Steps: 29436
In AKL AirNZ Business lounge - uneventful flight, the lounge had really thinned out by the time boarding was ready.
Air NZ at LAX have this thing where their "in flight Concierge" will escort PAX from the lounge to the gate where they are the first to board - they do this from a different door away from the gate and even those with lounge eligibility standing at the gate have to wait for these escorted PAX or follow them.
In the lounge an announcement to assemble for the escort is made and in practice it seems you have about 30 seconds before the procession embarks. I have been caught out by this before so I was waiting nearby the point for the announcement and was able to join in. This time the flight gate was 25, but the procession from the lounge were boarded via gate 23. (There's a walkway between the outer windows and the lounge.)
As for the flight, the AirNZ staff were good, the catering continues to diminish (still good quality, just shrinking serves). I slept for 8 of the 12 or so hours and arrived in reasonable shape.
I hit the lounge for a shower which was really good and now have a reasonably long transit. (My original booking had one of 90 minutes but schedule changes cut this to 40 which was below MCT.)
