Auckland Airport

Domestic. Unimpressed with Air NZ self check-in process after international flight arrival. Even had to lift own bags onto the carousel which I'm barely physically capable of doing. A middle aged female solitary attendant waved me toward the bag carousel like a traffic cop but clearly did not intend to assist with the physical transfer. Will check out Virgin on next visit but unfortunately smaller regional airports are captive to Air NZ. On international side the service was marginally better.

Comments apply only to the Domestic Transfer desk at AKL - the rest of the operation at AKL is excellent. My husband and I arrived at AKL on EK 406 (First Class) on 8 August and once we cleared customs with our luggage went to the transfer desk to check-in and leave our luggage for our domestic connection NZ 445 to WEL. There was one family group of 4 ahead of us and one person at the check-in desk (a second one soon arrived). The desk agent refused to check us in telling us that we had to use one of the two check-in kiosks. At the time the family were attempting to use both kiosks and were having trouble the desk agent still refused to manually check us in saying that if that family could do it so could we. The desk agent still refused to help despite the fact that even by then there was no one else in the queue. My concerns are: There are only 2 kiosks and their position – make it very difficult for more than one or two people to queue up to use it. Unlike the domestic terminal there are no staff members positioned near the kiosks to help. My great fear is the congestion which would occur if the remaining pax from our A380 had reached the transfer desk at that time or indeed if more than one aircraft landed at the same time producing more transfer pax. Upon arriving at AKL we had just flown 15 hours not including our MEL lay-over. Frankly we were too tired to have to deal with horrifically sub-standard customer service. This complaint is not about being a premium pax or a non-premium pax. It is about a serious lack of customer service for all passengers transferring at our major gateway airport.

Flew in/out of this airport 4 times during our recent holiday so feel I can comment fully on all aspects of this airport. Very long walks from the gates to immigration and through the large duty free store too. Immigration was a joke - 2 officers on for the rush of flights first thing in the morning for non-NZ/Aus 1 for the afternoon rush! 30 mins free wifi daily once you fill in online forms. Immigration/security on way out much better. Long walk again to plane gates. Not much seating with gates. Food court pre-security like one big scrum trying to get a seat. Needs modernising/refurbishment to make it clean and user friendly.

Passed through Auckland Airport to and from Apia last week. I have smart passport so it was a breeze to and from immigration wise. On the way out I used the men's toilet next to the Relay bookshop they were disgusting. Not entirely the airports fault but their cleaners should be checking more carefully. Also airside the whole terminal looked as if it could do with a good clean.

In general this airport is not so bad however feel that over the pas few years they have invested heavily in nice shops however not enough into the actual infrastructure such as double Aerobridges at the gates to unload and load passengers faster on wide body aircraft which at times takes long time to embark or disembark from. Also the majority of the gate lounges are run down with old seating and carpet with the actual Aerobridges in a not much better state. Also the check in hall needs a major overhaul to modernize it and get rid of the ugly vinyl flooring and arrival baggage claim is still way too small in order to handle extra capacity in peak times meaning waiting for you baggage a long time. All in all the airport really has a lot of work to do in a lot places when it comes making it more modern and in line with the rest of the upgrades done in previous years.

This airport is purely and simply a cash cow. The casual parking rates are simply outrageous. The airport company obviously does not want the public to linger in the terminal. But if you do want to linger it has all the ambience of a super large McDonald's. Not a public minded airport in any way.

Upon traveling in and out of Auckland International airport recently we found the following disasters: Toilets were filthy flushing systems not working some mens toilets closed off. Food preferences at 7.00 am were poor with no cooked breakfasts available at all only cold sandwiches or muffins and coffee although the bar was open for alcoholic drinks! Electronic passport processing was not working properly with some machines sign posted as 'Not Working' No electronic processing at all through customs clearance upon departure. Poor assistance from airport staff in respect of electronic passport issues. Staff being too few and difficult to identify and mostly talking one another referring me to other machines (I tried 4 unsuccessfully) or to other staff members. A total lack of warmth from mostly foreign staff with poor English language or Kiwi culture knowledge. I felt like a foreigner in my home town. Lastly I resented being hindered by foreign Duty Free shopping staff as I moved through to Customs. Overall a poor International airport experience and a poor reflection of the real New Zealand culture.

Very modern clean and efficient airport. The sounds and the setting are a lovely way to enter NZ. A far cry from the sterile dilapidated interiors we are used to in the UK. Passing through security was a breeze and the staff very helpful and friendly.

Airport is generally good staff are friendly and for a small airport the facilities are excellent. Only gripe is the queue at immigration on the way in - one person at the desk and a 40 minute wait really isn't good enough.

Arrived from SYD. Everything was fine until the Immigration line. The lines were amazingly long and it appears there were only 3 officers working. After immigration / customs was able to acquire the rental car and out of the parking lot within 20 minutes.