Air New Zealand Air Points - Air NZ-Full service airline?

I am interested to know the opinion of others. I have recently booked BNE-AKL on the ANZ website. It indicated only standard or vegan meals would be available. I thought this might be a web hiccup so didn't think too much about it, thinking maybe this referred to domestic flights. Just to be on the safe side, seeing as some in the group are coeliacs and require gluten-free food, I rang ANZ and delved deeper into the website. Sure enough, it says South Pacific and Trans Tasman get only these options-vegan and standard. I find this disappointing and unnecessary. Smaller operators, e.g. NF to VLI out of BNE, offer special meals. What is meant to be a special flight will now be a meal out of a brown paper bag.

Gladstoneyoung

Depends which flight. I believe Air New Zealand (767, 777 & 747 Flights) offer a much better meal variety than the Zeal320 Flights (A320) Only NZ136/5 is an Air New Zealand flight from BNE/AKL, the rest I think are Zeal.

All flights to and from Australia excepting Perth, and all flights to and from the Pacific Islands, excepting Papeete, have the 'Express' style service, which offers only standard or vegan meals. This is regardless of what aircraft type operates the services.

Hi Gladstoneyoung , IIRC a few years ago NZ did some surveys to see what pax priorities were on domestic / shorthaul and longhaul flights. The answers came back pretty conclusively that for short hops like domestic , transtasman and pacific price was the top concern - while for longer hauls service/meals/seat pitch etc became more of a priority . The airline is just trying to do what a broad cross section of customers said they wanted - focus on the fares rather than the service ( although they havent given up completely , many carriers do not offer meals at all on such short flights , NZ are at least offering standard and veg ) . If NZ didnt offer special meals on longhaul I could understand that customers would have a problem but a transtasman or pacific hop doesn't seem such a hardship to me ( of course it is possible that if I were gluten intolerant I might feel differently ) ... at the end of the day would you be prepared to pay higher fares in order to get a wider choice of meals ?

If i had wanted byo food, I would have booked DJ. So, is Air NZ a full service carrier or a budget airline? When QF, BI, EK all provide full service, why can't NZ?

If i had wanted byo food, I would have booked DJ. So, is Air NZ a full service carrier or a budget airline? When QF, BI, EK all provide full service, why can't NZ? well , as you pointed out you have plenty of choice , so why not book QF , BI or EK ( though on BI dont expect free , or indeed any , alcohol - many people would not consider that 'full service' ) EKs flights are all 'tags' of longhaul services which means that it does not really make sense for them to provide separate catering just for the local pax ( and incidentally while we are talking about meal choices just try ordering a kosher meal on EK and see how far you get with your request on that 'full service' airline) and from what I recall ( and I have been away a while so things may have changed ) not all QF TT flights offer PTVs, for some pax that would mean that they are not a 'full service' carrier either .

At the end of the day you have a large number of airlines to choose from on this route and as the consumer you can make your choice based on a combination of price and whichever service elements you deem to be important to you as a paying customer ( whether that be alcohol /food / seat pitch / IFE / schedule or any number of other criteria ) - if a large enough proportion of pax make it clear that special meals matter to them then I think you will find NZ will re-introduce them ... but the only way NZ will know that this matters to people is if they get feedback ... they did a u-turn on shorthaul PTVs after getting lots of feedback so presumably with enough feedback a u-turn on catering is also possible .... have you actually sent any feedback to NZ to let them know that you had been going to book a number of pax on them but decided not to because of the lack of special meals ?

What is meant to be a special flight will now be a meal out of a brown paper bag.


Well up until last year the short haul meal was pretty close to that it came in a cardboard box. Short haul meals come as a snack to complement the free unlimited booze that NZ is so good at. On my last flight they where giving the mini wine bottles out in 2s.

Bare in mind the normal lunch meal is something like this.
*Small Salad
*Pie or Trukish Bread toasted bread with lamb.

Thanks for your detailed respose kiwiandrew. Yes, I have provided feedback to ANZ both verbally and on-line. Their response was we do provide special meals, just not on this, that and the other range of flights. Unfortuately, I was in the booking process when I saw the range of meals was standard or vegan. At that stage I actually thought it was a web hiccup. If I hadn't been that far into the booking, and if I had known before commencing the booking that no GF option was provided, that would have been factored into the decision made.

So how is "full service" defined anyway?

Meals are served (if not the full range one gets on long haul) free drinks service "as usual"... no nickel & diming fees and surcharges... allocated seating etc

Does the limited meal service remove these flights from the category of "full service"?

I wouldn't think so (but then I fly regularly on domestic flights within the USA so I may be de-acclimated!!;))

Being a cynical bugger (and assuming that a vegan meal is also technically "gluten free" AND "Vegetarian" AND "Hindu" AND... well you get the idea...) .. What's to stop any airline from ONLY catering "Standard and vegan".. but OFFERING these other options.. which, technically, are satisfied by a vegan meal??? Nasty thought processes I have eh?:D

Trooper,
Being vegetarian doesn't make a meal gluten free. A salad sandwich or a ham sandwich, neither is gluten free. Have vegie patties? The binder/flour makes it non-gf as does most gravies. Even tomato sauce can have thickener making it non gf. Often airlines will streamline their special meal offerings e.g. not including a chocolate on the meal tray and providing non-dairy margarine aiming to be non-dairy and gluten free.

Trooper,
Being vegetarian doesn't make a meal gluten free. A salad sandwich or a ham sandwich, neither is gluten free. Have vegie patties? The binder/flour makes it non-gf as does most gravies. Even tomato sauce can have thickener making it non gf. Often airlines will streamline their special meal offerings e.g. not including a chocolate on the meal tray and providing non-dairy margarine aiming to be non-dairy and gluten free.
I believe the Spring Roll, which you get as the vegan option is glutten free. However I cannot vouch for the pumkin couscous that that usually serve with it. Can you get glutten free couscous?
I suggest that you check with NZ about the suitability of the meal for GF.
As trooper has pointed out, it is often the case with special meals that they serve multiple dietary needs.

Yes... I was posing the question.... I imagine many veg meals would be gluten free (as well as technically acceptable to other restricted diets) and others would not be....

Just being a cynic about the possible "labelling" ;)!!!

there seems to be a change to the boiled sweets being served (at least on AKL-NSN sector) - they are now flat and disc like.

maybe a sign they are no longer full service! :rolleyes:

Do they taste any better? :rolleyes:

much the same, but fewer flavours - but harder and grab a handful

Also they carry no branding.
I believe they are also slightly smaller and less sweeter but still get the job done.

Could this thread have the potential to reach the (amusing for outsiders) level of inanity of the various US airlines 'warm nuts' threads? We live in hope.. :D

Anyway, the old Air NZ lolly/candy/sweet has bitten the dust, as the supplier has shut down the manufacturing plant in NZ and moved it offshore. NZ decided to switch to a new supplier to support Kiwi-made (I forget their name but they're a much smaller concern than the previous lot). Until they've produced a suitable quantity of stock for the various catering warehouses around the world, the temporary lolly is being used.

I just LOVE this level of detail!!! :D:D

Mind you.. all lollies are "temporary" around some of us....;)

What kind of snacks are there these days?

Could this thread have the potential to reach the (amusing for outsiders) level of inanity of the various US airlines 'warm nuts' threads? We live in hope.. :D

Anyway, the old Air NZ lolly/candy/sweet has bitten the dust, as the supplier has shut down the manufacturing plant in NZ and moved it offshore. NZ decided to switch to a new supplier to support Kiwi-made (I forget their name but they're a much smaller concern than the previous lot). Until they've produced a suitable quantity of stock for the various catering warehouses around the world, the temporary lolly is being used.

ah so we get branded ones back again - I would have thought the flight crew should know this, there were several questions to her about this very issue on my last flight

ah so we get branded ones back again - I would have thought the flight crew should know this, there were several questions to her about this very issue on my last flight


this whole thread is "fascinating" NOT :):D

this whole thread is "fascinating" NOT :):D

don't read it then? :)

boiled sweets to me are important, confirms the flight I have just taken as something uniquely kiwi.

good grief - I go away for a few days and the boiled sweets have changed

lucky I still have a stash ;)

Wow, even I would not stoop to the level of commenting on a change in the airlines sweets!

But thanks for the info nz_crew

But what about running out of the sweet mix (pineapple lumps and aeroplanes) on the flight!!

NZ did not have enough on board during the school holidays.

Actually judging on the outside of the packet I passed on the sweet mix for a long time before someone sitting near me got one and I discovered how great it was (pineapple lumps and aeroplanes)