Blueberry25

Hi travellers,

My husband and I will be travelling to New York from Australia with our baby later in the year who will be 4.5 months.

Just wondering if we should be better off getting 2x sky couches for both of us plus baby vs 2 premium economy plus bassinet? Or travel will be so bad just go economy with bassinet?

Thanks in advance!

henrus

It's actually a tough answer.

It you go premium economy you'll get more space but your baby will most likely be confined to sitting on you or on the bassinet. You'll also get a more premium meal with a fancier service.

If you go with the Skycouch then you'll get less space but with the leg rests flipped up your baby will get more space to spread out.

Something to note about the Skycouch is that its quite short (all the people in the Air NZ photos must be tiny) and whilst you may get a lie down there won't be a huge amount of space for the three of you.

If I had to pick I'd go with the Skycouch but if you're tall or big people then go with the Premium Economy. Then again you could always save the cash and spend it in NY.

sbiddle

Every month or two somebody posts asking exactly the same question. You'll find plenty of comparisions and opinions between the two if you search this forum.

My simple view is that I would never opt for a Skycouch rather than Premium Economy. It's a very poor sleeping experience unless you're very short, and at the end of the day you're still in an economy cabin with economy food.

In your situation however it's slightly different in that you want two Skycouches. This scenario could give one person the ability to lie on one while the other could sit upright while having two seats down giving the baby space to crawl around.

You will get vastly more space in the PE cabin in the bulkhead row if you want to actually enjoy the flight yourselves.

brenrox

Definitely go with PE + bassinet. I haven't heard anyone say anything positive about Skycouch and the fact you have a baby, I'd want a bassinet

Top of climb

I'll be the first, then. My wife and I had a Skycouch row as *G on the way to NRT. It was fine for both of us to take a nap on and while obviously not as comfortable as J, it was much better than a reclined Premium Economy seat. I'm not fussed about Economy Class food versus premium.

If it were a case of one Skycouch versus two Premium Economy seats I would choose one Skycouch. That would probably still stay the same for me if travelling with a baby, assuming the price of two Skycouches was less than or comparable to Premium Economy. Air NZ crew are generally pretty good about holding meals back in Y for parents so they can feed the baby first etc. and at 4.5 months you'll want to check that the baby isn't too long to fit into the supplied bassinet - I've seen issues with this before.

dadig

Given it is one each I would say Sky Couch may not be too bad as it will allow you to have the little one more space.

EatDuck

Skycouch if you are getting one each, I don't see the point at all travelling in PE anymore since they changed the seats when Skycouch is usually only $100 extra for a lot more room.

cavemanzk

PE is still an extra 4-6" of 2 legroom over SkyCouch, the onboard service is much better e.g. decent meals.

C206

Recently did a trip with the kids in Skycouch and us in BP & PE.

Skycouch is great for kids, under a certain height. The width of the sky couch is ~5'5". Three of our kids are taller than that, slept in partial fetal. They were very grateful to have Skycouch over reg Y, but it is no PE.

Unless you are very short, I would opt for PE + bassinet any day. The other reason being, the baby is then "locked" in place.

Better still, send spouse and baby on one flight in Skycouch, and you fly PE or BP on a separate flight

EatDuck

I just stick a pillow behind my back and rest against the window with my feet pointing to the aisle most of the journey which gives more than enough leg room. I also naturally sleep on my side so don't find any issue with the length when sleeping even though I'm 6'2. Granted food isn't as good but a few average meals is well worth the extra rest I can get.

My issue with the new PE is someone is going to either want to get past me if I'm in an aisle seat or I'm going to have to wake them up to get them to move for me. That's why I loved the old PE as I could just get a seat in D or E and this wasn't an issue.

If PE gets cheaper or skycouch gets more expensive I will be switching back but at the current price point I just can't find the value in the new PE.

NZbutterfly

Few questions:

If you buy sky couch just for yourself do you get more SP and APD?? I was just playing around on the website and it didn't change at all. Seems weird not to get more SP APD if you're paying for 3 seats. That would be a bit of a kicker.

Is skycouch generally more expensive than PE but less than BP? Checking a few routes it seems to be.

Does the price of sky couch vary? Like go on sale etc like regular seats? Just checking a couple of routes LAX / Buenos Aires seems like it's $1399 extra but HCM $1199, maybe it's route dependent.

Pretty confident we will try this out one day with partner and individually. With lounge access and inflight bites, and still get kiwi wines I'm not particularly fussed about onboard food. But lying flat for cheaper is appealing.

sbiddle

You get no more APD/SP earn on a Skycouch. The intended market is not single pax.

Blueberry25

Thanks for all the replies... we will soon find out how the 2x sky couches work out. I've never flown PE on NZ before, but we have with Qantas - it was nicer for sure in terms of food, but because I'm not huge the extra foot room was nice but not that big a deal for me. We actually have chosen not to fly PE again since. I wasn't able to recline back that far to be able to get a good sleep. I've slept before on 3 regular economy seats when you ge lucky and gotten a good rest like that before, so I'm hoping on the sky couch it will be the same. Hopefully our baby will be happy to sleep next to me when I sleep on my side like she does when we give up on trying to get her to sleep in the cot. My concern about the basinette is that she might refuse to sleep in it, being foreign and sleeping alone is sometimes hit and miss. She always sleeps better in our arms or in our bed.

sbiddle

Having read your plan now my only concern is whether NZ will let you sleep with an unsecured baby. I'm picking they won't - and the baby is far too small for the belt kit.

cavemanzk

Agreed - NZ is pretty tight when it comes to infants, I've see parents been told of many times for having there baby unsecured on NZ.