eggzlot

I was looking at an Air NZ flight in Feb from Queenstown > PPT with a connection in AKL. There is a codeshare on AKL > PPT with Air Tahiti Nui and the plane is an TN plane. That said, its about $200 NZD cheaper to book via Air New Zealand.

So when going through the booking process I saw rows 1-9 are all gray'd out and they say they are not unavailable. So I did some research on seat guru and they seem to be Space+ with 4'' extra of leg room. I thought maybe because its a codeshare I could not book the extra leg room due to the reservations systems or something. So I peeled back the layers just for fun and tried to book Queenstown > AKL on Air New Zealand and those first 9 rows are still grayed out.

Am I missing something? How does one access those seats? I ran my search based on economy and also premium economy but got the same prices, results and lack of upgrade options.

Thanks in advance!

Fast6

Hiya-
Domestic NZ flights are all single-class A320, and the front few rows are reserved for frequent flyers. If you've got Star Alliance Gold, adding that to your booking will unlock the Space+ aka FF seats. Otherwise, there's nothing you can do.

eggzlot

thanks @Fast6 - that was fast response! No Gold and never flown Air NZ before so really cannot call me a FF of that airline. Its a short route, I'll just book another row.

Its the long haul AKL > PPT without a premium economy class that will be the hardship!

AviationNZ

Have you thought about changing the day you travel? Air NZ operates a couple of services a week to PPT and that aircraft has Premium Economy on board

eggzlot

Yes I did look into changing. I could be flexible but I am starting the journey from Queenstown.

The day's Air NZ has the flight on their metal its a 9:55am flight. You cannot fly Queenstown to AKL in time. So I can either fly say Sunday with an 11am flight to AKL then a 4pm flight from AKL to PPT or I could fly Sunday from Queenstown to Auckland, sleep over in Auckland, then wake up and go fly Auckland to PPT.

Not really sure its worth leaving the airport, getting a hotel, etc just for another 1-2'' of leg room :-)

If Air NZ had something later than 9:55am or it was possible to get from Queenstown > AKL to make that 9:55 flight I'd listen. It is annoying because they have a flight from Queenstown to AKL that lands at 8:50 but the flight from AKL > PPT leaves at 9:55 and Air NZ told me its not enough of a connection time so they will not book it as a through ticket. Christchurch to AKL has a flight that lands in AKL at 8:20am and they will book that on the same tix to go to PPT.

I've looked at my options and not sure what other options are there. Dunedin flights do not seem to help since those are later in the day.

Just wish that Queenstown flight left 30 mins earlier so they could book Queenstown > PPT on one ticket.

sbiddle

MCT from domestic to intl is (off the top of my head) 70 mins at AKL. This is easily done in this time and many WLG->Intl flights used to have around 70 mins before they changed the domestic schedules.

The problem is not whether it can be done, it's if you book seperate tickets that if you are delayed they're simply not going to care.

eggzlot

yeah i know what you mean, I could book Queenstown > AKL then AKL to PPT on different ticket. go get my baggage, then recheck in, etc. For a long haul flight I'd be more likely to take the risk. But knowing my luck something happens with weather, delays, etc who knows. Last week on my normal business flight the ATC just said Newark is busy so you are delayed 4 hours, no weather issues between me and Newark just that they were busy. Hmm, don't they plan for their standard flights :-) I am sure NZ is diff than the USA but you see my point. With plans in Tahiti I'd rather be safe than sorry I suppose over 2-3'' of leg room.

Fast6

Happy to help. For ZQN-AKL, a bigger consideration than a space+ seat would be getting a right side window so you can pay attention to the Southern Alps instead of the difference in legroom

eggzlot

Thanks Fast - but that means window/middle seat so even more tight on legroom but for a short flight if the views are good ill suck it up for an hour or two - thanks for pointing that out!

Fast6

Up to you

AviationNZ

Fair enough! That's a shame you're just outside the MCT. Just as an FYI, it's more like 9-10" extra leg room and a much superior F&B offering.