I wouldn't put a huge amount of hope on a one up succeeding on a Long Haul route on Air New Zealand - upgrades to the Americas are hugely competitive, and then one ups are at the bottom of the pile after Airpoints upgrades (NZ Elites only) and Recognition Upgrades (available to Elites, Golds and ...

My experience is based on numerous NZ fights through AKL and LAX, where I know that there is no United lounge's (United has it's own set of terminals, which is not connected at all to T2 which NZ flies from).It's also pretty clearly shown on the Star alliance website too (Three UC's in T6/7/8, bu...

Unfortunately I don't think United Club's will be much use in this case, there's definitely no United Club in Auckland and for Terminal 2 (assuming you're travelling before 14 October when NZ is anticipated to move to TBIT) of LAX you've only got a choice of an AC Maple Leaf lounge and NZ.  ...