Not sure if anyone's mentioned it previously in this thread, but we flew back on VA2 a couple of weeks ago in J and were surprised to find there was a separate immigration/security lane for TBIT departures for Business and First Class pax - not sure whether they've always had this or not, but we were certainly glad they did as there were already a couple of hundred pax lined up in the "regular" lanes, so it was a relief to be able to zoom along the dedicated lane (getting death stares all the way from all the people who were in the other queues).
We were also surprised to see the security lanes are now upstairs in the mezzanine area, where the landside restaurants/cafes/etc used to be and which all now appear to have been removed. We used that area on several occasions after arriving at TBIT on previous trips if we had a long wait for a flight, as we usually fly Southwest domestically in the US (so no lounges of course and T1 usually gets pretty crowded) and it was a nice relatively quiet area with plenty of seating and we could grab something to eat and relax for a while.
Like Justcallmeryan, we also found the * Alliance lounge to be extremely busy and people who arrived after us had trouble finding a seat (we got there about 4pm), but after a couple of Air NZ flights were called for boarding, the lounge cleared out quite considerably and it was much quieter.
We were also surprised to see the security lanes are now upstairs in the mezzanine area, where the landside restaurants/cafes/etc used to be and which all now appear to have been removed. We used that area on several occasions after arriving at TBIT on previous trips if we had a long wait for a flight, as we usually fly Southwest domestically in the US (so no lounges of course and T1 usually gets pretty crowded) and it was a nice relatively quiet area with plenty of seating and we could grab something to eat and relax for a while.
Like Justcallmeryan, we also found the * Alliance lounge to be extremely busy and people who arrived after us had trouble finding a seat (we got there about 4pm), but after a couple of Air NZ flights were called for boarding, the lounge cleared out quite considerably and it was much quieter.
