Waking at 0545, it was just a quick was and straight to the road for a taxi to Changi Terminal 3. The streets were quiet a tad after 0600 and I had to go around the corner to be on a busier street.
Check-in at the airport was best ever. There was not a soul at the counter. The staff explained that most passengers are connecting (which I knew).
As usual my Malaysian passport didn’t scan properly and they had to get a supervisor override to correct my name (it scans as if I only have a very long surname and no name due to the format of the Malaysian passport). I finally had an explanation regarding this, having wandered if it was an issue specific to Air New Zealand.
They explained that the name scan is an issue all the time but with Air New Zealand, the staff can’t fix it and it requires a supervisor override (whereas they can do the override themselves when processing for other airlines). I never expected Singaporeans to be so up-front and also have the time to explain this nicely; even in New Zealand they simply laugh it off very nicely and say it’s not a problem for them to fix it.
I had about an hour to kill and visited the lounge, despite not being hungry. I grabbed a coffee and a very light bite before boarding the black-and-white Dreamliner for Auckland. The crew were marvellous on the daylight flight. They were polite and patient with demanding customers and one made balloon animals for kids after dinner. Seated overwing, it wasn’t as quiet as when I first experienced this model.