I’m never particularly organised but I can normally manage my travels to minimise the amount of work I have to do and maximise “lazing about” time, so quite how I came to find myself flying to AKL for just over 24 hours the day before I was flying to Blighty still baffles me. I blame Griselda, my secretary!
Logistically my plans were, for me, bizarre; arrive at MEL airport, park long term, fly to AKL, pick up rental car, drive to HI AKL airport, return the next day, fly to MEL, collect car, drive to HI at MEL airport, stay the night, get up, fly to SYD, jump on BA16. Given that I struggle to remember my name on a good day this trip seemed fraught with danger.
Check in at the F desk did not see a move forward from 4A, but at least I didn’t hear the dreaded words - “an upgrade is requested but not confirmed yet” so there was still hope.
You won’t be surprised to hear I had the eggs benedict with smoked salmon, two grilled tomatoes and a pot of English Breakfast tea when I reached the F lounge. I’m nothing if not predictable.
[GRITTED TEETH] The lovely QF check in peeps managed to find an QPNB to sit next to me too, so it is nice to know they want to make sure their P1’s aren’t lonely when flying. [/GRITTED TEETH]
At least the bright spot of Smart gate didn’t let me down and I had another quick plane to rental car experience at AKL. I should also point out that Europcar at AKL has always looked after me too, and on this occasion I was upgraded to a Holden Captiva.
I was due to attend an event at the ASB Showgrounds the day after landing so there seemed little point in heading off to the city for a hotel. The Novotel was convenient and, despite my jaundiced view of anything remotely connected to France, is not bad at all.....but these were difficult times. Difficult because of the changes to status renewal with IHG. I needed IHG points desperately if I was to maintain Platinum status. This was July too so I could expect free internet - the handling of which I was particularly keen to see in New Zealand where decent data allowance limits, even when paid for, are as scarce as my P1 shadows these days..
The Holiday Inn at AKL is about a five to ten minute drive from the airport and in reality is not too bad. I was upgraded from a double to a king room. The room was a little tired but perfectly fine for an overnighter. The internet was, unsurprisingly, rubbish - limited to 300MB and not particularly fast. I had taken the precaution of adding 3GB to my PAYG iPad sim.
Checking in at AKL in the QF Premium check in suite I finally cracked when the more senior check in agent arrived and made the comment about Platinum One’s being important to QF. This was shortly after I had heard the dreaded “an upgrade is in the system for you, but you’ll need to check in the lounge.” In the meantime in the first five rows the only middle seat taken was next to me.
I politely explained to the check in lady that it sometimes didn’t feel like QF treated their P1’s as if they were particularly important to them. A couple of calls were made, seemingly, to no effect, and I was on my way to departures.
Continued Here