Air New Zealand

777-200 Auckland to Vancouver suppose the easiest thing to say I will never fly long haul with NZ Airways again. IFE that was ancient and didn't work properly. I really don't enjoy having the passengers seat so close to my face when they recline. Not an enjoyable trip. Please update your cabins. Passengers pay good money and shouldn't be treated like this especially when there are plenty of options for getting to YVR.

Guys get into the 21st century and please please upgrade your planes on the Auckland/Hawaii route. I would have been more comfortable in a tiger moth. We fly business on medium to long hauls for the comfort and additional extras which by the way we also pay for. The seats in business class remind me of a Jason recliner but less accommodating. No real issues with service but the food does leave a bit to be desired. I do a lot of flying and although I am a parochial NZer give me Emirates anytime.

I've flown long haul with Virgin and their Premium Economy product is excellent but Air New Zealand's just takes it that one notch above (although it does cost slightly more too). Firstly the seat - it's in a shell so the seat tilts and slides rather than reclines into the space behind you. You're also angled slightly and so if you're in the outer seats you're not obliged to talk to the person next to you - it's your own personal space. I paid the extra for seats at the front of the cabin and they're well worth the upgrade - so much legroom and easy to get in and out (useful if travelling solo). The centre seats are better for couples as you can share the space. Check their website for information. The food was excellent served on crockery with metal cutlery. You'll get your starter etc first and wait some time for the hot meal meanwhile your dessert is also sat in front of you being very tempting! The hot food was good although the menu options were a little unusual - both times I went for the fish as the other options (beef and chicken) contained various things I didn't care for. The service was impeccable - the staff were very friendly except one attendant who seemed a little off although still professional. Inflight entertainment is on a decent sized touch screen although there is also a remote in the side of the seat. The selection was surprising - there were a large number of retro movies rather than all the latest blockbusters (of which there were few). However this was actually quite nice as I watched a few older favourites rather than having to gamble on new choices. My favourite thing about the IFE was being able to order drinks and snacks from the screen. Just tap an option or two and it's delivered to your seat a few minutes later whilst you continue to watch your movie. All seats have USB sockets for charging and I think you can link them up to a USB drive but I didn't test this. Also charging sockets are available for your laptop. You can use a standard UK plug as well as US and some other options. The toilets! Firstly two toilets dedicated to Premium Economy - so no queuing. And they were the best - fancy wallpaper with funny fake bookshelves on it (read some of the titles) and music piped in too. Frankly I would pay the upgrade just for those! Finally when flying to the USA you are right near the front of the plane so you're off quickly and can hot foot it to immigration to hopefully beat the queues. Unless you have ridiculously high standards of what you expect from a metal tube flying through the air I don't think you'll be disappointed.

SFO-AKL 777-300 Economy. Got a decent deal on an airfare but was a bit worried about the reports of the 3-4-3 configuration in Air New Zealand economy. It is very tight and this is magnified on a long flight. For me no amount of service compensated for the feeling of being jammed in like sheep. Clearly the bottom line is the only thing that matters. What was once one of the best economy classes in the sky has literally devolved into sardine class. In the future I would take longer routing to avoid Air New Zealand.

SYD-AKL. I was booked in business class on a late afternoon flight. I was informed by the airline that there had been a change and the flight no longer offered business class. Instead I was offered something called World Deluxe Service which is ridiculous and expensive for what it is. Basically it is a fully economy A320 aircraft where the first two rows only use two of the three seats. Essentially someone sits in 1A and 1C but they don't sell 1B. You also get lounge access and the onboard economy meal. I actually had to argue with the booking agent that I was entitled to money back. I had to explain that I had purchased a business class ticket (for myself wife and son) and now that they no longer provided me with business class they actually owed me money. Eventually they relented. The aircraft was absolutely disgusting. It was ancient (or looked ancient). My family was in 1A 1C and 1D (no one was in 1F or in row two at all). There was no divider wall in front of row one so I had to privilege of basically sitting in the galley for three hours watching the flight attendants work. My son was seated in 1C but I had to move him because "he was too young for an exit row". Since when is row one an exit row? We were sitting opposite two flight attendants. Wouldn't they operate the door in an emergency? Where they expecting my 9 year old to do it? Air New Zealand's seat selection system is the worst. It is time for the IT department to let you pick specific seats for each passenger instead of picking a block of seats for you. The seats on this aircraft had perhaps a millimetre of recline. It was one of the most uncomfortable flights I have never been on. The entertainment system worked poorly and my son's did not work at all. The only positive is that the Air New Zealand staff are perhaps the nicest people anywhere. I have never had anything but truly outstanding service from the cabin crew on all of my flights with them over the years and this flight was no exception.

On a 3-hour flight with the flight tracking indicating that we were still 43 minutes out of Sydney the cabin crew issued the tray tables up and seats to upright order with the reason given that we were soon to start our descent into Sydney. This was 25 minutes before the captain issued the "Cabin Crew prepare the cabin for landing" instruction. The Air New Zealand aircraft seats are particularly uncomfortable in upright position. On later politely querying why the cabin crew had pre-empted the captain by 25 minutes I was rebuked with the retort that it was a "courtesy decision". The only people provided a courtesy by the action were the cabin attendants themselves so they could relax during the rest of the flight.

Travelled LHR/LA 25/12/14. Staff service fair food (veg option) very poor entertainment tired especially movies on offer. London catering needs attention. Big contrast with inward journey 15.1.15 where staff were very good veg option (ex LA) tasty with lots of fresh veg and fruit inflight entertainment also good.

Flight 002 LAX-LHR. Jan 4 2015. Not much of a value if you can't get customer service. A satisfactory trip is so much more than seat comfort or food quality. In-air staff is lovely. Once you get off the plane the trouble begins.

Flown Air NZ on the MEL-AKL-VAN and return 3 times over the last 2 years and have enjoyed the experience very much flown on both B777-200ER and B777-300 in economy and felt comfortable despite being 6ft 2in. Meals are excellent and so is the service as well as a wide variety of drinks and snacks available throughout the whole flight. Vast entertainment selection with something for everybody. My seat on my recent flight from Auckland to Vancouver had a faulty remote for the entertainment screen and the flight attendant was very helpful in trying to fix the issue whilst we were heading to the runway but couldn't so he said wait till we take off and I could move to another seat that has a working remote and this was the only seat left in economy which had only improved my view on Air NZ.

Flew Air New Zealand in economy from LHR to LAX on their 777-300. Overall it was a good flight - cabin ambience with the mood lighting and black seats was great seat comfort was also good inflight AVOD good food good and friendly flight attendants that came by every 30 minutes or so with water. I would recommend Air New Zealand. The only thing I didn't like was 10 abreast in economy which meant that it was difficult to walk down the aisles without weaving through people's elbows and legs.