Can't dispute I've mostly had a good sleep on NZ J (apart from the last trip where the seat was broken and a very kind fellow traveller offered to swap his seat with me. Thank you. Thank you). However the NZ value proposition is not there compared to other offerings out there. I understand the climate that NZ operates under and there is more competion coming on to the scene. I predict that NZ regional travellers are going to get crunched even more to keep air nz profit levels up overall in the face of increasingly more competition and thinner margins on the long haul routes.

I think you'll find that NZ is always full in J due to Elite upgrades/award seats, maybe not because of phenomenal demand. That seems to be a big part of their business model. Also the small number of J seats compared to other aircraft is also a factor. Don't think I would use customer satisfaction survey results from US travellers as the benchmark, most everyone is better than the US J offerings, apart from possibly Polaris, which I haven't experienced. NZ J beds are very good, but not head and shoulders above the rest of the pack and the near monopoly situation helps them along to fill seats. CX and even CA are at least as good as NZ J beds.

Anyway about to try QR suites, QF J, Fiji airways J and SQ suites in the coming few months so that will give me a better indicator of where NZ J beds stand.