Air Tahiti Nui Business Class Review
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All the rest that the airline offersThe flight attendants told passengers those in-transit to Auckland need not complete the Tahitian immigration forms, and we should proceed to the transit lounge. This is what we had expected, and made sense. Once off the aircraft, though, those of us who entered the lane marked transit lounge and walked the short distance to the […]
The flight attendants told passengers those in-transit to Auckland need not complete the Tahitian immigration forms, and we should proceed to the transit lounge. This is what we had expected, and made sense. Once off the aircraft, though, those of us who entered the lane marked transit lounge and walked the short distance to the transit lounge found it locked. No one could tell us why it was locked, how to enter the lounge, or what to do. We asked the cabin crew, as they came off the aircraft, and they shrugged their shoulders and walked on. Eventually, we realized the only option was to complete Tahitian immigration forms and go into the baggage claim area, as it appeared we might be able to enter the transit lounge from there. This, however, proved not to be true. Again, no one seemed to know what we should do, even though we kept asking how to enter the transit lounge. I speak passable French, so this was not a language problem. Eventually, we picked up our luggage and cleared Customs. When we entered the airport terminal, I found an Air Tahiti Nui staff, and she told us that the transit lounge was not open and we would have to go to a hotel for the night. She seemed unconcerned and disinterested. I then found the security office but they couldn’t tell me anything. I returned to the Air Tahiti Nui staff who told me that everyone knows that Tahiti won’t let passengers use the transit lounge, and we should have known it. We weren’t about to spend over $100 to stay in a hotel room for a few hours, so along with two dozen other passengers, we spent the time in the hot, dirty, smoky airport terminal. The ATN check-in desks finally opened at about 4-30 a.m. and we were able to get our boarding passes, but as Security didn’t open for another hour or so, we were still forced to wait in the terminal. Once allowed into the departure lounge, we found that it was shabby, dirty, and unpleasant. A small coffee bar sold food, but didn’t accept credit cards, and we weren’t about to go back out through Security to find an ATM to get cash in a currency we didn?t need just to buy a cup of coffee. You may wonder why we didn’t just go directly to the departure lounge and wait there. Well, the ATN staff in LAX refused to give us the boarding passes from Papeete to Auckland. They said that they issue boarding passes no more than three hours in advance. When we arrived in Papeete, the check-in counters were closed. Thus, we couldn’t get boarding passes and couldn’t get into the departure area. Three weeks later, when departing Auckland, I asked an ATN supervisor why they don’t let transit passengers use the transit lounge. She said that in their view, a layover of that length does not constitute in-transit and that they are unwilling to allow people to use the transit lounge. As ridiculous as this is, the worst part is that they don’t bother to warn you about it before you travel, so you can take this into account when making your travel plans. Upon arrival back in Papeete, with only an hour layover, we again found the transit lounge locked, even though flight attendants assured us we would be allowed to wait in the transit lounge. Instead, they simply diverted transit passengers directly into the departure lounge, even though most hadn’t been issued a boarding pass in Auckland (we had one, but only because I went back to the check-in counter and insisted upon it). Obviously, they could have done exactly the same thing on the Papeete- Auckland overnight layover had they wanted to do so. I suspect the whole thing is a means of trying to force passengers to spend some money in Tahiti. Whatever the reason, it is a shabby way to treat passengers.
