Air New Zealand
Economy Class Sky Couch (S)
AKL-BHE (Auckland – Papeete)
NZ 40
June 12, 2017
Booked: Boeing 787-800
Flown: Boeing 787-900
Departure: 9:25 AM
Arrival: 4:25 PM –1
We headed down from the lounge at about T-50. The British "Harrod's" retail outpost that was here the last time I passed through in 1998 is now gone. There were some entertaining signs on the flight departure screens on the walk down. Just relax!
We arrived to the gate at about T-45. Although boarding on our card was posted for T-60, nothing was happening.
When boarding started, it was an all at once priority boarding call (Business Premier, Premium Economy, Star Gold) and about 45 of us gathered to get on the plane.
The economy section is set up in a 3-3-3 configuration. We had booked a window and an aisle on hopes that no one would be assigned a middle in the premium top tier section at the front of the cabin (accessed thanks to Star Alliance Gold status). We were able to get our rollies stored in the overhead without any issues.
Air New Zealand has de-constructed their air fares, allowing for the purchase of a Seat Only, Seat and bag, and “The Works”. We had purchased a “The Works” fare, which was inclusive of food and entertainment. Sharp eyed observers will note that some of the seats have a different head rest marking on them consisting of a silver stripe which differentiates “the Works” customers so staff aren’t required to check boarding cards the whole time.
As we ended up with a seat mate, and an unexpected empty row behind us, we made a quick move as soon as the FA “boarding complete” announcement was made. We ended up in the row occupying the window and aisle seats with an empty middle a la European business class. There was ample leg room for our flight. More on the SkyCouch in a bit. . .
Air New Zealand has entertaining safety videos. This month’s featured Rachel Hunter (Rod Stewart’s ex wife).
Although the flight map features had highlights of the destinations that Air New Zealand visited in pop up bubbles, which I found to be a bit annoying and distracting when you’re trying to enjoy the map.
There were a reasonable selection of movies available, although I didn’t really watch anything memorable.
We had take off from New Zealand; over the water of course.
A lunch service was offered. The choices were a chicken curry with rice or a beef casserole with potatoes dauphinois. I went with the chicken curry and it was good for the portion delivered. It admittedly has been a very long time since I have had an economy meal (I usually eat before flights). The meal was good but didn’t fill me up for long – I was starving when we landed.
Skycouch Review:
The seat happened to have an Economy Sky Couch. These are additional seat recliner parts that fold up horizontal so that you can have an entirely flat surface. We didn’t pay for this feature, but happened to get the opportunity to review it.
The couch is activated by pressing a second button on the armrest. Staff dropped off the couple belt, along with instructions on how to use it – including a Kama Sutra diagram of approved positions.
We tried out the Sky Couch. There are mixed experiences here.
MrsWT73 who happens to be 5ft 3 inches, loved the sky couch. She liked that she could sit cross-legged on the seat and that you could tip over and jut go to sleep. Myself, at 6ft 2 inches, found the couch exceptionally compact and not really a value add. I was too long to sleep sideways on the couch with out bending my legs in a sharp kink to avoid my legs from going into the aisle, and this wouldn’t really have been comfortable for the couch partner. I wasn’t able to slouch in the skycouch, and have my feet up against the couch with my back against the wall because tall bodies don't bend that way.
I ended up just seated in the economy seat (without couch) and MrsWT73 used the couch along with the middle seat. The couch fold up is in two pieces. I frankly found it more comfortable to rest with my head against the fuselage wall than use the couch. To me, this does not look comfortable at all.
My summary and opinion is: if you are choosing between a skycouch and premium economy, premium economy is far better every time. I would likely only choose this configuration if premium economy was completely sold out or double the price of the skycouch.
Towards the end of the flight, we had a cloudy approach into Papeete with some views of Moorea on the left side of the approach.
Eventually touching down to a grey and cloudy Papeete, French Polynesia. We pulled up to a non gate position and were let out into a rainy island of Tahiti Nui. We also re-gained a day having crossed the international date line, and got the opportunity to experience June 12, 2017 all over again
We had a musical arrival and arrived into a very third world airport. The airport appears to be under renovation and is in a terrible mess. There was no air conditioning only a few tired rotating ceiling fans so everything was a hot muggy mess. Surprisingly, the photos represent better than it actually was.
We were divided into two lines – one for international passports and one for EC passports. Surprisingly, there were about 60 + people in the EC Passports line. Where are all these EC passport holders coming from? Did they travel to New Zealand from Europe and add on a trip to French Polynesia? Either way, it was a very slow go despite only our plane in the arrival hall. It took us probably about 35 – 40 minutes just to get stamped in to French Polynesia. The entry would mark country number #63 for me.
We bypassed the almost street pricing duty free on arrival. It was cheaper to have packed wine from New Zealand in the suitcases; which we did. We cleared the baggage hall and went to change some money into francs. We found a taxi outside in the taxi rank to take us over to the Le Meridien Tahiti hotel.
The Air New Zealand flight to French Polynesia is one of the few ways to get to the Islands of Tahiti, with the other carrier being Air Tahiti Nui. I think it’s probably a bit of a toss between the two carriers. We didn’t earn any frequent flier miles on this ticket, despite being over a $500 paid ticket since Air New Zealand doesn’t credit many base fares to Star Alliance under their Air New Zealand Airpoints program.
The largest surprise was with the state of the Papeete International Airport, which was under a massive, but seemly stalled, refurbishment. For a destination that is supposed to be so upscale, the state of the airport didn’t make a great first impression.