Yes, they absolutely will sell you that connection. However, their website won't (easily), and the ticket's already been issued.... hence my question on whether anyone has any experience (or better yet, success) on standing by for the earlier departure to LAX.

Kiwi Flyer, as always, thanks for your thoughts on the transit.

tht and Kiwi Flyer keep us posted on how this goes .

Good so far. Watch out for a short trip report soon (link).

Enjoying a few quiet drinks in SQ F lounge in LHR.

Just joined Kiwi Flyer in the F lounge,

All going well.

tht

Just a quick update on the trip, firstly thanks to Kiwi flyer.

Trip report:

Friday the 11th of May 16.45pm, left central Auckland by car, traffic was not to bad, we arrived at the airport by 5.30pm. Proceeded to the premium check in, agent said they would block the middle seat of our row of 3. Drinks and a shower in the lounge. Upon boarding we found the blocked middle had been assigned, we switched to a middle and isle 2 rows forward to allow a couple to sit together.

Arrived in LA and proceeded to clear customs and immigration, cues were not very long, but it still took a while, we did get back in to the NZ lounge, but only had time for a shower and sandwich before we had to board.

Upon arrival in London at about 10.30am, I was off the plane and out of the airport within 25 mins, no cues there! However when I got to the London Underground, it was closed! Proceeded to the Heathrow express and GBP29 later (the Tube home in GBP 2.90) I was underway. I changed to the Tube, and upon arriving at Earls court, I bumped in to 2 of my brothers (we were planning to meet at home). We all proceeded to our parents house, where my Mother was very surprised to see me (because I live in NZ). We had a BBQ and sang happy birthday and it was time to get underway again. Friends droped me at Paddington station (I don't miss London traffic, even worse than the North western at 7.30am). The Heathrow express was there, and within 20 minutes I was back at Heathrow's Terminal 3. Checked in and headed strait to the lounge to meet Kiwi Flyer again (he had a side trip). Another shower and change of cloths and we were underway again at about 9pm. This time loads were light in Y, so we had a row of 3 each to ourselves.


Hong Kong was our next stop, I had issues getting through transit with my boarding pass, so had a long walk back to the NZ desk, but before long I was back in the SQ F Lounge with Kiwi Flyer, another shower, and some drinks later we were back on the plane for our last flight. Again I had a row of 3 to myself, so I made a bed with 3 blankets an 4 pillows, and managed to sleep form right after dinner until the PA announcement for breakfast (which is rare for me).

We arrived early and picked up duty free, I rushed to my car, to drop of my duty free and get some clean cloths, I then proceeded to check in for my flight to WRE. I met Kiwi Flyer gain at the domestic Kuru club for a coffee. He had a shower and left for work, and I am now waiting for my flight, also showered n feeling surprisingly good for having been around the world in less than 60 hours!

All in all a great trip, hope to repeat it soon, next stop JFK (Via a $496 NZ Grab a Seat fare to LAX).

Again a big thanks to Kiwi Flyer's status and knowledge who made the whole trip allot easier for me!

tht

Thanks tht ^

You left out the duty free bargain!

That I did, anyone going through AKL at the moment can pick up 1 Liter of Havana Club (much better than Bacardi for Mojitos) for NZ$12.90, it turned out even better for us, Kiwi Flyer had 2 spend $80 and get $10 off vouchers, and I had to but Hennesey for a friends wedding, so we both basically got a free bottle of Havana Club each :-)

Thanks for posting your experiences, tht, sounds like you guys had a great trip.

Glad to hear that it was possible to get through C&I at LAX. It looks like both NZ2 and NZ6 this Friday are quite full, so it may not be possible for us to get through depending on the queues... we'll definitely give it a shot though.

Looks like NZ38 the whole way through is pretty empty though, and we have exit row seats at the moment but a seatmap is showing a large number of empty 3 and 4 seat sets so may well be able to have a sleep....

Looking forward to reading Kiwi Flyer's report too.

It is possible. While an NZ staff is at the end of the airbridge directing t'fer pax to the holding pen we just ignored and went past. Immigration doesn't care.

On Friday queues at immigration, customs and security were not particularly long (I've seen much longer at all three places), however we still only just had time for a quick shower in the lounge (boarding was about 10 minutes after we arrived) - and lucky there were enough free showers. There were 3 of us in economy who did this, plus an unknown number in business.

My only problem now will be in 2 weeks flying without Kiwi Flyer to NYC, there will be no *G, Showers, Lounge etc.....

Letting my *G drop was easy, getting it back in Y wont be as easy!

Here is a great story, after that whole trip, NZ managed to lose my bag between AKL and WRE. But it came on the next flight and was at my hotel when I got there :-)

Also OT: looking through my passport last night, I don't seem to have received a new PR stamp? Not sure it is an issue? May contact immigration to check.

tht

I thought you weren't checking a bag? Did they not put it into the hold on arrival at the a/c, or was the flight totally full (and thus may not have had any room to put it in the hold or on a spare seat inside)?

Thanks for that.

If you get to the point of Immigration and deem the queues too long, can you turn back to the transit lounge instead?

"Oops I screwed up and walked too far"?

Nonetheless it should be fun, and I'm prepared to run if necessary. Hopefully security will be reasonably short.

As an aside, were you able to get seating allocated for the flights on a segment-by-segment basis or would they only allocate on the through flight basis?

I've not been able to convince the phone res people to do it on a per segment basis. Right now we have an aisle/middle pair, and the window seat is free. I just called to ask if it was possible to get the aisle/window and block the middle, and the agent refused to do so saying that NZ does not do that (and never has?!) and that even the checkin agents at the airport can't do it; and that only the duty manager at the airport can, after the flight has gone to airport control.

This surprises me as I've had no problem with them doing middle seat blocking in the past.... admittedly I've also had trouble getting ahold of GOOD reservation agents lately.

"Our Heathrow flights are very full at the moment" is the reason given... which still seems odd to me as there are still W fares available; however business and premium economy do appear to be sold out (showing C1 right now).

Probably, with some hassle (need to find an officer who is prepared to escort you back to the holding pen).

Thing is the immigration is only the first of 3 queues that need to worry about. Customs is another - on Friday we were through that in 1 minute, but sometimes can take much longer. Security upstairs is not visible until you get there so just have to take a punt that it will be okay.

Only through flight seat assignment unless you are ticketed with separate flight coupons.

NZ does not guarantee seat blocking. When I called to select seats I put in a request for middle seat, which they noted. By the time we checked in the seat had been taken, but after the check in agent spoke with someone we got it blocked (passenger moved from middle to an aisle seat). On boarding someone else had taken the seat. The flight was almost totally full (maybe 2 empty seats in economy, both way near the back).

Unfortunately with the nature of the flight - being 2 legs on 1 number, plus NZ's ace up the sleeve for overbooking by having earlier flight to LAX also to juggle loads for LAX destination passengers as well as through passengers - it is difficult to judge loads based on fares available on NZ website. For our flight NZ was selling reasonably priced global saver fares online on the afternoon of day of departure - so I thought the seat block would hold. I was wrong. On the other hand, the return flight was half empty with many status pax getting a row of 3 or 4 to themselves, or sharing a row of 4 with just one other.