New Zealand December 2011 - Air New Zealand AKL Koru Club Lounge

***This post is part 15 of a full trip report. The index can be found here***   

My three other travel buddies were all booked on Air Pacific back to LAX via NAN. Since their flight was scheduled to depart a couple of hours prior to mine, we headed over to the Air Pacific counters to get them checked-in first. Holy cow, we were met with a line that looked more appropriate for Disneyland than an airport! I reminded myself to avoid Air Pacific at all costs in the future. Obviously, this was going to take a while for them, so I decided to go get checked-in for my Air New Zealand flight in the meantime.

AKL International Terminal

Air Pacific economy class check-in cluster#@*!

Talk about night and day! Air New Zealand's premium check-in counter was in a completely separate area. There was not a single person waiting in line, which meant I was able to get my bags checked-in and my boarding pass printed out in less than five minutes. Afterwards, I walked back to the Air Pacific counters and saw my friends not even half-way through the line yet.

Air New Zealand premium check-in counters

New Zealand December 2011 - Air New Zealand LAX Koru Club Lounge

***This post is part 3 of a full trip report. The index can be found here***

After arriving at LAX, I made my way over to Terminal 2. Despite having my LAX-AKL boarding pass already (printed by United), I headed to the Air New Zealand check-in counter to request a real one. There was a premium check-in area to the right, but I decided to go to the regular line since it was completely empty. It ended up being a good idea to get my boarding pass reprinted because Air New Zealand actually requires proof of your return flight prior to departure - something United failed to inform me of when I checked in at SFO.

There was no premium security line that I could find, so I joined the regular queue with everyone else. Luckily it moved fairly quickly. Once through, I made my way upstairs to the mezzanine level where all the T2 lounges were located. The entrance to the Air New Zealand Koru Club was fairly nondescript, although the sign outside did indicate that Virgin Atlantic Upper Class passengers were also welcome. Inside, the lounge was nicely decorated with Christmas trees and plenty of reminders of New Zealand, such as a giant kiwi stuffed animal, and All Blacks paraphernalia.