I’m back in New Zealand; having experienced a little more of the world and finding a lot more to write about. Like food prices, the environment and terrorism (is it a real threat). I think I have also learned a little about myself.
I was hoping to be snuggled up in my own bed by 10am this morning. It was looking unlikely when the pilot of our international flight into Auckland reported that there was low level fog; but that recent technical improvements would allow him to land. I suspected this might create problems for our domestic connection.
Our domestic flight was scheduled for 7am (NZ405), at 6:30 am all the Air NZ check in counters were closed; shortly after the flight was cancelled. We were told to either sit it out and see what happens or gamble on another flight. It isn’t easy to guess when the fog will clear at 6:30 am, but at 7am it looked unlikely it would take long. Blue skies tends to indicate that sunshine will break up the fog; I should have tried to get on the earliest flight then.
At 7:30 am Air NZ started asking for passengers on the 8am flights to check in. And then for all other international passengers with cancelled flights. Then another 5 hours waiting at the airport till our new flight.
I was impressed with the way the floor staff worked with me, they were pleasant and friendly. They also appeared to be deeply apologetic for the inconvenience caused by the fog and understanding of how I might be feeling after a long haul flight to discover my scheduled flight is now several hours later.
I wasn’t so impressed with the flight management. My flight was cancelled immediately, where I would have thought delaying the flight would be more logical. In London our flight was also cancelled, but this was on Lufthansa and they had already organised our alternate flight placement before we arrived. Admittedly several passengers would have had special needs, international passengers would prefer the earliest possible flight.
The other domestic carriers simply delayed their flights. But can I blame anyone for the fog?
