Air New Zealand

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.

Flew MEL-CHC-ZQN-AKL-MEL A320 and ATR72. Legroom on the Trans Tasman flights are a joke in fact the domestic A320 aircraft have more legroom! Movies on the Trans Tasman flights are quite dated and definitely nothing current on show. Catering for those who paid for it was just ok nothing special. Service by crew was ok I missed out on drinks (cabin crew didn't make it to my row) even though I paid for "The Works" fare. This experience certainly does not convince me to fly them long haul I would definitely recommend Qantas on the Trans Tasman flights.

Travelled PER-AKL on Air NZ aircraft was a B777-200. Must admit I was a little disappointed with the level of service which I found to be a bit inconsistent. The cabin manager and a couple of the staff in the business cabin were excellent but were let down by a couple of their colleagues who looked like they were just going through the motions. One of these was an older member of the team who just didn't seem to have the friendly disposition and level of service you would expect when travelling in a premium cabin. The positives were the food and wine which was excellent. The negatives were the bed and the IFE in my seat went unserviceable fortunately there was a vacant seat so I was able to move over to that! When it did work the bed was of a good quality and the IFE had a good screen and wide variety of choice. If they are going to do a personalised service they need to get the persons name right as after I had corrected the flight attendant with my name I was then referred to as someone else later in the flight.

We flew NZ1 LHR-LAX and NZ2 LAX-LHR 777-300. Both flights were typical of ANZ quality and what we've come to expect over the years good food IFE and cabin crew. For the return trip we upgraded to exit row seats 34J & K and found them to be a good investment in terms of the extra cost althoughas others have commented it was a little chilly so use the blankets. Chatting with a member of the crew I was disappointed to learn that the new P.E. seats as fitted in the 777-300 are not to be used in the 787 aircraft because the company that makes them have made it uneconomical for ANZ. I think this is a shame having travelled in them before we found them far better than any other P.E. offering.

777-300. AKL-LHR. The seats are ridiculously cramped they may be OK if you are waif-like but anyone else will struggle I know that airlines cram in economy passengers so they can make money on the premium seats but Air NZ has gone too far. I felt sorry for the crew negotiating the narrow aisles and having to be polite to disgruntled passengers. The in-flight entertainment and meals were of a high standard but that doesn't make up for the physical discomfort. I travel to and from Europe at least once a year and my airline of first choice has always been Air NZ but the experience has got so much worse over the past couple of years that I won't be travelling Air NZ long haul again.

LHR-LAX return. Have to say both flights were the most uncomfortable ever. Very hot on both legs and even the stewardesses were complaining about the heat. Also seating on the 777-300 is very cramped. BA or Virgin next time i think.

Having just returned to the US after visiting New Zealand. I wish to comment on the economy seating on B777-300 compared to the B777-200 AKL-LAX. The seats in the new B777-300 are ridiculously cramped both in width and pitch. I had the fortune to buy the emergency seats on both legs but would have struggled if I had been in normal economy on the B777-300. In addition the extra crammed in seat reduces the aisle width to uncomfortable levels for both sitter and walker. Perhaps you should be calling them Hobbit Seats for Hobbit sized people. Even your steward staff were complaining bitterly about the negative feedback they had received from cramped Kiwis. Did Air New Zealand get any focus groups to try these seat mockups for size or did Air New Zealand marketing people get done over by the people who sold the premium seats? Your superb airline staff cannot overcome the 12 hours of cramped misery that that I heard people complain about.

My wife and I traveled on 2 transpacific flights (ANZ 01 ANZ 06) recently and arrived at LAX 2 days before the Friday Nov 1 bombing. These flights and two others from and to Melbourne were the most comfortable international flights we've ever taken and we started flying internationally in 1968. We'd recommend Air New Zealand. Auckland International Airport was also superb though I speak less enthusiastically about Melbourne. My only negative is why does ANZ continue to use LAX? That airport was a total mess and the pits before the recent shootings. Its (among other US airports - DTW for example) a national disgrace. Can't you fly into something close in LA and skip LAX?