Air New Zealand Air Points - 320-767 rollout

can anyone advise wether there is a way to tell if a partic flight segment say in oct will be refurb 320 or 767?
it would make me change my plance for space plus etc thats all^

No foolproof way. Once you have ticketed you can now select seats online. If your NZ status is entered then you should be able to see space+ zone (assuming booking is in economy class). However, that would only reflect expected a/c being used. There can always be a substitution for a non-refurbished a/c (until the last one is done).

AFAIK currently there are 2 767s and 1 A320 done, with the 2nd A320 due to be finished very soon. So, the later in October your flight is the better the odds of getting a refurbished a/c.

No foolproof way. Once you have ticketed you can now select seats online. If your NZ status is entered then you should be able to see space+ zone (assuming booking is in economy class). However, that would only reflect expected a/c being used. There can always be a substitution for a non-refurbished a/c (until the last one is done).

AFAIK currently there are 2 767s and 1 A320 done, with the 2nd A320 due to be finished very soon. So, the later in October your flight is the better the odds of getting a refurbished a/c.

thanks for that appreciated,

They are getting through about 1 plane refurb per week. All to be done by December apparently.

The refits are:
B763ER
ZK-NCG B767-319ER
ZK-NCI B767-319ER
A322
ZK-OJM A320-232
ZK-OJO A320-232(Should Be In Service this week)

To Be refited are:
B763ER
ZK-NCJ B767-319ER
ZK-NCL B767-319ER
ZK-NCK B767-319ER

A322
ZK-OJA A320-232
ZK-OJB A320-232
ZK-OJC A320-232
ZK-OJD A320-232
ZK-OJE A320-232
ZK-OJF A320-232
ZK-OJG A320-232
ZK-OJH A320-232
ZK-OJI A320-232
ZK-OJN A320-232
ZK-OJ? A320-232 (ON LEASE)

I can confirm the online seat maps are not an indicator of refurbished a/c.

My flights yesterday showed as refurbished a/c config online but were unrefurbished.

The new business class seating looks good _b

any pics of J and Y yet?

The new business class seating looks good _b

Isn't the seating the same, except for PTVs? Or were you by any chance referring to this classic design (http://www.airliners.net/photo/Air-New-Zealand/Boeing-767-219-ER/1370871/M/)... which amusingly enough is the most recently uploaded AirNZ cabin view image on airliners.net :)

any pics of J and Y yet?

Sorry no camera with me.

Straight from the horses mouth on Friday (at CHC do), each A320 takes about 2 weeks to complete. The second A320 is still in the hangar at CHC (not sure where cavemanzk got his/her info from).

Sorry no camera with me.

Straight from the horses mouth on Friday (at CHC do), each A320 takes about 2 weeks to complete. The second A320 is still in the hangar at CHC (not sure where cavemanzk got his/her info from).

Thats what someone at NZ told me that OJO should be the next a320 out.

It was still minus seats etc on Friday ;)

It was still minus seats etc on Friday ;)

Thanks for the update. As long as all the 767s get done by the end of the year like they are meant to I'm happy.

Pic of OJO refitted

http://www.airliners.net/uf/view.file?id=536872795&filename=phpBhFxyT.jpg

Pic of OJO refitted

http://www.airliners.net/uf/view.file?id=536872795&filename=phpBhFxyT.jpg

Thanks cavemanzk, that's interesting to see. I didn't realize they were ditching the leather upholstery for fabric again. I wonder why. I liked the way the A320 cabins looked.

So besides the PTV and the fabric, is the design of the seats any different? That photo makes it look like the seatback pockets are mesh rather than solid, but I'd be curious to hear whether the design and cushioning is any different. For Y seats I always found them fairly comfortable.

And what about the J seats?

Apparently the switch is to save weight. Leather covering is much heavier than fabric. Seatback is different including the pocket. The screen and remote take up a significant proportion of the back, thus new tray table design (double fold) which in turn affects the pocket.

Thanks cavemanzk, that's interesting to see. I didn't realize they were ditching the leather upholstery for fabric again. I wonder why. I liked the way the A320 cabins looked.

So besides the PTV and the fabric, is the design of the seats any different? That photo makes it look like the seatback pockets are mesh rather than solid, but I'd be curious to hear whether the design and cushioning is any different. For Y seats I always found them fairly comfortable.

And what about the J seats?

Im not sure about the J seats sorry i found that photo while surfing the net.

Im not sure about the J seats sorry i found that photo while surfing the net.

Yes I should have taken a picture of business class but I had already been waiting for most people to get off the aircraft.

Thanks cavemanzk, that's interesting to see. I didn't realize they were ditching the leather upholstery for fabric again. I wonder why. I liked the way the A320 cabins looked.

So besides the PTV and the fabric, is the design of the seats any different? That photo makes it look like the seatback pockets are mesh rather than solid, but I'd be curious to hear whether the design and cushioning is any different. For Y seats I always found them fairly comfortable.

And what about the J seats?

Came back from Brisbane to Christchurch in Business on a refurbished A320 on Tuesday. The seats are the same as the old seats but in black leather that seems to be thicker (or it maybe the newness that gives that impression). The seat pockets seemed to be larger and were of a lighter weighted material than rest of the seat. The In flight entertainment system was very good. The Airshow seems to be an improvement on that I had seen on the 777's and 747's. Overall a good improvement over the old business class in the 320.

New Y is great (as great as Y can be I guess). Flew a refurbed 767 up to NAN (back on 777) for a work weekend. Crew were excited as it was their first flight on the product. Actually, crew was great both directions (especially Daniel on the way back ;) :rolleyes: ). Can see why people like NZ now - my faith has been restored! ^ There and back were two of the best Y flights of my life - even with a really cocky guy sitting in front of me who behaved like a yuppy moron complaining about people reclining their seats and about the food (albeit which wasn't great, but did the job).

Came back from Brisbane to Christchurch in Business on a refurbished A320 on Tuesday. The seats are the same as the old seats but in black leather that seems to be thicker (or it maybe the newness that gives that impression). The seat pockets seemed to be larger and were of a lighter weighted material than rest of the seat. The In flight entertainment system was very good. The Airshow seems to be an improvement on that I had seen on the 777's and 747's. Overall a good improvement over the old business class in the 320.

Well that sounds very positive. Sigh, I miss my fairly frequent jaunts across the Tasman in (upgraded) J. Those flights are just the right length to enjoy a nice dinner, an extensive sampling of the inflight wine list and a movie, and then suddenly it's time to land before you have time to get bored (or get too dangerously p*ssed ;) ).

Is the AVOD gate-to-gate in the A320 like it is now on the 747/777?

Well that sounds very positive. Sigh, I miss my fairly frequent jaunts across the Tasman in (upgraded) J. Those flights are just the right length to enjoy a nice dinner, an extensive sampling of the inflight wine list and a movie, and then suddenly it's time to land before you have time to get bored (or get too dangerously p*ssed ;) ).

Is the AVOD gate-to-gate in the A320 like it is now on the 747/777?

Yes - I watched a movie as we landed.

Cavemanzk...any updates of the regos of the refurbished birds?

Cavemanzk...any updates of the regos of the refurbished birds?

Nope sorry i havent had anymore info on rego's. If anyone has flown one not listed post it and ill add it to the list.

Nope sorry i havent had anymore info on rego's. If anyone has flown one not listed post it and ill add it to the list.
The best person I could think of is NZ1 who occasionally posts here, an engineer in AKL I think.
NZ1 from an exchange with nz_crew and DCF seems to be an a.net regular so you may want to check if something was posted there. I will not waste hours of my life over there looking for the information.

NCG and NCI are the two 767s refitted so far. They're not dedicated to any particular route.

NCG and NCI are the two 767s refitted so far. They're not dedicated to any particular route.


is it possble to tell which plane code is allocated to a partic flight and if so how far in the future and where does one find this info?

Cheers

The info is loaded in the reservations system and Reservations have access to it, but very few of them know how to get into it and the aircraft allocated may change several times up to and including the day of departure, so there's effectively no easy way for travellers to tell.

The info is loaded in the reservations system and Reservations have access to it, but very few of them know how to get into it and the aircraft allocated may change several times up to and including the day of departure, so there's effectively no easy way for travellers to tell.

Thank u NZ crew , i often see people talking about this and always wondered whether there was a way. I appreciate yr posts from the "inside" :)

Quick question on refitted A320. In Biz row 1 are the screens foldout or attached to the bulkhead.
Thanks. WLGNZ

I haven't seen one yet but believe they are foldout (there has been references in the gate to gate IFE publicity that bulkhead seats are excluded).

One quick note about the 767 refit - the four seats that have a removable module fitted over them that become the crew rest seats (which can be offered for passenger sale on the short Tasman/Pacific runs where our contract doesn't require a crew rest facility) do NOT have PTVs fitted. (I believe the seat numbers are 15JK/16JK if they haven't changed with the refit).

Apparently the procedure for when these seats are sold is...

* Pax informed at checkin no IFE on these seats.
* Offered voucher for Airpoints$/travel voucher
* Crew will perform manual safety demonstration for these passengers.

No doubt these seats will be popular with the business fqtv crowd - have a hybrid Y/J seat and get compensation for it!

Thanks for the heads up on that.

Flew one of the refitted A320's today (in Y) and was quite impressed. The legroom seems rather generous and the two tone colour scheme is quite pleasant. AVOD as was expected and seems fairly responsive. Sorry didn't note the tail number

Jeff

Flew a refitted A320 last week from BNE-WLG with the family. The AVOD IFE was great, plenty of legroom in the Space+ seating too (love the seatback mesh pockets for drink bottles, etc) and a great AirNZ crew - there were lots of littlies on the flight and AirNZ had a crew member dedicated to making sure families were all OK which was excellent - the food wasn't bad either!

There seemed to be a few teething problems with the touchscreens though - a number of seats in both J & Y had screens that locked up before we even got airborne (not sure how many, but I'm guessing 10%+) - however ours worked perfectly. Flying Trans-Tasman, especially with children, is now even easier with all the on-demand options. The Airshow is neat - the instrument screen that popped up on final approach into WLG showing airspeed, etc will no doubt fascinate lots of wannabee flyers!

One slight criticism....whoever at AirNZ thought that only J pax carried iPods has made a reasonably large faux pas IMHO. AVOD IFE in Y doesn't offer the iPod connectivity which is a big let down - I'm guessing that anywhere between 10-50% of Y pax probably carry some sort of MP3 device these days and it'd be great to listen to your own music or watch your own movies through the system onboard if you wanted to!!

One slight criticism....whoever at AirNZ thought that only J pax carried iPods has made a reasonably large faux pas IMHO. AVOD IFE in Y doesn't offer the iPod connectivity which is a big let down - I'm guessing that anywhere between 10-50% of Y pax probably carry some sort of MP3 device these days and it'd be great to listen to your own music or watch your own movies through the system onboard if you wanted to!!

My understanding is it was looked into but the power required to enable it for everyone was too much.

I heard if everyone had their iPods in economy plugged in the aircraft wouldn't have enough power - thats from Boeing, haha

How's the rollout going these days? I'm set to fly SYD->AKL (in C) on Saturday. Is it better to take a 767 or A320 in order to maximize my chances of getting a refurbished plane? All things being equal, the timing on the A320 flight works better for me, but the new cabins sound interesting...

Both a/c types have new space+ and IFE. I'm not sure exact numbers but I think both fleets are done, or close to it.

....whoever at AirNZ thought that only J pax carried iPods has made a reasonably large faux pas IMHO. AVOD IFE in Y doesn't offer the iPod connectivity which is a big let down

I assumed that the connectivity was there for Y pax, but that the airline didn't provide a cable to plug your ipod in.

Has anyone tried to take their own cable along and plug their ipod in Y?

I tried both my Nano and iPhone via the USB connection and neither registered on screen - our digital camera did though!

Seems crazy re the power requirements if 100+ Y pax were all plugged in at the same time....

There's at least one A320 still not done (and not yet in the hangar for the changes).

I tried both my Nano and iPhone via the USB connection and neither registered on screen - our digital camera did though!

Seems crazy re the power requirements if 100+ Y pax were all plugged in at the same time....

I would be guessing that the USB port is designed for "storage class devices", USB thumb drives etc, most Cameras can masquerade as a storage device too,

iPhones do not have a disk mode and will not mount as a USB drive, you may have had better luck with the nano thou, provided you have a section set aside as disk mode for USB storage, otherwise you will get no joy.

I did SYD-AKL on a new 767 and WLG-SYD on an old 320.

What a difference!! The new system is great, seems to be better thought out than AC's system...with a seemlingly better selection of movies. Although, it could be a grass is greener as my seat didn't work and I had to move.

Either way, makes the SYD-New Zealand-SYD flights that much easier..

Two big thumbs up!

I flew through the International Terminal at CHC not long ago and there was two 737s sitting at the terminal, appearing to be on International Duty.

Welcome to Flyer Talk FlyingKiwiD :)

That is surprising. AFAIK A320 is the only narrowbody used on shorthaul international flights nowdays. Perhaps they were just parked over by international to free up apron space? (I've had a number of 737 flights at CHC were we've had a stand-off bay instead of a gate lately.)

Are all the 763s refitted yet im going on one in Jan (SYD-AKL).

Welcome to Flyer Talk FlyingKiwiD :)

That is surprising. AFAIK A320 is the only narrowbody used on shorthaul international flights nowdays. Perhaps they were just parked over by international to free up apron space? (I've had a number of 737 flights at CHC were we've had a stand-off bay instead of a gate lately.)
No, I think they were on International duty.
I've seen reports and photos with 737s in Australia. How would they continue some of the routes to Australia if there wasn't any planes to fly them?

No, I think they were on International duty.
I've seen reports and photos with 737s in Australia. How would they continue some of the routes to Australia if there wasn't any planes to fly them?

From time to time the 737s do fill in for the A320s this has been happening a bit while the 320s have been refitted.

I have a feeling this may happen while they are sourcing another a320 (RIP to though aboard)