Air New Zealand Air Points - TransTasman flights

I hear from a Wellington based FA this morning that an announcement is to be made shortly on TransTasman flights

The Air New Zealand brand will be maintained, but all the contracts relating to the flights will be exchanged for Freedom air crew, aircraft maintenence, and in flight service. It is likely that the flights will be one class, and all this will be phased in in the New Year.

This will mean that there will probably be the need for only about half the current Wellington based air crew.

A very backward step in my opinion - quite apart from the other changes, the Wellington based crew were a major plus for NZ. I think this will be a major win for QF - see my previous thread on my recent TransTasman QF experiences

Changes along these lines have already been announced for the A320 flights (separate threads). I would be surprised if 767, 777 and 747 flights are affected. Not much help for those based in Wellington though. I would think NZ either have or may soon lose a lot of government business to Qantas if there's no business class option.

Changes along these lines have already been announced for the A320 flights (separate threads). I would be surprised if 767, 777 and 747 flights are affected. Not much help for those based in Wellington though. I would think NZ either have or may soon lose a lot of government business to Qantas if there's no business class option.

I did catch up with the announcements for BNE flights, but that is being extended to all TransTasman A320 flights as I understand it - which means all TT flights out of WLG and most out of CHC :(

I will miss the WLG based crew :td:

I did catch up with the announcements for BNE flights, but that is being extended to all TransTasman A320 flights as I understand it - which means all TT flights out of WLG and most out of CHC :(

I will miss the WLG based crew :td:

I would miss them too if they are going, as they are consistently the best crews in the system in my experience.

However, I would be surprised if NZ is completely ditching J class on routes like WLG-SYD and WLG-MEL. This wouldn't be the first time that an FA has the wrong end of the stick - perhaps they were just referring to the AirNZ/Freedom fleet commonality for trans Tasman?

My understanding is that:

All A320 services anywhere will only have one catering class, but the first two rows of seats will be sold as Premium Economy when the aircraft is operating as Air NZ as opposed to Freedom Air.

The B zone on unrefurbished 747 aircraft (downstairs Business Class) is now on sale as Premium Economy Trans Tasman, and this will soon be rolled out on longhaul flights too.

In other words, if you want Trans-Tasman Business Class you will need to take a 747, 767 or 777 flight.

mm..clever. Then they can announce how popular premium economy is on those routers. While ignoring the fact that their business class customers went to QF.

Also seems silly to sell B-zone business as premium economy when those seats are far better than the actual premium product (A320 or widebody).

(Admittedly, I haven't flown widebody premium, but I have flown A320 biz and wasn't that impressed.)

Does NZ really have that little longhaul business-class pax that they'd convert the entire B-zone to premium economy on the non-refurb aircraft? That's a pretty sad story if it's the case.

EDIT: Also just noticed the "Premium Economy" to AU sale on airnz.co.nz, which comments that they accrue Airdollars. However, the earn chart doesn't show any earning value for Premium Y to Australia!

QF now have the perfect opportunity. There is a ex-Australia fleet of 734s coming online from December – All JetConnect need to do is install 3 rows (keeping in mind they will have their pax + NZ’s) of quality J seats (perhaps with AVOD) into their aircraft. Full International J Service across the Tasman and a bigger seat/priority ckin for domestic .. perhaps $100 over a FLEXI fare.

You'd need a pretty tight schedule to pick a 777/747 oped service over a 320 in Y+

ajnz, Y+ earns at Full Economy Rate currently.

I'm going to stick my neck out and say once again that I don't believe that rumour is accurate. On selected leisure-oriented routes yes, but I don't believe that all A320 flights will be sold as Y/Y+, it just doesn't make business sense. Three out of five daily AKL-SYD services are A320, for example - that route is the busiest international route out of Sydney and a major business route, and bearing in mind that NZ's model has been around increasing frequency I can't believe they would only offer 2/5 services with business class.

Of course, I could be wrong, it's just that I have a little more faith in NZ's market analysis. What they have done with the ex-BNE flights makes complete sense to me, but that logic definitely wouldn't apply to, say, WLG-SYD (which, as luck would have it, is my usual Tasman route - so hopefully I'll still have something to upgrade into!).

You'd need a pretty tight schedule to pick a 777/747 oped service over a 320 in Y+

Doesn't 'a tight schedule' pretty much describe most business pax? Probably their number one driver is frequency and convenience of scheduling.

on NZ's website the release regarding Pacific Premium Economy for BNE services also says

Air New Zealand will continue to offer Business Class services on all other Tasman flights.

whether that continues to be the case further down the track remains to be seen .

I am curious what proportion of current J class seats transtasman are paid J and what proportion are upgrades .

It would also be interesting to survey regular J class pax and find out what their top priorities are - if it is priority baggage , priority check-in and personal space rather than in-flight service on what after all are pretty short sectors , then the changes if spread across the short haul network may in fact be a bonus for many current J class travellers as they continue to get most of what they consider to be the important features of J without the price tag . Somehow I suspect the real crunch point for many will be the lack of lounge access .

I think the change to Premium Economy will be supported by many frequent business travellers who pay for their own tickets , and of course decried by those travelling on their employers money .

Do you remember what happened when Tasman Express first started with these awful (http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a14/ntddevsys/robin320j.jpg) meals where offered ? Business Class passengers require a proper meal service.

If Air New Zealand should do anything to Business Class they should reintroduce a scaled down version of it on Domestic services. It makes Business sense in the current climate and it will keep the MPs happy.

Oh, Some Business Pax are also aviation nuts :cool:

All this changing is making my head spin...

I've been booked on NZ137 30/11 (3 seats in C) for a long time. Originally, it was on a (proper) NZ A320. Then, it changed to a 777-200 with Business Premier :) .

A few days ago, TA rang to say that 137 AKL-BNE was only U and Y, and my 3 C seats were downgraded to U (with no compensation as they were booked in D class as part of a CCASTAR1). (Expected the call, but :mad: )

Regular checking from that point, on Sabre and Worldspan showed all C classes (CDZ) all zeroed out, with E+ classes (UE) with availability. Yesterday, the CDZ classes vanished entirely.

But now; checking again now shows NZ137 as back being a 777-200 with CDZ buckets available, and UE buckets zeroed out ???

Any idea what's happening?

Looks to me like a 772 but sold without Business sold at the moment (U* E* O2 Y* B* M* H* Q* V* W* T* L* S* G*) most liley because NZ aren't sure if it will remain a 777. Your TA should have offered you NZ135 departing AKL at 0930 per NZ's interupt policy,

Hi Im chc based crew
The A320's proposal will be just that the crew operating it both cabin and flight deck will be Freedom Crew...
The service they will operate will be identicle to the current A320 service we now operate exc all the BNE sectors which will be y and y+ .. Other than that all other sectors will operate with y and business..
Staff will be freedom crew and in NZ uniform so you probably will not notice any difference exc for a wee bit when they get used to the NZ service..
Short Haul crew will still operate all internationals on the 737 300..

This is still a proposal at the moment so it will be a wait and see situation at the moment ..But my guess is it wont happen before the new uniform arrives ...