Air New Zealand Air Points - Air New Zealand to fly 3 times a week from AKL to SFO - New Route Confirmed

Air NZ to fly 3 times a week from Auckland to San Francisco from the end of June 2004.

Details fo the new route will be announced at the end of January 2004. Watch the space!

That is interesting news!!!!

I'm really looking forward to this being made official... we're hoping to go to SFO later this year and though I'd rather not fly UA, the thought of SYD-AKL-LAX-SFO was just too unpleasant (that domestic connection at LA is just no fun at all). SYD-AKL-SFO, on the other hand, sounds good to me - as long as the SFO flight connects reasonably conveniently with the SYD flights - here's hoping.

Now, if NZ will just make Shanghai their rumoured second new long haul destination for the year, that will be both my intended travel destinations for 2004 covered by NZ! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/thumbsup.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/thumbsup.gif

If only they had the service this Feb, i would haveused it, we are missing SFO because of the lax-sfo connection and the cost it brings to our trip

Sounds good! Does anyone reckon there'll be a way to book this as a stopover from the UK (maybe LHR-LAX-SFO-AKL)? The stopovers in LA have gotten fairly boring, a day or two in San Francisco would be much better http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif.

Cheers, Zac

[This message has been edited by Zaco (edited Jan 09, 2004).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Zaco:
Sounds good! Does anyone reckon there'll be a way to book this as a stopover from the UK (maybe LHR-LAX-SFO-AKL)? The stopovers in LA have gotten fairly boring, a day or two in San Francisco would be much better http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif.

Cheers, Zac

[This message has been edited by Zaco (edited Jan 09, 2004).]</font>

Airpoints partner Virgin Atlantic? Or *A member United?

According to this NZ Herald article (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/businessstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=3544434&thesection=business&thesubsection=transport&thesecondsubsection=aviation) the official announcement is next Tues.

Some extracts:

While the airline is keeping the latest addition to its schedule secret until next Tuesday, San Francisco is widely tipped as the next city to be serviced by the national carrier.

...

Security delays and overcrowded, uncomfortable facilities at Los Angeles International are also a deterrent to many travellers wanting to travel to the United States, though it is expected that Air NZ's services to London will continue to stop off at Los Angeles.

...

Air NZ is also expected late this year to announce it will start flying direct between Auckland and Shanghai, the commercial capital of mainland China.

...

This year it will begin refitting its fleet of eight Boeing 747-400 aircraft for between $150 million and $200 million.

Personal entertainment systems will be installed in all classes, and new lie-flat business-class seats.

It is expected that the first-class cabin in the front of the 747s will be removed, allowing more space for "premium business class" seating.

In the next six months the airline will decide what sort of planes to buy to replace its ageing fleet of Boeing 767s.

Twin-engined Boeing 777s and four-engined Airbus A340s are contenders.

...

Any date given when they will decide on new planes?

All good news.

wow, this is excellent news!

All great news except for the removal of First. Which is not surprising, but will hopefully allow NZ to focus more in C class pax in the way that BD or OS do for instance.

Mark

"widely tipped" LOL maybe the article was sourced entirely from the rumours on FlyerTalk http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Official announcement awaited with bated breath!

So true, B-HXB!

Anything has to be an improvement on flying into LAX.

Besides, SF is such a nicer city than LA.

Bet the NZ FAs wil be pleased to fly somewhere in the US besides LAX.

Any one hear about AKL-HKG-LHR? Thought this might be good becuase of the suspension of the "VISA FREE TRANSIT" program, albiet both New Zealand and Australia are both exempt from short-term visitor visas.

------------------
UA's redemtion system - the 99 cents store.

I've just gotten back from a trip to Fiji and New Zealand, and was chatting to the crew on most of my flights about the changes coming up. These are still only rumours, but this is what I heard from the FAs...

- the new destinations are San Francisco (everyone agreed, even a ticketing agent) and somewhere in China (both Shanghai and Beijing were mentioned)

- F is going, and the new business class will be somewhere between F and J. The seats will recline "fully flat" (one FA said he'd seen drawings of the new seat and it did recline flat like on Virgin and BA). The seats will have large plasma screen TVs, and have a cocoon shell (like most F suites and newer biz seats). Meals will be served on proper plates.

- one FA told me that there will be a premium economy section, installed on the upper deck (believe it if you will).

- everyone told me about the new planes being considered, either the 777 or one of the A340 models. The 747's are definately staying, though. One of the crew mentioned that the problem with the 767s is the engines can't generate enough power to run all the PTV's, is this true?

- I heard from one of the LHR based crew that there were quite a few more new routes under consideration, including "a return to Germany" which he thought would be Munich not Frankfurt.

Anyway, I had a good time chatting with the FA's, and everyone says they're really happy with Ralph Norris and that moral is high. In any case, looks like some good things may be happening at AirNZ.

Cheers, Zac

"Large Plasma"... hmmmm, doubt it. They will be standard TFT's...

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Zaco:

- F is going, and the new business class will be somewhere between F and J. The seats will recline "fully flat"

- one FA told me that there will be a premium economy section, installed on the upper deck (believe it if you will).</font>

Looks like there was one silver lining from the AN fiasco and some good came away with NZ. The above (if true) sounds almost exactly like the AN International product - an excellent J cabin, with premium Y (38")upstairs and a good complement of Y down the back retaining the 34". AN's product earned massive kudos and seemed to be the right mix - can't see why it wouldn't work for NZ as well with it's route structure.
[Hope they cook the bacon & eggs fresh like AN did for J breakfast !!! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif ]
Cheers.

The NZ Consulate General in LA sent out a press release at 4am NZ time this morning apparently scooping Air NZ's own announcement about the route:

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20040126005297&newsLang=en