Funny.

My favourite reviewers are inflight expert, Sam Chui and well I like Dennis Bunnik except when he dissed Qatar for not having power sockets (but they do!!) and he just didn't look or ask. Generally a fair reviewer. I despise those people that are just out to get the airline or are down on everything about the airline. It's not balanced.

Anyway, to be honest if I'm flying J with NZ it's a night flight long haul so I eat and might watch something then I'm out so ... care factor about whether someone else is watching me or what the rest of the cabin is doing is very close to zero. I have slept in the recline position all the way to LAX previously and had the crew throw blankets on me without asking (might have been the shivering giving it away) but they responded without any request. I was obviously zonked and weirdly enough couldn't be bothered standing up to put the seat into bed mode. Sad as that is. Long haul is generally over water or you can't see much over Oz if flying to SIN or to the Americas. I just don't care. So I don't feel the aisle facing thing is that relevant. I can angle the laptop away from people if I pull that out and if it's sensitive info then I'll aim for the back of the plane and angle laptop away from others. This actually includes economy. I find more people next to me in PE. Flew QF middle seat J 789 earlier in the year and the privacy wasn't as good as a window seat. Not to mention I'd checked-in the paperwork I was going to use to do a report. But the privacy wasn't 'all that'. Admittedly I do like take off and landing and incoming during the day I will suffer the few minutes to take pictures and crane my neck to do this out the window.

I guess day flights may be aisle facing seats might be annoying but they tend to be short haul which I am happy in economy. PE is great for day medium haul flights and that's what I choose say to Adelaide/Perth on the way over. J just feels like over kill for medium haul, especially a day flight.

The bottom line for me though is that NZ have a fantastic bed, +1 and I prefer it to Etihad/SQ despite the fact I love the Etihad business layout better, food I find good long haul, crew are totally Air NZ's MASSIVE asset, and I love my NZ wine. Otherwise I have to hangout for on the ground wine (which I'll probably still look for the NZ wine!).

EK is definitely good and longer haul things like the bar come into play etc if flying west.

I've flown NZ short haul to Raro and was ridiculously surprised at 4 couples doing the dining thing together! That's the most I've ever seen on any flight although Raro is a leisure destination I suppose.

I do think Air NZ will need to 'up their game' when it comes to business class layout. Look forward to seeing what they offer. Really hope they have some people in the mix that fly other airlines in J or F so they have input. There are reviews online but NZ appear to take some pride at being ahead of the curve, so I severely hope they approach J in a futuristic manner and take note of what the competition offer.

I love Air NZ all the same, realistically price and product wise I fly them on the pacific rim but not to UK/EU. It's just that step further where things change.