Lucky to be flying

Above:  Check-in queue for Air New Zealand.

Checking-in manually

I woke at 0630 and was pleased to see that my 1105 flight had not been cancelled whereas most morning flights had been.  It was still no guarantee as flight can be cancelled last-minute.  When a 55 min delay notification came through, I felt some relief as it seemed like “active” information.

Arriving at the airport at 0830, there was no sign of flood damage except that the check-in desks and conveyor belts were not operational.  Temporary desks had been set up for Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways with baggage being manually taken to the back.

The queue for Air New Zealand stretched more than half the length of the check-in area.  The staff were still being briefed when I joined the queue and at around 0845 they opened up.

Volunteer staff in logoed t-shirts combed the queue to prioritise people by flight departure time.  I got to the kiosks quickly and was pleased that they were operational.  With my bagtag in my hand, I made it to the bagdrop which had no queue.

The baggage weight was manually taken with a standalone scale and accepted without the conveyor belt.  The whole check-in process took only 25 mins.

Amazing effort on the Air New Zealand management for organising a back-up process that worked so well.

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I managed to have about 2h30 airside, including 1h30 in the lounge, before departure.  Immigration and security were a breeze and I was the first person to use the lounge that morning.

Inflight to Singapore

As we took off after 1200, I saw Singapore Airlines’ 0945 departure backing out. It appeared their check-in process without kiosks to generate bagtags (and boarding passes for those who didn’t it at home or on mobile) was more of an issue compared to Air New Zealand’s.

Before the meal service, an announcement came through that there would be no meal choices today due to a catering issue.  However, when the cart came there was a choice of chicken or vegetarian.

My neighbour and I opted for chicken but our meals were somewhat different:  same delicious chicken stew but different vegetables and pasta vs couscous.  The flood must have created some issues.

A crew friend said that the catering contractor is having serious labour shortage and a lot of meals are being bought frozen from Australia instead.  We seem fortunate to have what appears to be fresh food.

Across the aisle, a passenger handed back his special meal bread roll which was past the expiry date.

Dessert for lunch comprised of a packaged yummy brownie slice by Padoro bakery.  However, the mid-flight snack and dessert for dinner was a similar slice by the same bakery!

Variety didn’t appear to be a consideration but a crew friend (over the generous free unlimited wi-fi) explained that two of the three sweet treats were meant to be ice-cream.  There is currently a shortage of dry-ice and gaseous CO2 in New Zealand that’s affected flight catering and also beverage production.