New Zealand Traveller Pass, necessary or government overreach?

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#2963887 6-Sep-2022 14:54

Handle9:

It’s a form. Filling in various forms has been part of travelling for a long time and it’s not unique to Nz. Compared to many of the other pandemic travel annoyances it’s insignificant.

We will have to agree to (vehemently) disagree.

antonknee

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#2963942 6-Sep-2022 17:49

Unnecessary IMO now for Covid specifically, but I do think the arrival card should be scrapped in favour of an electronic system based off of this.

Also, NZers do not need to provide vaccine info in the declaration - if you read the instructions, it clearly says this. Just need to provide the other details.

Kyanar

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#2963949 6-Sep-2022 18:00

Correct. I opted to select the "NZ citizen so don't have to supply vaccination information" (phew! Saves having to log into Medicare to get my vaccination summary and then transcribe four doses of three different brands of vaccine!), wondering if perhaps that is what triggers the kickoff to assistance desk, New Zealand passports were quite over-represented in the queue of gate rejections!

Doesn't explain the third degree from immigration asking why I was even entering NZ in the first place.

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#2963950 6-Sep-2022 18:05

Kyanar:
Correct. I opted to select the "NZ citizen so don't have to supply vaccination information" (phew! Saves having to log into Medicare to get my vaccination summary and then transcribe four doses of three different brands of vaccine!), wondering if perhaps that is what triggers the kickoff to assistance desk, New Zealand passports were quite over-represented in the queue of gate rejections!

Doesn't explain the third degree from immigration asking why I was even entering NZ in the first place.

Because you’re a citizen who dares not to simply spend their entire existence in NZ, and therefore you should obviously be questioned if you dare attempt to return, and frankly the team of 5 million would prefer you not even try to get back in?

/s if not obvious.

Handle9

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#2963953 6-Sep-2022 18:09

Kyanar:

Handle9:

It’s a form. Filling in various forms has been part of travelling for a long time and it’s not unique to Nz. Compared to many of the other pandemic travel annoyances it’s insignificant.

We will have to agree to (vehemently) disagree.

I've had to reschedule flights a couple of days later (July last year in the US) or travel for net half a day (October last year in Switzerland) due to testing requirements. Compared to that filling in a form and waiting in a queue is insignificant to me.

Travel is getting both easier and harder due to huge demand and lack of staff. Europe and the US are a sh1tshow at the moment.

johno1234

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#2963996 6-Sep-2022 20:13

Just been in and out of the US last week and it’s not a “ sh1tshow” at all. It was easier and faster as a Kiwi to get into the U.S. than it is into New Zealand.

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#2963999 6-Sep-2022 20:19

johno1234: Just been in and out of the US last week and it’s not a “ sh1tshow” at all. It was easier and faster as a Kiwi to get into the U.S. than it is into New Zealand.

If your flight goes. There's still a heap of cancellations happening in the US, around 128k this year, and often with very little notice. Travel everywhere is challenging.

The labour problems aren't going away anytime soon.

gmball

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#2964036 6-Sep-2022 23:13

boosacnoodle:

Kyanar:

Ironically that's way better than Air New Zealand, who don't have any form of pre-verification for them so you risk Smartgate denying you entry until an immigration official sights it.

This hasn't been my experience the past few times I've travelled. I've only been able to check-in online by uploading the QR code first.

Thats also been my experience, have travelled internationally on Air NZ multiple times over the past few months, and every time I've needed to upload my traveler pass QR code to be able to check-in online when travelling back to NZ.

johno1234

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#2964050 7-Sep-2022 06:25

Same here.

eracode

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#2964054 7-Sep-2022 07:07

boosacnoodle:

Kyanar:

Ironically that's way better than Air New Zealand, who don't have any form of pre-verification for them so you risk Smartgate denying you entry until an immigration official sights it.

This hasn't been my experience the past few times I've travelled. I've only been able to check-in online by uploading the QR code first.

Boarding Emirates last week, flying Munich to Auckland, all they wanted was to sight (i.e. glance at) our NZ Traveller Pass - no uploading of QR code. Did not need to upload QR code to check-in online. On arrival, Smartgates operated as usual - no delay at any point in the arrival process.

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johno1234

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#2964113 7-Sep-2022 10:29

eracode:

Boarding Emirates last week, flying Munich to Auckland, all they wanted was to sight (i.e. glance at) our NZ Traveller Pass - no uploading of QR code. Did not need to upload QR code to check-in online. On arrival, Smartgates operated as usual - no delay at any point in the arrival process.

Interesting - I think we can deduce from that that SmartGates are not connected to the TD in any way, and that it is purely up to the airline's own check-in process to deal with the TD. Another reason that the TD is a bit pointless.

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#2964114 7-Sep-2022 10:35

... I'd completely forgotten that going in the front door at HNL to return to AKL, we had to show our TD QR. It wasn't scanned - just inspected.

Further: My wife's TD had an error that somehow slipped through the TD creation process - it would not upload onto the AirNZ app because the date of arrival was incorrect (timezone change coming back). Naturally this was missed on visual inspection. Her arrival through SmartGates at AKL was fine though.

This again proves that even for AirNZ and AKL, SmartGates are not connected in any way to the TD. Further, doing an online check-in and uploading the TD onto it made no difference - Wife could not check-in online as AirNZ app wouldn't accept her QR. I did upload it and check-in online. There was NO DIFFERENCE in our processing through the two airports.

eracode

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#2964122 7-Sep-2022 11:00

johno1234:

eracode:

Boarding Emirates last week, flying Munich to Auckland, all they wanted was to sight (i.e. glance at) our NZ Traveller Pass - no uploading of QR code. Did not need to upload QR code to check-in online. On arrival, Smartgates operated as usual - no delay at any point in the arrival process.

Interesting - I think we can deduce from that that SmartGates are not connected to the TD in any way, and that it is purely up to the airline's own check-in process to deal with the TD. Another reason that the TD is a bit pointless.

Yep - that's what I believe. I very much doubt that the NZ Smartgate system has been updated or modified so that an Emirates check-in operator (who literally only glances at the Pass) in Munich could add something to record on the system that the Pass has been checked.

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Kyanar

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#2964165 7-Sep-2022 12:28

eracode:

Yep - that's what I believe. I very much doubt that the NZ Smartgate system has been updated or modified so that an Emirates check-in operator (who literally only glances at the Pass) in Munich could add something to record on the system that the Pass has been checked.

Ok, I guess that just brings back the question of "why does SmartGate suck so much lately" but that's outside the scope of this thread.

Still, they wouldn't need to update the gate system, they'd simply need to require a flag in the APIS record for each passenger in the manifest that the TD has been sighted and configure SmartGate to kick to assistance queues anyone with that flag unset. Basically outsource all the cost of system modifications to the airlines.

David321

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#2964192 7-Sep-2022 13:17

Its certainly looking pretty unpopular as I suspected it would be, a quick google news search of it brings up some pretty grim stories and many calls to ditch it.

I had doubts this would get scrapped and I have read on news sits before the govt have told us its here to stay, but seeing as other countries have had similar systems and scrapped them with COVID restrictions I hold a little hope this might get ditched next week when other OVID restrictions are rumored to be scrapped.

Knowing how this govt loves to hold on to the powers they have given themselves though I suspect it may be held on to, after all its probably a minority traveling internationally at the moment, and annoying a minority is not political suicide (remember those who did not want the vaccine?).

_David_

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