Air New Zealand

Los Angeles to Auckland Business class. Air NZ have a great business class product very comfortable seats and staff lay out the bed with a mattress topper. Good IFE and food pretty good. Best thing was the staff so friendly and seem to really enjoy their job compared to all the other airlines we use over the years. Nothing is too much trouble for them.

21/2/2015. ANZ 87. Auckland to Hong Kong. We boarded the 777 on time ready for take off the captain the informed us there would be a slight delay due to technical issues. 2 hrs later still sat on the plane the captain asked us to return to the terminal as the aircraft wasn't able to take off and we would have to fly later on a replacement plane. On returning to the terminal two staff were trying to deal with passengers concerns it was total chaos we were told our flight was now 7am. We were given a blanket and expected to sleep on the floor my wife and I are senior citizens. At 4 am we were given beverage vouchers Auckland Airports catering facilities are very poor from midnight to early morning. Communication was very poor and eventually after 7am told we would now be leaving at 9.30am. We eventually left at 10.30 am on 777 which was old poor seats inflight entertainment poor and food very poor. Due to the 10.5 hour delay we missed our connection to LHR. Air New Zealand is based at Auckland airport so you would expect them to be better organised there. As a long haul airline I would never use them again after this experience.

AKL-SIN in P/E. Overnight flight. Air NZ's P/E seats have varied over the past few years depending on aircraft type and routes. These former business-class-style leather seats are extremely comfortable. The only drawback is the footrest which is awkward. Main advantage in P/E is the legroom and space. Our view is that all seats should be like this. Economy cattle class now really is horrible. Air NZ's business class is superb but so much pricier. P/E is well worth the extra cost. If you are hesitating just try it. How nice to have a personal "Kia ora" message on your screen. Air NZ's safety video remains hmm quirky though some passengers now find it a little OTT and are fed up with the continued hyping of the Lord of the Rings movies. IFE was only adequate and offerings could have been more comprehensive. Food was excellent. It did seem unnecessary for the FAs to have to make two separate trips to serve up appetizers and main courses when one excursion would have sufficed. Not really a fan of overnight flights if arriving early in the morning (not the case if flying the other direction) as you have to wait hours to get into your hotel. I only doze or sleep an hour or so on flights. We had traveled to Auckland from Christchurch. A direct SQ flight in P/E when/if available (scheduled for September 2015) would be worth considering if you do not need to travel out of Auckland.

NZ104 19 April SYD-AKL on the Dreamliner. The team in the business class cabin worked non stop during this relatively short flight delivering excellent service. The plane which was apparently Air New Zealands launch 787 was still new and abounded in technology. There is now a marked difference in the video entertainment system compared to other aircraft. The video screen is now High Definition and is like using a smartphone app. One thing you do immediately notice in the cabin is the size of the windows the cabin had a nice open feeling and the dimming feature meant that you could set the lighting to almost any setting that was comfortable. The meals included some of Peter Gordons creations the poached chicken salad was huge and did me for the rest of the day.

AKL to LAX on May 9. Great service. When flying economy on Air New Zealand's 777-300 I always choose one of the pairs of seats at the very back of the plane usually the second or third forward from the back. It's a bit tight in economy and the aisle is wider there. Crew were awesome. Food was fine. Price paid on one of the airlines many sales was excellent.

20/4/2015 Flight SQ4282. I booked a trip AKL to London with Singapore Airlines one of the flights offered for the first leg was a codeshare with Air NZ as the operator late night departure suited best so it was booked. Arrived at the airport to find one check in desk aircrew only self check points for everyone else I queried this and the solution to check in involved 1 staff member using 4 different self check points. Seated on board I looked for a flight magazine in the seat pocket were a safety sheet a sick bag and a dog eared price list for snacks such as nuts crisps etc once airborne the drinks trolley appeared some turbulence was encountered minor in my experience and the drinks trolley quickly disappeared followed by an announcement that serving drinks was not possible sometime later a tray appeared with a choice of water or orange this was to be the only time this service was offered during the 10+ hour flight. Some time later a meal was served complete with plastic cutlery nothing wrong with the meal some even got coffee however the tray remained uncollected shortly before landing I was handed a breakfast tray which I placed on top of the debris on the previous meal tray since no offer to remove it was forthcoming and the trolley moved on. Singapore to London with Singapore Airlines was a somewhat different experience I arrived at the airport after a short stopover in Singapore to find 7 manned check in desks I walked away from the desk with a boarding card in under 15 seconds. Seated on board I find no fewer than 3 different S.A. magazines the following items were then offered seperately in this order during the flight - while still on the ground hot towels were offered - socks package for the late night flight-newly printed menu also containing a list of complimentary snacks available on request such as nuts crisps etc nuts-drinks-meal with metal cutlery coffee/tea-water-waterx2-waterx3-hot towels-collect rubbish-breakfast coffee/tea. The return trip LHR to AKL with S.A. was a similar pleasant experience. Anyone out there booked to fly Air New Zealand? Good luck with that one!

Flew AKL-PVG on the 787-9. Seat was very comfortable for sitting: a bit more recline would've made it excellent. But for sleeping 'twas marvellous: so comfortable. Crew were attentive and dinner was good breakfast (waffle) was horrid.

NZ 87 9th April Auckland - Hong Kong. A dreadful flight poor service indifferent staff food quality below par. No flight announcements to advise of flight being really bumpy flight crew could at least have said something. Air New Zealand used to be a reasonable airline and their domestic service still is but internationally they are now very poor.

Terrible customer service at Sydney Airport from Air New Zealand after a flight from Wellington on 21/4/15. They could not open the door of the baggage hold due to bad weather that may or not have been avoidable however the Air NZ support and information about the issue to those 30 or so passengers affected was woeful. For three hours we waited and then told that the bags were on their way back to NZ no one from Air NZ arrived in the arrivals baggage area to talk to us. No information about how we would eventually receive our bags until a 3rd hand message after 3 hours that they would get them to our address. While we waited those 3 hours six flights from other airlines arrived and received their luggage with no issue. A separate issue but same flight we thought there was a real lack of advertised hot food. The only two option on the menu for purchase ran out within 5 minutes of the meal service opening.

Don't bother paying extra for the Air NZ Works Deluxe experience. We decided to splurge on our return Sydney- Auckland flight and pay the extra for a works deluxe seat. At $450 it was nearly three times the cost of our outbound no food no bags flight with Virgin. Never again! The Premium check-in queue turned out to be slower than the 'normal' queues. The Sydney lounge is utterly awful worn out furniture (holes in the arms of chair I sat in) and dreadful food. Yes the drinks are free but t's a huge price to pay for a couple of G&Ts. Yes having a guaranteed spare seat beside us was good but we had that on our cheap Virgin flight out. The food was very lack- lustre and you had to really make an effort to get a second drink. They even forgot my meal though that was quickly rectified once I was able to get hold of a staff member. My advice is to save your money and fly economy.