oranjemakker

Thanks for that TIV, I am going to be in this cabin on a 10 hr leg next month. Since you tried a few seats, which would you recommend would be most comfortable if travelling alone?... at the moment have booked a window but wondering if middle aisle would be better (only downside there is no view, but hey).
thanks

nzlilibet

Thought I'd bump this to the top again as I, too, am interested.

Only flying TT in this cabin (so space+ economy prices) but like some comments - 2 of us, but am tempted to try the middle seats.

brenrox

Definately the middle seats for a couple. They feel very private and intimate and you can make a table to sit at together for meals etc.

nzlilibet

Many thanks - that's what I had suspected. So will go and change our seats right now. But will have to keep checking in case they change back to a 200 series!

birder

My partner just flew on the 773 Auckland-London, in business for the first leg and PE on the LAX-LHR leg. Business was "amazing," "extremely comfortable," "I slept for 7 hours and woke up without any pain." (My partner has been having some serious back pain so this says a lot.)

About the 773 PE, my partner said, "Really cool looking," "absolutely wretched to sit in," "no recline to speak of," and "some part of your body is always tense because you are holding yourself in position." This was on a 773 that had a row removed. (I forgot to ask what seat it was!)

These sentiments are from someone who does not fly very much and almost always in economy.

thomasalexandre

N1 LHR to LAX in Premium-Y

Hi guys - this is my first experience with NZ. Usually loyal to LX or LH on long haul in C. I was lucky enough to be among the first to experience the new PremiumY cabin that's been reduced by 1 seat row. I obviously can't compare to what it was before - but it really felt like enough space! Actually - the personal space you get is easily what was given to you in business class 15y ago. To be fair - am a small guy, though still I can hardly imagine the space would not be enough for anybody to feel comfortable in.

Otherwise the usual comments about the seat - difficult to recline and recline is not huge - for a day flight it's enough, though could be a little more to be great for sleeping. Not enough space to put personal items away. Screen sits in a little awkward position when unfolded. I liked though the table is flexible enough to be put in different positions. The pillow is also a little strange - NZ certainly thought doing it, but it really is too big in my opinion, you can hardly put it where you need it. Not a big fan neither of leather seats for long haul. Otherwise the seat does a good job in giving you the feeling of privacy.

Inflight entertainment is as good as everybody says and probably among the best currently in the air. Selection is amazing, system response very good and lots of handy features to explore.

Am not a huge fan of the NZ concierge service! Maybe because she just came to me during dinner time. It feels like NZ employs a charming lady just to go around and have a chat with passengers. In the end it seemed this was most appreciated by passengers in the 50+ area.

Dinner was good for a premium eco product. I would however be a little disappointed I were to be presented this in business class (since premiumY and C share the same meal in NZ). Presentation was great, hardware was nice, timing was okay and selection also. Pre arrival meal was a nice surprise - nice smoothy, tasty sandwiches and lovely scones.

See here some pics:

starter



Beef filet


Burger


Cheese




All in all a nice inflight experience - would def consider NZ again! A very fine airline with lots of nice ideas. Their eco premium product is very good (I cannot compare to any other though) - I don't feel like I've paid too much for it and I enjoy my flight.

Last comment - shame NZ doesn't play more with the mood lighting. It was just on for boarding. Considering it was a day flight - they could have been exploiting it more - but maybe it was just my crew on this particular flight not really paying attention to it.

cavemanzk

J & Y+ don't get the same meal service on the 77W. They both have there own menu unlike the 772/744

thomasalexandre

Ok thanx for the heads up!

kiwibigdave

Welcome to this board, and thanks for the thorough review.

From the photos maybe you had the AB seat pairing? Any chance the person in A could get out to the aisle without the person in B also getting up?

Aerosett

It is very similar, generally same dishes, slightly smaller quantity (starter on a small plate, vs a bowl in J) or slightly reduced choice, with simpler presentation (e.g. dessert presented with starter, whereas in J it's a separate service - mains are on a large plate in J, unlike PY).

In essence, very similar to the previous J & PY "gap".

thomasalexandre

Kind of - he certainly does not need to stand up, no.

worldtrav

Nice report,t hanks. Couple of questions:

Is that glass of bubbly as big as it looks?

Also, is the cheeseburger a main entree choice or midflight snack?

thomasalexandre

The glass of champagne is not huge indeed - it was quickly empty

The Cheeseburger was main entree choice - it was not offered as a snack. My travel mate though reported it was quiet tasty - a little small however since you get no side dishes.

ajnz

I flew LHR-LAX NZ1 24SEP11 on a reconfigured 773, so I thought I'd compare two PE sectors, and see what my thoughts are now.

Route: NZ1 LHR-LAX
Day/Night flight: Night
Cabin / Seat No. (aisle / window / middle): Premium Economy 31E
Seat comfort (width ok?): With the reconfiguration of PE, the whole space feels much better. The width was indeed excellent.
Legroom: Much improved over the first version, however still iffy when reclined and stretching your legs out. Better than Y for sure, and much, much better than version 1. Depending on what you're doing with your legs, I'd say it's either slightly better than the 744/772 PE or slightly worse. So we'll say on average, about the same!
Ease of getting in and out: Very good. With the reconfiguration I don't think the aisle pax on the AB/JK pairs will need to get out of the seat to allow the window pax out.
Food: Reasonable. This does seem to have declined vs. February. There was a choice of four main courses - filet mignon, fish, some other seafood, and the burger. The filet mignon was gone by the time I was offered a meal, and I can't eat seafood so I was left with the burger. I was somewhat underwhelmed by it - it was cold, as was the garlic bread that was kind of thrown at me. The quality was reasonable but the temperature wasn't. The appetizer was very good. The cheese was, er, half missing; and the dessert sampler was okay.

The mid-flight snack was reasonable - the sandwiches (beef, ham-cheese, chicken, or tuna) didn't really do it for me but the scones were excellent.

Drink: Very good, although we ran out of Syrah so I was forced to switch to Pinot.
FA attentiveness: Very good; but still the crew were very much struggling with service speed. Hugely improved vs February in total time, but the cold garlic bread, cold main dish, and general rushing around of the FA team is not so good.
AVOD: Very good. No crashes this time, relatively responsive, good content selection (although no movies I wanted to watch, but this has been a 25,000 mile month so I've watched plenty already). Still think it should be polarized.
Would you do it again?: Unsure. In this case I was able to get an on-departure-upgrade using up one of my Gold complimentary upgrades, which I wouldn't normally waste on Y-U however they are going to expire soon if I don't use them, and it gave me an opportunity to revisit PE on this aircraft.
Other thoughts?: There are still some usability issues with the seat, but I don't think these will be fixed until perhaps the 787/772 refit, as it would require some seat redesign. The tilt is still totally worthless, and with the increased legroom I think the recline is actually less useful because it does not recline far enough. The seat was fine for eating, watching the IFE (which is now no longer right in your face), and working, but less good for sleeping. I still managed to sleep for 3 or 4 hours while my seatmate slept solidly for 5+.

In summary: it's much better now with the row removed. The feeling of space is significantly improved, no longer were my legs hard against the seat in front, although the cabin still feels very crowded because of the shell design. I would probably buy PE for day flights if the fare was reasonable, but the fares are still sky high for the product - for me I am not yet convinced it's value-for-money.

Well done to Air New Zealand for listening to passenger feedback about PE, and changing the aircraft to significantly improve the comfort, and in their service streamlining for speed.

cavemanzk

That burger doesn't look to appealing, to be honest looks very fast food chain style.

For a burger in Y+ I would of expected the bread to have been on a higher standard such as a ciabatta roll.

One would assume that they are put together in the air? therefore would allow it to become a dairy free meal?