Air New Zealand Air Points - Survival of F

Realistically, what is the future of NZ's longhaul F
product? Should I cash in now for the trip or wait until they secure new planes with the new premium?

And while on the topic, how generous/stingy is NZ's poilicy on F reward seats from other programs? (Aeroplan being mine.)

From what has been released the new premium class is considered to be an improved business class (vs a degraded first), but with the introduction of econ plus (my term not NZ's) there will still be 3 levels and so the awards may jig around anyway. AFAIK NZ hasnt released any info on this for its own programme, let alone how it will impact on partner FFP redeeming on NZ.

Award availability in F on NZ seems to be excellent compared with other airlines. There have been reports here of people getting 1/3 of the cabin on award on a single booking.

Personally I hope NZ works out the new redeeming for awards and upgrades fairly soon and announces them.

From what I hear, a lot of what revenue NZ does receive for it's F product is from selling the seats to partner frequent flyer programmes. F award seats are relatively easy to get, from what one hears, whereas J award seats can be quite tricky.

In many ways, the new premium sounds like it will be an improvement on the existing F product, certainly in terms of comfort and entertainment. The personalised service will certainly be a bit less evident than the current F config with only 12 seats, and who knows what the food/beverage service will be like, but it sounds like it will be a great product. I suspect award availability will worsen once the new product comes on stream, so it is difficult to know what is best to do. I'm also waiting with interest to see what the new award levels will be. Also, who knows how NZ will manage the issue of having some a/c in the new config and some in the old?

If you confirm an F seat at the current rates but on a flight that ends up being equipped with the new premium product, then you probably haven't really missed out on anything (except possibly the Cloudy Bay sometimes served in First!), and the best case scenario is that Aeroplan might refund some points since you'll technically be flying a business class product...

If you confirm an F seat at the current rates but on a flight that ends up being equipped with the new premium product, then you probably haven't really missed out on anything (except possibly the Cloudy Bay sometimes served in First!), and the best case scenario is that Aeroplan might refund some points since you'll technically be flying a business class product...


I queried the absence of Cloudy Bay from the menu on my recent AKL-LHR-AKL trip in F, and was told by a stewatd that it has been dropped from the latest menus as Air NZ's wine experts didn't think it was up to scratch. Luckily, the Dom Perignon 1995 still tasted fine :)

Expecting that the AKL-LAX will not be the first to be refitted I'm hoping to use my Silver complimentary UG voucher (if that still exists by November 16) to UG to F. The first and probably last time on NZ.

I saw the brochure yesterday in the AKL lounge (that was before deciding to cancel my flight to Wellington, after having looked at the weather forecast!) and the new business seats do really look awesome.

Great to see that NZ is keeping 34" in Y. ^

Expecting that the AKL-LAX will not be the first to be refitted I'm hoping to use my Silver complimentary UG voucher (if that still exists by November 16) to UG to F. The first and probably last time on NZ.

I saw the brochure yesterday in the AKL lounge (that was before deciding to cancel my flight to Wellington, after having looked at the weather forecast!) and the new business seats do really look awesome.

Great to see that NZ is keeping 34" in Y. ^

Airpoints Silver complimentary upgrades cannot be used to upgrade on the AKL - LAX route. Aren't you Gold anyway ?

Airpoints Silver complimentary upgrades cannot be used to upgrade on the AKL - LAX route. Aren't you Gold anyway ?

Darn, you're right. Forgot about that. I'm G now but will drop back to S (I'm not crediting any points to NZ this year - TG instead, next year NZ again). In that case it will be unlikely I'll be able to use the UG voucher... :(