Originally Posted by
Jantar
I struck a similar problem 3 weeks ago. What should have been an easy trip to Europe proved to be quite a mission:
I arrived at Queenstown Airport at 4:20 pm with plenty of time to spare, as I had till 5:25 to check in. But then the plane I was supposed to fly out on didn't arrive due to some medical emergency in Auckland and we were finally airborne at 9:00 pm. My Dreamliner flight to Shanghai was supposed to take off at 11:00 pm, and with a 1:50 flight to Auckland that was making things a bit tight. The Air hostess did say that as there were 5 of us boarding that flight they would hold it for 30 mins for us. After getting off that domestic flight we ran from the Domestic terminal to the international terminal. Got through immigration and security fairly quickly, only to find that the plane we were meant to be on had a fault and was being taken to the hanger for maintenance.
Air New Zealand did manage to find another plane, one that had just landed from Singapore, and at 2:00 am we were finally airborne and bound for Shanghai. But 3 hours late, and only 2 hours to change flights at Shanghai just didn't add up to a stress free trip. They announced that the flight to Vienna, and a coupe of others as well, were being held, and we wouldn't need to go through all the usual formalities, like arrival cards, but would just transfer direct to the departure gate.
Great news, but someone forgot to tell Chinese immigration and customs. Not only did I have to wait in line for immigration, but once I got there, I was directed back to fill in an immigration card. Finally through immigration, and customs and onto the departure area where I again had to go through immigration, and had to go back and get a departure card and fill that in. But on departure Chinese security were great. I pointed to the departure board and said my plane was already boarding and a security guard escorted me to the Diplomatic Passport queue and I went straight through. Once through there departure security wanted to search my carry on luggage because I had batteries for the camera. Don't people carry spare batteries anymore?
I ran to find my gate, and was the last one to board, but the Austrian cabin crew made me welcome and acted like we had all the time in the world. I took my seat, watched the safety video, and then found out we did have all the time in the world. The pilot announced that the Swiss aircraft beside us had been ready to depart for over an hour, and hadn't been given clearance to even start its engines yet, so it was likely we would be delayed as well.
For two and a half hours we sat in our seats and waited until finally we were on our way. Arrived in Vienna at 6:00 pm, and at my hotel by 7:00. In bed by 9:00 almost exactly 48 hours after I got out of bed on Wednesday morning.
Had a similar issue at Shanghai on the return trip, and will never again fly via China at all, even if it means not travellin on AIR NZ