September/October 2013 check in

[WanderlustNZ]

Originally Posted by Jade+3

All done! I sort of have a sense of relief, but I must cancel my Kayak fare alert.

Not a fan of the seat selection process. I made 2 booking, one for the 5 of us, and the other for the in-laws. For the IL's I could pick individual seats or a block, but for us I had to pick a block and it was very random how the blocks were selected. I managed to get 3 in front and 2 behind. I actually prefer 5 straight across. Will have to call and see if it can be changed. Should not complain, at least Air NZ dont charge for seat selection so that saved a few hundred dollars.

I was surprised at how full the flights are.

Yay, congrats on the booked flights. It seems everyone's plans are finally coming into fruition.

Air NZ's seat selection system is annoying. The last time I flew as a party of 4, we wanted a block of 3 and one across the aisle. Instead the system kept putting the 4th person in front or behind. Because it was just a short flight, I gave up caring after a short while.
But in your case, you should definitely call them. Hopefully they can sort it out.

[5ofus]

Congrats on the flight booking!

I didn't like their seat selection process either. So much so that I've already gone in and changed our seats three times! On the flights to and from AKL they kept putting us on a row of three and then one aisle seat in front and one aisle seat behind!?!? How that would work with kids as young as mine, I have no idea? Although DH quite liked the idea of the kids sitting alone! LOL

[WanderlustNZ]

Originally Posted by 5ofus

Congrats on the flight booking!

I didn't like their seat selection process either. So much so that I've already gone in and changed our seats three times! On the flights to and from AKL they kept putting us on a row of three and then one aisle seat in front and one aisle seat behind!?!? How that would work with kids as young as mine, I have no idea? Although DH quite liked the idea of the kids sitting alone! LOL

Eeek, I've definitely been reading too many Disney forums. I had to stop and think for a second when I read your post as I initially misinterpreted AKL to mean Animal Kingdom Lodge instead of Auckland. And AKL is my home airport.
Far too much Disney on the brain

[Jade+3]

Originally Posted by Kristin5

Yay! Congrats!

I did two bookings, each for 3 people, and i think when I did the seat selections I could only do blocks of 3 too. It worked out well for us, but I can see it wouldn't be as convenient for you guys, with 3 kids.

My problem with the seating is that I did our booking, but then when I did it for my friend, she wanted to pay by bank transfer so i went through the seat selection process, only to find I couldn't do such a transaction on my ipad. So then did it all again on my pc, and of course couldn't get the same seats, as the system saw them as being already reserved, so my friend is now 2 rows behind us instead of directly behind us (she'll probably be thankful for that though - she will be further away from my DS now, who would've probably annoyed her and her teenage kids the whole trip otherwise! Lol)

Are there many seats left now? I wonder if not all have been released yet perhaps?

I thought the sky couches had been blocked off, which makes the middle cabin unavailable. If you go into seat selection, you can make changes and see what is available. Still wants me to change in silly blocks of 5.

Originally Posted by 5ofus

Congrats on the flight booking!

I didn't like their seat selection process either. So much so that I've already gone in and changed our seats three times! On the flights to and from AKL they kept putting us on a row of three and then one aisle seat in front and one aisle seat behind!?!? How that would work with kids as young as mine, I have no idea? Although DH quite liked the idea of the kids sitting alone! LOL

I am going to call today as I want to sit 5 across. I lost count of the number of times I would have to pass stuff to DH to hold, especially food trays and drinks. That is not going to work with DH sitting behind me. The only positive I can see is if DS starts kicking the seat in front, he will at least be kicking one of us.

Originally Posted by WanderlustNZ

Eeek, I've definitely been reading too many Disney forums. I had to stop and think for a second when I read your post as I initially misinterpreted AKL to mean Animal Kingdom Lodge instead of Auckland. And AKL is my home airport.
Far too much Disney on the brain

I didn't even think of that! I used to work in travel so am guilty of using port codes instead of typing airport names.

[PrincessInOz]

Originally Posted by Jade+3

Don't know. We are only staying 2 nights, the first is our arrival day so we will be buggered.

I was thinking Fishermans Wharf for convenience but so expensive. Will have to research that some more. Beauty about travelling with family is I can off load a child to their room so no searching for hotels for 5.

DH and I have been before but the in-laws have not. They want to see the bridge, visit Alcatraz and ride the cable cars. I want to eat at Bubba Gump as this may be the only one we come across. On day 3 we will be up early to get the hire car and hope to be at Yosemite around lunch time.

I haven't stayed at either but the Radisson and Holiday Inn are usually the ones that people stay at when at FW.

I've stayed at the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero. It's easy to get to using the BART (if you're thinking of catching it from the airport).

I had a great morning at the WD Family museum at the Presidio on the last trip. There is just so much memorabilia there!

[KiwiMouseGirl]

My Air New Zealand flights that I want have gone in sale. Woo woo woo woo! Now to see what the travel agent can conjure up with accommodation getting a little bit excited...

[Kristin5]

Originally Posted by KiwiMouseGirl

My Air New Zealand flights that I want have gone in sale. Woo woo woo woo! Now to see what the travel agent can conjure up with accommodation getting a little bit excited...

Brilliant! It's all happening now!

Thanks for suggestions about changing seat selection - I didn't think of that! D'oh! I just figured that I had locked us all in already! There must be a lot of blonde in my strawberry blonde hair!

[5ofus]

Originally Posted by Kristin5

Brilliant! It's all happening now!

Thanks for suggestions about changing seat selection - I didn't think of that! D'oh! I just figured that I had locked us all in already! There must be a lot of blonde in my strawberry blonde hair!

Haha, I wasn't sure if I could change us either, but it wasn't a problem

I booked HoJo's last night Still hoping for a bigger discount because it's a bit more than we want to pay per night, but it's in for now

[Kristin5]

Originally Posted by 5ofus

Haha, I wasn't sure if I could change us either, but it wasn't a problem

I booked HoJo's last night Still hoping for a bigger discount because it's a bit more than we want to pay per night, but it's in for now

Great stuff! So were you able to get a queen room or something other than a King room? A king room is the only available option for our dates (last time I checked, anyway).

Also, when doing the seat selection now (which I have stuffed up again, would you believe?!), you can change between block selection or individual selection.

[5ofus]

Originally Posted by Kristin5

Great stuff! So were you able to get a queen room or something other than a King room? A king room is the only available option for our dates (last time I checked, anyway).

Also, when doing the seat selection now (which I have stuffed up again, would you believe?!), you can change between block selection or individual selection.

We got a Queen Deluxe or Superior... I can't remember now. Our dates seem to be in a slow period, all room types were available.

Ooh, I feel another seat swap coming on! I might change our seats on the flights to and from NZ (refrained from using AKL abbreviation to avoid confusion! ) I won't tell DH though, he already thinks I'm nuts!

[Kristin5]

Originally Posted by 5ofus

We got a Queen Deluxe or Superior... I can't remember now. Our dates seem to be in a slow period, all room types were available.

Ooh, I feel another seat swap coming on! I might change our seats on the flights to and from NZ (refrained from using AKL abbreviation to avoid confusion! ) I won't tell DH though, he already thinks I'm nuts!

LOL at all the seat changes! I finally figured it out for my friends - so ours is all done.

I checked Hojos and still no availability for our dates I have just spoken with my travel agent and she said her wholesalers just give her generic rooms (eg no differentiation between standard/superior/etc), so she will look into it a bit more later. We really just want to avoid a freeway view! I understand that you can see the fireworks from the pool area anyway? So maybe we should request just a different building to be away from the freeway, and leave it at that?

She is booking The Signature in Las Vegas for us (no resort fees for Australians!)

And she will look into the Courtyard by Marriott San Fran downtown, as this looks like the best option to me (not too cheap and nasty, but not ridiculously over priced either, and still close enough to things without being in a seedy area - from what I gather from reviews online anyway).

It's all coming together - but once it's all booked, what will I do with all my spare time?!

[5ofus]

Originally Posted by Kristin5

It's all coming together - but once it's all booked, what will I do with all my spare time?!

You still ave to figure out what to eat, where to go each day, how to save money.... Don't worry, well keep you busy!

[Lewdannie]

Originally Posted by KiwiMouseGirl

My Air New Zealand flights that I want have gone in sale. Woo woo woo woo! Now to see what the travel agent can conjure up with accommodation getting a little bit excited...

Man...thanks for the heads up...I wonder if QANTAS will follow soon.

$1250 for my preferred dates IS tempting though

[KiwiMouseGirl]

Originally Posted by Lewdannie

Man...thanks for the heads up...I wonder if QANTAS will follow soon.

$1250 for my preferred dates IS tempting though

Hopefully Qantas follow suit! From what i've been seeing their flights are alot cheaper and stop overs pretty reasonable times.

Even on sale our tickets will be a huge $1700. And that's with $200 off! When it comes down to it, while I would prefer to fly direct, I can handle a 1 hour stopover in Melbourne if it means saving $450 off normal prices.

$1250 sounds like a steal to me! What are your travel dates?

[Lewdannie]

Originally Posted by KiwiMouseGirl

$1250 sounds like a steal to me! What are your travel dates?

mid-sept for 10 days (hopefully)

Checked with DW...she is prepared to pay more for a non-stop flight...will hold my nerve