quarantine last year
And if the Federal Government had not failed to manage Aged Care facilities appropriately.
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Old Jul 21, 2021, 3:19 pm
  #115  
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21 Jul 2021 (rnz.co.nz)--->Covid-19: No MIQ rule changes in 2021
<snip>
At his weekly press conference updating progress on the vaccination roll out today, Hipkins essentially slapped another padlock on the border gate, warning people requirements for isolation will stay the same at least until the end of the year and likely beyond that. "I'm still working on the basis that certainly for this year people will be in MIQ for 14 days probably into early next year as well but we haven't made any firm decisions about that," Hipkins said. That means double vaccinated people returning to New Zealand will still need to snare a spot in MIQ and stay there the full 14 days.

However, Hipkins said as vaccination rates increase other options could be considered. "Longer term and again I don't want to put a timeframe on this but it might include things like alternative isolation options like people isolating at home when they come into the country. "But that's a way away it's not going to happen this year I don't think and certainly in the early part of next year I'd imagine that things are going to continue in much the same way as they are now," Hipkins said.
<snip>
21 Jul 2021 (rnz.co.nz)--->'Red tape' keeping GPs from giving Covid-19 vaccine, doctors say
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Old Aug 1, 2021, 7:33 pm
  #116  
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An announcement of an announcement (sigh)
02 Aug (rnz.co.nz)---->Covid-19: Border plans set to be revealed next week
Next Thursday, 12 August, Ardern will set out the government's future approach to the border and public health measures, and release the advice from experts on how to open the border safely. It comes after Australia announced a month ago it would halve the number of people allowed into the country to achieve high vaccination rates in preparation for opening the border widely. However, New Zealand has since shut down quarantine-free travel with Australia for eight weeks as several states work to control outbreaks of the Delta variant.
<snip>
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Old Aug 10, 2021, 5:35 pm
  #117  
 
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https://i.stuff.co.nz/travel/news/30...travel-in-2022
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Old Aug 10, 2021, 9:39 pm
  #118  
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I had lunch today with a Kiwi friend. She is a dual citizen, but was quite upset about the situation with the quarantine.

She told me of the serious plight of expats trying to return home when they can't get an MIQ booking and they are overstaying/violating their visa dates in the host countries. Apparently some are ending up in a terrible limbo because of the backlog of MIQ slots. They're stranded in places like airport hotels, awaiting their MIQ confirmation. The sentiment is that if quarantine is mandatory, the slots should be easily and timely obtained.

They've got a petition going: Grounded Kiwis
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Old Aug 10, 2021, 10:29 pm
  #119  
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Originally Posted by StartinSanDiego
I had lunch today with a Kiwi friend. She is a dual citizen, but was quite upset about the situation with the quarantine.

She told me of the serious plight of expats trying to return home when they can't get an MIQ booking and they are overstaying/violating their visa dates in the host countries. Apparently some are ending up in a terrible limbo because of the backlog of MIQ slots. They're stranded in places like airport hotels, awaiting their MIQ confirmation. The sentiment is that if quarantine is mandatory, the slots should be easily and timely obtained.

They've got a petition going: Grounded Kiwis
People from AU used to occupy ~40% of slots. When the AU bubble opened up (April) not all went back in the pool. That was a NZ govt announcement.
Then policy changed so a MIQ hotel only takes people for 96hrs. Even when there are spare slots they went/are unused.
At the this time more slots are being allocated to people from Au (bubble paused) and people returning from the Olympics
In May-June there were unused slots. With delta variant increasing demand has jumped since then
Petition will achieve nothing. Will not make more MIQ rooms suddenly appear.
https://allocation.miq.govt.nz/portal/

Edit
Dwindling MIQ room supply as govt increases its own allocation
<snip>
The government has taken a larger allocation of the available MIQ spaces, increasing to 500 from 300 places a fortnight it takes for its own projects and policies this year. And public health advice on separating out returnees is expected to lead to a 15 percent fall in supply.
<snip>

Last edited by Mwenenzi; Aug 11, 2021 at 3:06 pm
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Old Aug 11, 2021, 6:21 pm
  #120  
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12 Aug (rnz.co.nz)--->Covid-19: Risk-based border to open from early 2022 - PM Jacinda Ardern
New Zealand will begin testing self-isolation instead of MIQ for vaccinated people this year, with a new border system based on low, medium and high-risk entry paths kicking in from early 2022, the government has announced.

Vaccinations will also be open to all eligible ages from 1 September and the gap between first and second doses will be moved to six weeks instead of three, as the government continues with its elimination strategy. People should also expect the rules around mask wearing and QR code scanning to change at higher alert levels. The government has been responding to the Skegg report on reconnecting New Zealand with the rest of the world. The report was based on work by a group of public health specialists led by Professor Sir David Skegg, and warned that a full rollout of the vaccine would be required to start opening up to the world.A forum on the report and the government's response to it has been held in Wellington this morning, revealing the government's four-step plan for border management.
<snip>
A careful approach that says 'there won't be zero cases, but when there is one in the community, we crush it" is the best way to maintain our normal lives while we monitor the twists and turns of Covid-19 over the next six months." "Key to this is maintaining our Elimination Strategy. The advice is clear: If we open our borders now we will lose the freedoms and advantages we have achieved so far," she said.

She announced the new border system would assess people's risk individually:
  • Low risk: Vaccinated travellers from low risk countries: no isolation required
  • Medium risk: Vaccinated travellers from medium risk countries: modified isolation requirements
  • High risk: Unvaccinated travellers and all travellers from high risk countries: 14 days in MIQ
The system would also require pre-departure tests and further testing for travellers coming into New Zealand, and would be backed by moves to speed up the vaccination rollout.
<snip>
No other major western country, including Australia, has an "elimination' strategy. And for good reason

NZ Herald--->Covid 19 coronavirus: The plan to re-open NZ - home isolation, shorter MIQ for vaccinated travellers
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Last edited by Mwenenzi; Aug 11, 2021 at 6:59 pm
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