More than 31,000 Kiwis queue for MIQ vouchers, 6000 secure spots

Tuesday, 28 September 2021

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the Cabinet has decided on a pilot for a self-isolation MIQ trial where people can isolate at home. (First published 27 September)

A total of 6231 people travelling from 125 countries managed to secure MIQ vouchers in the second release of managed isolation places in the new virtual lobby system.

The next release of rooms looks set for October 5.

In total, 31,319 people entered the online booking system to try to obtain a place in order to enter New Zealand via one of the 3718 rooms on offer on Tuesday.

The majority of lucky Kiwis were in Australia, with 1629 snapping up a voucher, followed by 791 passengers in the UK.

The lobby had been due to open at 5 pm, but opened earlier at 4:30pm due to the increasing number of people on the website, according to a statement by the Joint Head of MIQ, Megan Main

At 6pm 26,700 people were moved into a queue – this was randomised, as part of the lobby process.

All available MIQ places for December were taken within 48 minutes. In total 684 rooms were released for December.

* Covid-19: How the new MIQ booking system works

This number continued to grow as people entered the queue throughout the room release.

Rooms started being released at 6pm and were gone by 8:10pm.

Within the first 30 minutes, half of the available December rooms were already taken. All the available December rooms were taken within 48 minutes.

Dates were available across October, November and December. Similar to the last release, December was again the most popular month.

“I know that, again, thousands of people missed out on vouchers in tonight’s release. We understand this is a difficult and frustrating time for many who want to travel; whether that be for business or to return home,” Main said in the statement.

“I want to reassure people that there are still several thousand vouchers still to be released through to the end of the year. They will get other chances through regular lobby releases. The next release will be next Tuesday.”

The timing is yet to be confirmed.

“Although this new lobby system has improved user experience, it is not a silver bullet – it will not fix the issue of supply and demand.

“There is not an unlimited number of MIQ rooms and we do not release them all at once, and there’s a good reason for that – we’re in the middle of a global pandemic and we need to keep New Zealand safe.”

Rooms released today

October: 1434

November: 1600

December: 684

Top countries (by departure point)

Australia: 1629 passengers

UK: 791 passengers

India: 647 passengers

US: 495 passengers

China: 263 passengers

Singapore: 212 passengers

Argentina: 203 passengers

Canada: 179 passengers

Philippines: 130 passengers

Hong Kong: 113 passengers

Germany: 93 passengers

South Korea: 93 passengers