Finally!  The Air NZ alliance was the best thing about Velocity prior to 2018.  Good to see it (partly) restored.

There is a precisely 0% chance that the finished airport actually looks like those "artist impressions"  

The existing two groups works fine as long as it's properly implemented and enforced.  The key is to let on all the priority queue, and only after that start to process the regular queue.  At the moment, they seem to do both queues simultaneously rendering the whole process pointless.If...

Yes - you are allowed one guest travelling on the same flight as you.

Agreed.  VA can remove the bar upstairs, if they don't want to pay to staff it, but at least leave upstairs open as a seating area.