Air New Zealand

✅ Verified Review | My wife and I flew Air New Zealand from Christchurch to Sydney on an Airbus A320. We had a seat + bag fare and did not make any purchases on board. We left and arrived on time, the seats were comfortable and the crew fine. The flight was full. The safety videos are good fun.

My parents were flying Brisbane to Norfolk Island for my mothers 80th birthday today. After driving from Bribie Island to the airport they went through customs and just before boarding they were informed they and 20 other people would be unable to fly as the plane tare weight was exceeded believed to be due to spare parts for another broken down plane on Norfolk Island. Air New Zealand customer service provided no compensation and advised them to go through their travel insurance. They had accommodation, hire car, tours etc booked plus having been looking forward to this holiday to celebrate her 80th birthday for quite some time. I for one will never fly with Air New Zealand if this is typical of how they treat their passengers.

✅ Verified Review | Los Angeles to London Heathrow. Amazing service by Air New Zealand with competitive Fares. Food very nice. Seat pitch on their Boeing 777-300ER is 32-33 inches. Window seat selection at time of booking was free of charge for most of the cabin. Cabin crew very friendly and helpful. Plane very clean and new. Will fly them again on this route, prefer them to British Airways.

✅ Verified Review | My wife and I flew Auckland to Wellington with Air New Zealand on an Airbus A320. We arrived from Singapore on another carrier and had booked an evening flight down to Wellington leaving plenty of time to cover delays on the flight, border control etc. We arrived early and were in the domestic terminal within an hour of getting of the plane. We had a non transferable ticket but the agent put us on a flight leaving 45 minutes later at no extra cost meaning we arrived in Wellington 6 hours early. Snack and coffee served on this short leg, crew good.

Flew Christchurch to Brisbane. Air New Zealand have gone for fully automated check-in, which requires passengers to print out their boarding pass. Returning from holiday we had no facilities for printing, so we could not use the system. The one staff member there to assist was not busy, but it still took twice as long as normal check in. This was our first flight on ANZ, and based upon their reputation we had high expectations, but everything proved very average. Seat spacing was tight, with pretty hard seats with very little recline. The entertainment system was extensive and easy to operate, but was interrupted frequently by announcements. We had successfully, if unwittingly, navigated the catering system and did receive a meal, which was typical economy class fare, albeit with a very nice ice cream. The wine offering was the exception to the average rule, being the best wine selection I have experienced, and based upon the Sauvignon Blanc excellent quality. Overall a very average experience, but better than our flight to New Zealand on Qantas.

✅ Verified Review | We flew business class with Air New Zealand from Auckland to London Heathrow with a transit through Los Angeles on NZ2 on 4 August 2016 returning by the same route in reverse on NZ1 on 28 September 2016. The flights were purchased well in advance, one fare at a promotional price and the other a companion fare using air points, which made the total cost quite economical for business class flights on a direct route with no hassles. We had reserved our seats in advance, 3K and 4K on the outward journey and 5K and 6K on the return. Having flown Air NZ before we knew what to expect and weren’t disappointed. The food, service and cabin comfort were excellent on all sectors. The kiwi cabin crew on the AUK-LAX legs would rate slightly above their UK counterparts but nothing was too much trouble and the level of service excellent on all legs. Air NZ does not offer WiFi yet but Bluetooth is able to be used, which I took advantage of as the headphones provided aren’t up to noise cancelling quality of Bose or Plantronics (my choice). Take an adapter if you want to use your own phones with the inflight entertainment system. There was a fair choice of films including some with subtitles but personally I preferred my own entertainment on iPad and tablet. The transit through LAX is not easy with long distances to walk and queues for immigration and security as the Air NZ lounge is landside. The transit time is supposed to be 2 hours but don’t expect much time in the lounge especially if the incoming flight is late. My wife had wheelchair assistance and so did I on the return due to a reoccurring problem. Auckland and Heathrow were very good but some of the “assistors” in LAX looked as if they needed wheelchairs themselves. The only blemish as far as Air NZ are concerned was that they “lost” my wife’s TravelScoot, which failed to appear at Auckland on the return leg. It turned up a couple of days later after being off loaded in LAX by mistake, probably due to incorrect labelling when it was checked in at Heathrow. We would certainly recommend Air NZ business class for long haul flights and would use them again in the future.

✅ Verified Review | Auckland to Sydney. We sat in an exit row and got the benefit of extra leg room and excellent cabin crew service but we couldn't use the inflight entertainment during take off and landing. The online checkin process was smooth but we still needed to use the kiosk to print our boarding passes. I would prefer to have a seamless checkin via mobile app or smart watch. The bag drop was chaotic and an example of where technology has made things worse. Ground staff could have been more helpful.

Sydney to Auckland, Boeing-777. Air New Zealand pinches pennies and has a 3-4-3 seating arrangement in a Boeing 777. This is unacceptable to me, (3-3-3 is what Boeing designed the B777 for) even though I am not a particularly large person. The seats and the aisles are narrow. The seats along the aisles all show marks of severe wear and tear from trolleys and passengers constantly banging into them. The seat cushions are hard as a rock, or just very thin. We were sitting in a skycouch seat which was useless since all the seats were occupied and no space to lie down. I wonder how much money this airline has flushed down the toilet on extra fuel, to haul the weight of these useless skycouches around the world. Maybe more than they gain by their sadistic 3-4-3 seating? Finally, Air New Zealand is addicted to endless annoying cabin announcements. Please cut it out, your customers are adults, not kindergarten children.

✅ Verified Review | Los Angeles to Melbourne via Auckland. The best business class I have ever experienced. On boarding I was offered a choice of drinks and a hot towel. Post take off drink requests and meal selection soon followed. I was asked if I knew how to use the seat controls and given a demonstration - a first for me.The staff were helpful, cheerful and courteous and the meals superior. The seat was outstanding in terms of comfort and it was made into a bed using a memory foam mattress that gave me an extremely comfortable 7-8 hours sleep. The wash rooms were well equipped and the Auckland lounge was excellent. This was an outstanding product for a really competitive price.

✅ Verified Review | Auckland to Ho Chi Minh City. Ground service horrible. Air New Zealand has self check-in kiosk which they pride themselves of but it creates lots of issues for customers as there are not enough staff to assist customers with using the inadequately developed system that cannot accommodate the needs of all customers. The ground staff are not attentive. Let you wait without saying a word of acknowledgement. They have self service bag drop which cannot work sometimes and the assistance is also poor. There is no flexibility from the staff in regards to following baggage policy. I have experienced this problem and heard from three people with the same issues. Cleanliness - very old and dirty aircraft. Dirts and candies were on the floor under my seat, the grease stain was still on the inflight entertainment screen which I had to use my napkin to wipe off. The seat is very tight and not comfortable. Inflight entertainment compared to Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, Cathay Pacific and Malaysia Airlines etc is much less. I guess they didn't really improve headphones quality as I had to ask to change headphones 3 times until I can find a pair that works. Food of a very low quality. I tried 'vietnamese cuisine' but it was really not vietnamese as the food was greasy and full of weird spices. This was my first time using Air New Zealand on an international flight and this has been a complete let down and my expectations of a high quality airline that they heavily invested in their PR to build the image has been destroyed. Personally speaking I think they have been trying to compete with low cost airlines too much to drive down costs and completely ignored how they get to a four-star airline in the first place. Overall, utter disappointment.