Air New Zealand Air Points - Two-class 747 SYD-AKL

Please forgive me if this question has been answered before (all I could find was a similar question from Carfield in the archives, which went unanswered), but on the occasions that this sector is operated by a 744 (which currently seems to be only on Fridays for flights NZ101 and NZ104), how is the seating organised? Is first class sealed off, or do some business-class customers get to sit there? If so, does that mean that some of the business class seating is available to economy pax? And, if so, can you get these seats pre-allocated? Do you have to have status to get them?

So many questions, so little time! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Alistair, you are coming to AKL soon ? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif Try making a fictitious booking at www.itn.net, (http://www.itn.net,) or even the Air NZ website and pull out the seat-map for those flights.

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UA 1P, QF Silver
I like NZ,NG,NH,UA,SK,LH & QF
Star Alliance defecting to Oneworld

I tried doing a booking on the NZ website and it just pulled up the standard seat maps. I'm not sure if this means everyone sits where they usually would and First is sealed off, or that they just don't alter the online seatmaps to reflect the two-class service.

I may yet be passing through Auckland within the next two or three months on my way either to go skiing in the south island or sunbathing in the Cook Islands or, if the financial gods are really smiling, both! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

AFAIK the F section is sealed off, as the aircraft operates to Los Angeles and London later that day, and the F cabin is prepared for that flight before the aircraft departs for SYD!

Hope this helps http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif



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*Any information given in the email is my personal opinion and not the opinion of my employer.

Thanks airnzboy... however, assuming that the aircraft goes on to LAX and LHR as NZ2 as you suggest, it would seem odd that they would seal off the F section (and therefore 12 potential revenue seats) on the SYD-AKL leg when there is a 3h55m turnaround in AKL.

Schedule:
NZ104 arr AKL 16:50; NZ2 dep AKL 20:45.

So, I'm still hopeful! Has anyone out there flown on this flight?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by mad_atta:
it would seem odd that they would seal off the F section (and therefore 12 potential revenue seats) on the SYD-AKL leg when there is a 3h55m turnaround in AKL.

Schedule:
NZ104 arr AKL 16:50; NZ2 dep AKL 20:45.
</font>

I would find it even more odd if they did bother with the hassles of opening up the F section between AKL-SYD-AKL unless every other seat on the plane were full.

You don't need 12 more potential revenue seats unless you filled the others first. And considering it's a 744, that's probably uncommon.

Since it appears these are oddball once a week flights at not necessarily great times, I doubt there's a huge market wanting to buy any F seats on those flights. I don't even see any SYD-AKL NZ F fares published in a quick check.

If people would like to fly in NZ between SYD/AKL or v.v. in F on one of these flights, perhaps those people should call NZ corporate and tell them they'd really like to fork out hard currency for F on this route.

But if the market doesn't have demand for F revenue seats on those flights, I'd expect NZ would leave the section closed and save on staffing, cleaning, catering costs. (Along with skipping the potential upgrade delays/hassles at the gate).

Yes, it might be nice to treat some pax to FC on those flights, but NZ has to weigh such things against running a profitable business.

Quokka, I obviously haven't been clear enough in my question. I *know* that no first class service is offered on this flight. What I *am* asking is simply whether they use the first class seating - a habit which is quite common among airlines in similar situations (e.g. QF use their older 747s on some routes where there is not demand for F by putting J pax in the F and upstairs J sections, and Y pax in the downstairs J section, plus the back of the bus of course). This doesn't involve upgrading anybody, or the complexity of adding a different level of service; what it does do is give NZ the chance to sell 12 more seats (or have more yield management flexibility) and give their premium pax more comfortable seats, i.e. top tier J pax into F seats and top tier Y pax into main deck J seats. Given the turnaround time in AKL, in which the rest of the aircraft must get cleaned anyway, I'd be surprised if preparing the F cabin then would be a significant cost.

I *do* agree that it's unlikely that NZ would completely fill a 744 at those times so they would need to balance the incentive for their premium pax against the slight extra cost. Some AKL-BNE services are also operated by a 744, and given the loads to Queensland at times I would imagine they could easily fill a 744 to capacity - what do they do with the F cabin on these routes, I wonder?

I think Air NZ only opens up its first class section for Business class passengers on the two class operating Japan to NZ routes planes.

Carfield http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

For fear of outing myself as a planespotting geek (oh wait, everybody knew already. . .)

There was a profile in this month's (I think) Airways magazine on NZ, and a trip check referred to the AKL-NRT flight on a 744, and the only people allowed to sit in the F cabin were nonrevs.

The author was quite ticked off at the crew, because they wouldn't allow him to take a magazine from the cabin (despite being depleted in C).

Greg

Thanks for the helpful responses, everyone. Looks like that F section stays sealed then... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif Still, it will be a nice change to be on a 744, so I still think I'll take that flight.

Continuing my series of annoying questions, does anyone know what the situation is regarding the continuation of international flights between CHC and AKL (for example, on some days NZ34 from NRT to AKL goes via CHC). I realise these fly between the international terminals, but can they be used for domestic flights? What if you are connecting to an international flight, eg if I were flying CHC-AKL-SYD? It would allow me to avoid the inter-terminal transfer at AKL, as well as the novelty of flying something different domestically.

The flights show up on the online schedule if you have an international connection, but I have tried booking this online, and the flights don't show up. Maybe because there are some restrictions so you need to book them through a reservation agent?

If anyone can shed some light, I'd be grateful!

I am surprised about the Airways' experiences. Based on few Air New Zealand's J class experiences, the F/As are more than accommodating, and when I request a Y class menu, she grabbed one for me immediately. I even grabbed extra J menus as I deplaned, and no one said a thing.

I am surprised that the F class was closed off for non-rev. I wrote to Air NZ last year and asked about the situation. They told me that Star Alliance Gold and Air NZ elite could fly the F section. I definitely will not let the non-rev sitting on the section. Why not let some of the J passengers sit there? Star Alliance has a bad influence on its partners... they learn too much from United about "employee class" and slashing "meal services".

Carfield

According to a recent post from the ever-informative airnzboy, AirNZ has not yet sunk to the depths of 'Employee Class' UA-style - if Y is full and an employee wants to travel, they upgrade a frequent flyer to J. So, all is not lost...

It *does* seem bizarre on a long haul to waste the most comfortable seats on the plane - I can understand it (sort of) SYD-AKL but not NRT-AKL...

Having done a bit more research, I can now inform y'all that F is opened up *on a case by case basis*.

If there's a lot of elites flying, or if J is full and they want to sell a few more seats, J pax will be seated in F.

To answer mad_atta's question about the international flights via CHC, you CAN purchase a seat on the CHC-AKL sector - however, you must checkin with a passport in CHC, adhere to international checkin times, go through full customs/MAF clearance. Sounds like this would suit your plan to a 'T'! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif



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*Any information given in the email is my personal opinion and not the opinion of my employer.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by airnzboy:
To answer mad_atta's question about the international flights via CHC, you CAN purchase a seat on the CHC-AKL sector - however, you must checkin with a passport in CHC, adhere to international checkin times, go through full customs/MAF clearance. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
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And don't forget to stop by the Bank of NZ to pay the $22 NZ (or whatever) departure tax and get a sticker. What an archaic system.

airnzboy comes through again - thanks, as always. I'll definitely book myself on that flight - although I won't be in those F seats (as a lowly jade FFer) but if nothing else it means I have a fairly good chance of my upgrade request clearing. Besides, I haven't tried J on a 744 yet.

Quokka, I couldn't agree with you more about the painful departure tax system. It's *high* time they built it into the tickets - if the rest of the civilised world can do it, why can't NZ?

Mad_atta,

My understanding of the annoying departure tax thing in NZ, is that when introduced the travel agents refused to collect it as they wanted pax to know how much was taxes by the government and did not want to be tax collectors.

Of course that is now a mute point with GST, security levies and the like taking up a fair wack of the price.

Mark