L.A. bound—cheers over Auckland

Press, 12 November 1985, Page 22

L.A. bound—cheers over Auckland

LES BLOXHAM

visited Los Angeles last week

as a guest of Air New Zealand on its new direct service from Christchurch to Los Angeles. The following are jottings from his diary:

Airlines in the United States. have launched into yet another fares war, right at a time when some of them are struggling to survive. Continental has dropped its coast-to-coast fares to a mere SUS 99 in a challenge for People’s Express no-frills travellers. Continental is also offering Saturday “specials” of SUS 79 to any point on its domestic network from Houston on selected days during the next two months. Meanwhile, on the transAtlantic scene, British Caledonian is offering two first-class tickets for the price of one between America and London.

Variations in duty-free prices between one country and the next can confuse even frequent travellers. I checked the tags on cigarettes and alcohol in Christchurch, Nandi, and Honolulu and discovered that Honolulu generally offers the best deal on alcohol in particular. For example, a 1125 ml bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label costs $29.90 at Christchurch Airport and $25 ($U514.50) in Honolulu. The smaller (750m1)-bottle of the same product at Nandi’s duty-free shop cost $25 ($F15.50). Packs of 200 cigarettes cost $10.40 at Christchurch, $l2 (SUS 7 in Honolulu and $l3 (SFB) at Nandi. Price tags on other alcoholic and tobacco products appeared to follow the same trend.

Passengers cheered as they over-flew Auckland on Air New Zealand’s new direct service from Christchurch to Los Angeles. The flight has cut the flying and transit times through Auckland from six hours to a mere three hours and 45 minutes. South Island businessmen can now also complete a day’s work at the office before boarding the night flight at Christchurch, instead of having to lose half a day with domestic flights and transfers at Auckland. The service arrives in Los Angeles late in the afternoon on the same day of departure — thanks to the international dateline.

Now that Los Angeles has its fine new international terminal, transit passengers on most flights from Australia and New Zealand no longer have to stagger sleepily through United States Customs and Immigration procedures at Honolulu in the wee hours of the morning. Instead, they are “held” in the airport’s gate lounges before reboarding their flights for Los Angeles for processing there. One thing puzzles me though: in spite of the prison-tight security on entering Honolulu, passengers are given the freedom of the airport (and the land beyond) on their return flights home. Acting for U.S. immigration

authorities airlines remove entry cards from passports when passengers check in at Los Angeles. For the record, they then have officially left the United States, but there appears to be nothing to stop a “transit” passenger from re-entering unchecked at Hawaii. Passengers on domestic flights Between Hawaii and mainland U.S.A. do not pass through immigration procedures. I sought a comment from an official at the airport. “They would be treated as illegal immigrants,” he replied blandly. But first they’ve got to find out who they are, and then catch them.

Imagine the screams of protest if jet-powered Air New Zealand elected to knock its smaller proppowered competitors with an advertisement showing an aircraft with a jet pod on one wing and a propeller engine on the other. But Aloha Airlines in Hawaii is doing just that in big newspaper advertisements that carry the following message: “Unless you fly Aloha you never know what you’ll wind up on. Flying interisland can be plane confusing. Will you be on a fast quiet jet? Or a slow noisy prop? Only Aloha flies all jets all the time. It’s one airline in Hawaii that’s not all mixed up . . .”

Honolulu Airport has the longest taxiway in the world for aircraft trundling from the terminal to the main runway alongside the ocean. The four kilometre trip takes about 11 minutes.

My visit to Lbs Angeles coincided with the American’s traditional Halloween celebration on November 1 — a time for tricking and treating, and witches and ghouls in fancy dress. Staff in many stores enter into the spirit of the occasion by reporting for duty in weird outfits and grotesque masks. Air New Zealand, for instance, had its phones manned by E.T., Liberty

(complete with torch), a pregnant nun, and an odd, witch or two. Television and radio stations tried to outdo ’ each other with scary programmes and shops did a rotaring trade in Halloween cards, costumes and masks.' Indeed, some Americans be-' lieve the celebration has been ruined by the commercialism in what has become a warm-up. for Christmas. ; Scrooge, I imagine, would simply dismiss it all with a grunt and “800, humbug.”

New Zealanders who,: back home, have three choices on television (one, 1 two, and off) will be bewildered at the range of pro-, grammes offered in Los - Angeles. Twenty channels, including cable programmes of continuous movies, are available. I was pleasantly' surprised when flicking on’ the set in my;hotel to find the screen filled with scenes of Queenstown. I found out, later the station was show-. ing “The Search for the Yankee Zephyr,” a film shot. in the Queenstown district five years ago. It made one feel quite homesick.