Air New Zealand

I flew from Sydney to Auckland on a Boeing 777-200ER in Business Class (seat 3A) and although a quick 3.5 hour flight it was excellent. The seats are roomy (didn't utilize the bed option) for the amount of time in the air service was very personal and professional and the food was great. The Service manager visited each Business Class customer prior to landing and asked if everything was to their liking-rare these days to find that on airlines. Many options with the personal television for movies TV programs and more. First time flying Air New Zealand and I was very impressed.

My 18 year old son has just arrived in Vancouver after flying MEK-AKL-YVR. He is travelling to a skiing camp so had excess and over sized baggage which we had accounted for. Check-in at the at the airport is an e-kiosk with no option to use a counter. This is fine if flying is straight forward and you have one bag. I was most unimpressed and sought assistance from ground staff who were helpful. I noticed older passengers who were struggling and thought about families with young children bags prams and car seats and wonder how one person is to manage. The plane was old and the seat uncomfortable and he was served the identical meal on the Auckland and Vancouver legs. Luckily it was good however being hungry he asked for a second meal and was told he couldn't have one - this is company policy. So he went hungry for a 12 hr flight. This is not acceptable and we will not be flying Air NZ again.

Auckland to Hong Kong on 15 October. So good! The steward was the most helpful I've known the cabin was actually warm (I hate how cold most planes are) the food was fine the movies were a bit out of date but it seems that all the airlines are doing that now.

We flew on November 21st service from Auckland to London via Los Angeles LAX and had a great comfortable flight. They didn't have vegetarian meals on the plane and upon realizing my boyfriend's medical dietary restrictions the nice flight attendant made sure to get him anything he could eat. She was very attentive and sweet and both of us felt well cared for on that very very long flight. She invited me to try my first New Zealand red wine and it was lovely. The boarding process was simple check-in was easy and the in-flight entertainment options were incredible with lots of recent films.

Flying short haul from Christchurch to Auckland it was one of my favourite flights. Staff were friendly and nice. The safety video instruction was the best I'd seen and honestly it was the first time I saw all the passengers paying attention to it. The only thing that I did not like was the food well actually the snack Cookie Times and chips no other choice. I preferred the muffin!

SYD-AKL-YVR-AKL-SYD return agree with majority of comments re checked in baggage allowance + cabin bag allowance (7kg) as last time I flew to North America checked in baggage allowance was 2x 23kg bags. Clean Cabin friendly staff decent inflight catering + AVOD options.

Wonderful service in Vancouver Sydney and Auckland airports. Inflight entertainment and food were excellent. Cabin crew very friendly and helpful beyond call of duty. My wife required wheelchair due to injury and ground staff wonderfully attentive. The best in the business by far.

Flight from Auckland to Shanghai: Check In: friendly but not very helpful staff when I raised an issue the only answer was: give feedback on our website this is not what you expect as Frequent Flyer and passenger flying in Business Class. Business Class seat: worst seat ever seen on a long-haul flight. The seat is a very old recliner seat even not electronic but manual adjustment of seat position. Very uncomfortable. Food very bad (quality and taste very limited choice). Service: OK but not on Business Class level. Conclusion: NZ is completely overrated they have old aircraft's with old seats and the food and service is far below competitors!

My wife and I just finished a 2.5 week trip to New Zealand. The flight and stewards were excellent however the trouble came when checking in at Auckland airport to come back to LA. We were going through to customs and a lady called us and said we needed to weigh our two carry on bags. Apparently they have to weigh less than 7kg and one bag weighed 9kg and the other was 11kg. My carry on bag itself weighs 3.5kg empty. The lady tells us we have to turn around and go all the way back downstairs to where we checked in. We were already pressed for time and now were in danger of missing our flight. We go back downstairs and there is one lady covering all of the checked bags. We wait in line and she then commences to tell me they have to be below 7kg or it will cost me $200/bag. Also they need to be consistent in this policy. As the lady stopped us before customs to weigh our bag 10 people walked by with bigger bags than mine. I hope they review this policy as they are getting a lot of bad press and a lot of unhappy economy class patrons who last time I checked still represent the majority of seats on the planes!

The flight itself was just the same as any other airline no problem. But what really annoyed me was the treatment I received at check in. We flew from Blenheim to Auckland. A family group of 4 of us checked in. Maybe one case out of the 4 was overweight but they took into account that in total others were lighter and we did not exceed the overall allowance for 4 persons. All good so far. They insisted on weighing my hand luggage which had been stripped down to a few light items but the main content was my CPAP medical machine that deals with my sleep apnea condition a camera tablet and lap top. Overall weight was about 9kgs about 2kgs over the limit of 7kgs. The check in man told me that I was over the limit and would have to remove some items. I pointed out that I had a laptop hoping he would then just let it be. On the flight to Christchurch the Air New Zealand check in told me 9kgs including a laptop was OK and let the bag go. This time the man told me to remove the laptop so he could weigh the bag again. It is an ultra book so extremely light which still made my bag 8kgs. He still wasn't happy and insisted that I remove more items. This was extremely embarrassing for the sake of 1kg but in the end we placed some items in a plastic shopping bag which my wife was allowed to carry on because she only had a handbag. This reduced the weight down to 7kgs which made the check in man happy and I could then put my very light laptop back inside. Rules are rules fair enough but for goodness sake. My wife had next to no hand luggage why couldn't they just aggregate the weight for our group or at least for the 2 of us? In the end I put the items back in my bag anyway but the irony was that it was a small plane and the overhead lockers were too small to even take the regulation hand luggage bag I was using so it had to stay on the floor under the seat in front. So it wasn't as if the bag would have been too heavy for the overhead bin anyway. I expect this kind of treatment from a LCC but not from a full fare carrier like Air New Zealand. It was very embarrassed and it just left a bitter taste for the whole flight. I won't be rushing back to Air NZ I can assure you.