The NZeTA issue

The day before I called the united airlines customer support, waiting in line for an hour, because I couldn't check In Lukas for the flights. They told me, if it's not approved by tomorrow, we can also do it at the airport.

We arrived at the counter and the woman there had the same issue. For some reason, they were not allowed to check him in. Multiple worker were talking about it, because they also had issues to check In the luggage of my parents, even though my parents were already checked In online. After a while they figured out, it had something to do with the New Zealand electronic Travel Athority (NZeTA). We checked the document and realised, that it was only meant for a transit but not for staying. So we asked them, how we can change it. After another few moments they gave me a number to call the border controll support of New Zealand. The man then told me to do the application again and call this number back, so they can override it immediately. We left the counter for now to do the application. We did the application first on the browser, where it told me to pay 189 american dollar, which was way to much. So we downloaded an App, where I had to add his old one first and than adding him again, I was able to do a new one. We realised, that one out of 6 yes or no questions has to be yes, because "NO" means transit.

After paying the usual price I called back the number. First I really struggled to spell the passport number in english, but he found the NZeTA and was able to override it. He now told me that he has a code I have to enter and I was really confused. I asked him, where I have to enter it and he told me, that I should know where to enter the code in the system, because he doesn't know the system. Next question was, with which airline he is speaking and once I told him, I was a customer of the United Airlines, he got really angry. He told me I was not allowed to have this number and asked how I got it. He immediately wanted to speak with airline, so I hurried back to the counter, where there was a new woman. I told her all about it and gave my phone to her. They were talking for a while and she also asked coworker. She was able to find where to enter the code. In between she said at the phone it is her first week at this airline, so she had to figure out how to do it. I finally got the bording passes and happily went back to Lukas and my parents. After high intense situation we calmed down and went to the gate.

The reason I got the number: The first woman who gave me the number told me, that the customer should call and in her perspective I am the customer, but for the border security the airlines are the customer.Read more