Bienvenue Los Angeles/Welcome to Los Angeles

We had a good flight to Los Angeles.  Our flight departed on time from Auckland and we arrived close to the scheduled time. I was lucky enough to be upgraded to Business Premier, Bev unfortunately had to slum it in Premium Economy and as a result was a bit miffed with me despite reassurances from me that it was not by design.   

The flight was fairly uneventful and I even got some reasonable quality sleep.  The flight was over before I knew it.  However that was just the beginning of adventure.  As we had done the ESTA visa waiver scheme and had used our current passports in the US previously we thought we were onto a winner in using the automated passport control machines.  However the electronic machine could not read our names and rejected us so we had to go to another queue for an Immigration official.  Then we thought that we were on our way to a fast track through security but it took us nearly an hour to get to the scanning area and that was eventually with the assistance of someone from Air New Zealand taking us in front of others as the plane was boarding.  There were, as you can imagine, some very grumpy people around .  A number of us commented about the Americans ability to manage – no wonder they don’t do too well in conflict.  Finally we all got through (about 40 or so of us) and we were nearly the last on the plane.  There was plenty of cameradie and most of the New Zealanders were relaxed about it. 

When we got to the gate both Bev and I discovered that we had  both been were upgraded to Business Premier, so good wine and food plus the ability to lie down and perhaps get another hour or so of sleep was in the offing.   This was Bev's first opportunity and the joy on her tired face was something to behold.

The Air New Zealand service has been superb from gate to gate.  There were staff guiding us through the process from Immigration to Security and then to the gate.  The number of staff employed to do that must add cost to the service.

The Flight Service Manager has been around apologising for the experience. There was nothing she or the company could do but they are meeting with TSA so perhaps something will come out of it.  What was apparent was the inability of any of the US security staff to take any initiative.  In NZ I would have thought a supervisor would see what was happening and create a queue for the transit people and work hard to funnel them through it.  There was no one who seemed to be doing that as far I could see.  

While I was waiting in one of the lines I saw Harry Dynhoven and we ended up chatting for a while.  We had been on the MPP course at the same time although different years and he recognised me although he did not my name.  Such fun when that happens.  He seems more relaxed than when he was an MP.