bluegreentravel

I flew NZ (NRT-AKL-MEL) for the first time a couple of weeks ago in J in the 777-200, and I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised! Especially given that it has received quite a mixed review in here and in other forums (and I was hesitant because of the unflattering thread about the FAs in the HKG-AKL sector).

Positives:
-Outstanding crew in the NRT-AKL sector. Actually, it was one senior flight attendant who stood out. The service was probably what I liked best.
-Of all the J seats I've flown, this has got to be the most comfortable bed; the mattress and duvet were soft, and it doesn't have the irritating cubby hole in most new airline seats
-Good selection of New Zealand wines
-Easy and hassle-free transit in Auckland

(Maybe) negatives:
-Not really a negative - this is a matter of perspective, but being used to Asian and EU airlines, I found NZ FAs to be quite "familiar". Perhaps it's a cultural thing? SQ/NH/QR would probably have a more elegant but distant type of service. Not everyone may appreciate the chatty, homey NZ FAs (but I did of course, as mentioned above)
-Inconsistent crew. There are ones who work efficiently and are very friendly, but a couple appeared to hate their jobs so much.
-I'm torn about the food - which ranged from excellent to truly bad. The NRT-AKL dinner was good, and the salmon in the AKL-MEL sector was outstanding, but the NRT-AKL Japanese breakfast was inedible and was left untouched
-Mediocre lounge in Auckland
-The AVOD was a pain, really. The remote control was unresponsive, and the system was slow.


There's my objective review of NZ! Although there are some quirks here and there that makes it less perfect than the more popular competitors like SQ/CX etc., it was actually a solid 4-star experience. Would gladly flew with them again.

pbl22

Thanks for the review. I pretty much agree with this. Certainly the AKL Int lounge and 77E AVOD are poor compared to other offerings. But service is generally good, although can be inconsistent. NZ food has become a bit of a mixed bag, IME, as you have identified.

I also agree that Asian/Middle Eastern airline FAs tend to be more distant than the NZ ones, but I prefer the friendliness of NZ FAs.

Having said this, I still do not choose NZ for my regular AKL-NRT trips because of the very real possibility of ending up in J on a 763. SQ is a much nicer (and often cheaper) option, especially on the 77W to SIN and 380 to NRT, while QF also is often cheaper, with the possibilities of the EK380 to SYD and old first class seats on the unrefurbed QF744.

kakapo24

I agree they are sometimes a little too familiar. I sometimes fly same day business Auckland Sydney on the 7am then home on the 630pm flight for a meeting, and the last thing I really feel like is their chitchat, but as a whole they are usually nice and professional.

sbiddle

It would be interesting to see the difference in crew on the 77E vs the 763 to NRT since they're from different parts of the business.

To be honest I found both my recent 763 flights to NRT a little lacking in the crew area, I certainly don't think they're as professional as the long haul crews doing the 777/747 flights.

Thai-Kiwi

What definition of 'professional' do you mean?

sbiddle

They seemed a lot more informal in their use of language and just didn't seem as well polished as long haul crews I've experienced. My girlfriend even asked for a hot chocolate twice from both crew and it never arrived.

I was also slightly surprised on 2 flights with such a high loading of Japanese passengers in general (I'd estimate 75% were Japanese) and in business (4 Westerners from 24 on the way back and 3 from 23 on the way over) that they don't at least have one multilingual crew member up the front. All announcements are in both languages, but on a couple of occasions they had to bring one of the Japanese speaking crew forward to help.

bluegreentravel

My experience is of course limited to the 4 sectors that I've done, but my observation is that the more senior crew members seem to be more service-oriented, friendlier, and more efficient that the juniors. This is quite different from, say, United, where the general rule is - the more senior, the crankier

Oh I forgot to mention, one perhaps undesirable thing that I witnessed is a male FA preparing the premium economy meal trays on the floor. Yikes!

sbiddle

I'd probably tend to agree with this as well

My point was mainly a seemingly different level of customer service in Business from a 767 crew vs Business Premier on a 777 with the long haul crew. The 767 crew only fly the 767 on it's routes which are typically NRT/PVG/HNL and some of the Pacific Islands (does it still fly to LAX?) whereas the long haul crew fly all 77E/77W/744 routes.

I'd almost expect the 767 crew to bend over backwards since they have such an average business class product on offer.

Kiwi Flyer

Yes 767 operates the AKL-RAR-LAX vv route.

bce1

Interested in the crew rostering - it was common (well I noticed it 2-3 times) before NZ switched to the 777 on AKL-PER and it was a 767 route for me to encounter some of the same crew on a direct AKL-LAX flight a few weeks later - so is this separate rostering new or is it just there is some overlap sometimes.

Thanks
BCE

sbiddle

There was a big shakeup of crews in mid 2013. The 767 crew will move to the 787 when it arrives.

Domestic crew structure was also changed with the arrival of more A320's.

Oceanic814

I've posted about my Business experiences in another thread as well, but just flew it again from LAX to AKL on the weekend.

Quick summary: I don't think it's worth the retail price, and wouldn't pay cash or full APD for it. It's fine if you are using RU's or OneUp - but definitely bid the minimum.

Seat select even 24 hours out was weird, one side of the cabin was completely blocked. After boarding the FAs had setup that side of the cabin with water and menus, but not the other side that everyone was jammed into.
Prompted some arguments between the FAs.

Drink service was pretty hopeless to be honest, no pro-active top ups, and took a long time to clear meal trays and rubbish.
Got missed entirely from the first half of the breakfast service and had to wander into the galley to get that sorted.
I ended up with a cup of coffee still knocking around when we landed.
Food was average, I guess your mileage may vary but I really don't rate the food. It's just "ok".
Service in general I would classify as poor, seemed rushed, and at one stage two of the FAs were arguing in the galley about something quite loudly.
One passenger got told they hadn't requested a special meal, and something like "well it's a late flight so it's only a light meal service anyway"
Cabin temperature was freezing cold for the first few hours (everyone had blankets on) and then was 'adjusted' to be boiling hot.

This was on the 777-300 and my first time flying in the 'back-half' of the business class section (where you turn right when boarding).
I would definitely recommend seat selecting into the front of the plane if at all possible, having everyone board past you was pretty annoying, and it seemed like we were in '2nd class business class' in terms of service.

If I had paid full price in cash I would have been very disappointed, there were some first time NZ fliers next to me who swore they were back to Qantas for their next trip.

bibbju

I've been very fortunate (perhaps) and have never had a bad experience with Air NZ. However, all my flights with them have been long haul (with the exception of one AKL-MEL return) and I'm almost always in BP.

I LOVE the friendliness/familarity of Air NZ staff. After 3 years of almost constantly flying Asian airlines (usually in Y), it's bliss to have crew who 1) speak native English, 2) have a sense of humour and 3) aren't so submissive that it makes me want to shake them.

The food (in BP/PE at least, no idea about Y sorry) is the best airline food I've experienced. Same for the wines. I particularly like the focus on NZ wines (and food, cheese especially) as it gives me the opportunity to try (good) wines I probably wouldn't come across otherwise. I liked the Urlar Pinot Noir 2012 so much on my last flight that I tracked down their only distributor in China and bought a case from them!

By contrast, I flew J with Emirates on the A380 two weeks ago and thought the wine selection offered was so dull (and it didn't pair at all well with the food on offer) that I just stuck to water with my dinner. The food was pretty grim but it always is with Emirates in J. I never really understand why as the Emirates lounges always have great food. Very weird. Cathay serve better food in Y than Emirates do in J!!!

On my way back, I flew F with Emirates and finally the food was not only decent but actually good! By good I mean on a par with Air NZ BP food. However, I was so rushed through my meal (total opposite of my NZ experiences) that I literally didn't finish any of my dishes before they were whisked away. I thought the F means First but perhaps it's actually Fast!!

I think it's a great compliment to Air NZ that it takes flying Emirates First Class to match Air NZ's long haul BP food, drink and staff. Okay Air NZ's IFE is dated and the aircraft interiors a bit worn but that's still pretty good. And a lot cheaper!

I do agree that the Auckland lounge isn't that great. Although I was pleasantly surprised by the shower facilities last time I was there. Much nicer than I was expecting. For a flagship lounge though, in terms of food/drink/ambiance I'd expect a bit more. But it could be a lot worse!

My fantasy combination is an Emirates A380 First Class Suite but with Air NZ staff, food and wine. Not too much to ask surely?!

mad_atta

Once upon a time I would have agreed with this post, that NZ's wine selection was excellent and the food was consistently some of the best in the sky - not necessarily flashy, but always flavoursome and often quite imaginative. However, that has declined dramatically over the past 2 years or so - the food is usually OK but often mediocre; the wine list usually has a few gems but you have to cherrypick them from the dross.

I do find myself wondering whether NZ deliberately tries much harder with their catering on certain key routes (basically the 773 routes), as the flights I've had on the 773 had noticeably better catering. Out of curiosity, which are the longhaul NZ routes you typically fly?

serfty

They appear to.

Last year the catering on MEL-AKL in J was better than the catering on NZ6 to LAX in BP later that day.