Felix Unger

I am not much of a fan of Y class travel, especially on 6500 mile flights with 36 hours on the ground. I had nothing in my bag of tricks to upgrade an Air New Zealand flight, however. I had heard their eonomy service was quite good, so I thought I would risk it. It was actually a pleasant experience, for reasons both predictable and serendipitous.

26 October LAX-AKL 43D, 29 Oct AKL-LAX 59D
My original plan was to be in 59A, at the back of the plane, on both flights. At check-in, I found that 59B had been taken, so requested and was moved to a middle section row with a seat next to me open. I had the exact same experience on my return. By the way, *Gold uses the dedicated check in facility at AKL airport, and it is really nice. In addition to dedicated ticketing, it speeds you through a special dedicated immigration officer when your ticketing is complete.

As a *Gold, I went to the shared ANZ Lounge in LAX, which was as it always has been... full of people, with mininal refreshments. Of little value, except for a quick cold drink.

On the return, the AKL Koru Club was as wonderful as ever, with far more food than I had ever seen before. The mid afternoon cheese trays (with superb NZ cheeses) also had sun dried tomato rolls and other small savories, plus cookies. It was replaced at 4 with hot dishes and salads, including beef croquettes, shaved leg ham, mushroom and balsamic salad, and quite a bit more. It was truly outstanding, and entirely possible to make a full meal out of the choices.

Seating
Boarding was orderly, *Gold was allowed to board with business/first, and I was well pleased by the great job ANZ did in setting up economy class seating. Pitch is 34", and you can feel it... the space felt similar to mainline UA flights in first class, though in reality it was a bit shorter. But it felt spacious. Part of this is because of the novel design of the seats themselves. They are actually thinner than any other economy class seats I have seen... only about 3 inches deep along the vertical axis. When you recline, the bottom cushion lifts and tilts back as the vertical cushion tilts, creating an illusion of more recline than there actually is. The headrest doesn't move, but wings do move in to provide support for the head during sleep. Each seat had a pillow and blanket atop them. From a width standpoint, the seats were more comfortable than any economy seats I have experienced except Midwest Express. I would estimate them at 18.5" wide, and even with the armrest down, I was comfortable enough (as a wider person). With no one next to me (fires in SoCal caused many connecting customers to miss their flight) I was good to go.

On the return, I made my four seat section into a flat bed after dinner, and managed 4-5 hours of excellent sleep. The seatrests move fully out of the way, and the seatbottoms are countoured in such a way as to require only an extra blanket to smooth over the cushions.

Meals
The food was a cut above economy class fare I have previously experienced.

Outbound Lunch
Beef Lasagne- A large portion, about 12 ounces(Other choice Chicken Thigh)
Salad with orange pieces in a vinigrette
Roll and Butter
Cheese and Cracker
Dessert Cake
Complimentary beer and wine, including a very passable NZ Sauv Blanc.

Outbound Dinner
Perch Fillet- Also a large portion
Parsley Potatoes
Feta Cheese Salad
Roll and Butter
Cheese and Cracker
Dessert Cake
Complimentary beer and wine

Attendants made several passes for beverages, including coffee, tea, and the open bar. During the flight, they came by about every 40 minutes with either juice or water.

Inbound Dinner
Beef in Cabernet Sauvignon sauce- Again a large portion. Quality not quite as good as the outbound, but still adequate. Other choice Chicken Leg Moroccan.
Mashed Potatoes
Green Beans and Carrots
Salad
Roll and Butter
Cheese and Cracker
Dessert Cake
Complimentary beer and wine

Inbound Breakfast
French Toast and Syrup (other choice scrambled eggs)
Bacon
Yogurt
Muesli cereal and Milk
Orange Juice
Roll and butter (sweet raisin roll)
Cheese and cracker

I was so impressed by the seats and food service in general that I thought several times what a waste of miles it would have been to upgrade to business in an economy section that was not full.

In a full airplane, of course, this would be a different story. In the past, I have flown ANZ in First, on award tickets, and I was truly dreading what these flights might have been like in economy. But I came away from my travel feeling that Air New Zealand clearly cares about the Pacific Class (Economy) experience. I can only give them kudos for making 24 hours of flight in a three day period not just survivable, but pleasant.

And special thanks to AirNZboy here on FT, who answered a number of questions for me prior to the trip.

N674UW

I agree...NZ's 744 economy seats are the most comfortable I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing by far...glad to see that their service is still top-notch as well

N674UW

Morrissey

I flew NZ economy on this route back in 2000, and I agree it was pretty good...much better than UA economy. I liked the fact that the seats had foot rests too!

Carfield

Thanks for an interesting report! I am glad that NZ Y held up to a high standard. I guess other than the lack of IFE entertainment, NZ is the best Y class product out there. The meals sound delicious...

Thanks,
Carfield

MrSydney

The meals on long haul in Y have always been better than ,say, across the tasman. Not sure why!!!

Mats

Thanks for your report. I've always liked Air New Zealand and have fond memories of even full flights from LAX to Auckland.

I'm glad that they're still good.

kawoh

What they lack in IFE, they make up on the big screen - they always have excellent new release movies playing in Y.

I agree with the comments above, NZ Y is superb and it's for those very reasons above that I choose flying NZ Y over UA Y to the West Coast US even though now you have to go via AKL when departing and returning to SYD.

Felix Unger

I have flown United 25+ times across the pacific, and always in first or business class. Even with PTVs, there are always delays between the completion of one round of movies and the start of the next. ANZ makes absolutely certain there is never a gap of more than 5 minutes between movies... 4 of them each way, of good quality, plus hours of dramas and comedies.

In short, there was entertainment from 30 minutes after departure until 20 minutes before landing, each way.

N674UW

Actually, I have to admit, when I took NZ, the one thing I did not like about them was the IFE...ex-LAX I had never heard of 3 of the 4 movies and ex-SYD I had never heard of all 4 movies...the audio tracks were pretty good but only about 90 minutes long...not a long period of time on a 13-14 hour flight...aside from that Pacific Class was great...

Just out of curiosity do you remember which movies were shown???

N674UW

[This message has been edited by N674UW (edited 11-02-2003).]

LondonElite

Thanks for your report...I have to fly over to LAX early next year and am keen to try NZ Y from LHR.

Felix Unger

http://www.airnz.com/travelinfo/onth...nt/default.htm

is a gateway page that shows all movies and other entertainment playing, by route,during the current month.

Enjoy.

mad_atta

Glad to hear AirNZ lived up to their usual excellent standard. I agree that the IFE ain't great, but everything else is as good as Y class gets, in my experience.

MrSydney, I actually prefer the short-haul Y class catering - or at least I did before they introduced the new trans-Tasman service, which I have yet to try...

daph

I KNEW that there was something different about ANZ! In 2001, when we missed our BA LHR-LAX flight because our BA flight from CDG arrived late and we got NO HELP as we rushed through T-4 to catch the BA 747 home, we were put on ANZ. [This was all in Y]. There were leg rests [BA has them in Y now but these seemed more confortable] and it was the one long haul flight where my husband didn't commplain about being cramped. The food was rather better although I'm not a big fan of over-sweet cakes [how about a French type of fruit rouge [red] with whipped cream and less sweet as the French desserts seem to be?].Interesting to learn that there was no more than 4 minutes between movies. On BA this year it seemed like hours before the last movie ended and then I'd miss the beginnings because I was tuned in on the map.