Air New Zealand Air Points - New Biz class in NZ??

I have heard rumours that NZ will get rid of their old F class and replace it with a new bizz class with flat beds.
Can anyone here confirm this and perhaps provide more details?

Oh wouldnt it be lovely http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Dave

While no specifics have been released, here's some snippets from a New Zealand Herald (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/businessstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=3529037&thesection=business&thesubsection=dialogue&thesecondsubsection=) report.


...Air New Zealand is about to start a $150 million to $200 million upgrade of its fleet of eight Boeing 747-400 aircraft, installing new entertainment systems and lie-flat seats for business class.

This upgrade will begin next year, with the first of the refurbished planes expected to be in the air by early 2005...




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All my posts are my own personal opinions and experiences and in no way represent the opinon of my employer.

I have just made reservations for BUD-BNE in fall this year, the SIN route is not very promising so I was thinking of flying SIN-AKL-BNE. What is NZ biz class like compared to SQ? Just being curious, it will be a holiday trip so no big deal.

Comparing SQ and NZ business class is a bit like comparing apples with oranges!
SQ has the Spacebed, a seat that turns into an almost fully flat bed. NZ has good seats but nothing like that. SQ has audio/video/pc games on demand with very large TV monitors. NZ doesnt. SQ has powerpoints for laptops in each seat. NZ doesn't. In terms of catering NZ is a bit more creative in my view. Service is good on both and of course can vary with crew.
I am not making NZ J class sound bad; the SQ product is just a class higher up!
If I had the choice between NZ and SQ I would always opt for SQ.

Thanks, that was quick.
Unfortunately SQ is really sold out in terms of award biz tickets like from today until the end end of the next 9-10 months they wouldn't even waitlist so the choice is NG which we did last year but they are in the same situation and then there is NZ which makes it not much of a choice at present. Flying biz would make travelling for us (wife and 3 years old)more comfortable, BUD-SIN will be LH, spacebed and all the stuff sounds great but also like a no-go.

I have heard from others that it is diffucult to get award seats in the premium classes on SQ. The LH product on the longhaul is not that bad. Try and get seats in the nose section of the plane (I am assuming a 747 here). It is a bit quieter and private in that area. I noticed you need to get from SIN to BNE. It seems that goin via AKL makes the trip quite a bit longer. Have you looked into other ways to get from SIN to BNE?
Hope you enjoy Australia http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

It seems actually close to impossible. Well, if you try to book less than a year in advance. LH was no problem. The routing via AKL is longer, no doubt, the next best choice would be VIE-SYD and then QF to BNE, that's what we did a year ago.