Part 2
The pre-departure drink choices were sparkling wine or juice or water. Nothing new.
Several hot towels were distributed throughout dinner service, which was nice but a bit too much. The dinner itself was ok, but my first (chicken) and second (cheese salad) choices were not available, which means I had only one alternative (steak). Not good for a five pax load....
I did not had dessert or cheese, and I did not try the wine (they did not had champagne by the way, only sparkling wine which is good because i had too much bubbles the night before).
Cover menu
Menu
Drinks
Starter
My girlfriend's chicken
My steak was ok, but not great
Olive oil and bread. The oil was excellent!
Service on board was generally good and let's say personalized the New Zealand way. The purser was slightly over friendly and told us his life story and encouraged us to get engaged! The effort was appreciated but it was a bit over the top for my taste. I mean we were participating in the conversation as well, and were joking around too, but the purser took it to the next level. Other FAs were attentive and joking, without being too much.
Airborn view
Even the carts are branded All Blacks... That sounds promising!
Our flight departed with about 20 minutes delay but we landed on time. Landing cards came with express lane access which came very handy as there was a huge queu at immigration. Since we were the first ones out of the plane and the first ones at immigration, the security agent waved us in upon seeing the Express card and greeted us with a "Lucky .......s"! Welcome to New Zealand or Kia Ora as they say!
Our luggages had priority tags as you saw, but unfortunately they arrived in the middle of the pack. What is the point with Prio tags?
Conclusion
Decent first experience with NZ, which delivers mostly what you'd expect from a C class ticket, but plenty of small things could still be improved, and frankly the comparison with QF is definitely not positive for NZ. Hopefully our next flights with NZ will be better.
Kia Ora New Zealand!