Thanks so much for pointing this out...never thought of the economy stretch before. As of now only LAX has this service while SFO does not. (Not sure if this makes a difference in the configuration.)

I find it baffling that Air New Zealand doesn't make it easier for us to determine which version we'll be flying on since they keep the SAME row numbers regardless of the configuration, economy stretch or not...or if the seat is a standard coach seat, or the one with the legrest that can be converted to a couch. (Most carriers have slightly different row numbers, especially if you're adding more legroom in the front...so I wonder how Air New Zealand can do this without changing the row numbers.)

I know that they don't always sell these economy couch seats with the legrest as economy couch, but at least have this seat differentiated from the rest so we know with certainty what kind of seat we'll be expecting on the flight.

I've checked different flights and see the ones where economy couch is available and clearly marked...while on other dates, where it isn't available or not being offered, they show these seats as "standard" and no other details.


We're on two separate reservations. I think I'll take the gamble and upgrade our seats to this row...even though I still have no idea which version this will be. Your response though gave me the idea of comparing the seatmaps on the LAX-AKL vs SFO-AKL flights.

Since the seatmap on the Air New Zealand website doesn't mention economy stretch, I'm hoping that this is the one used on SFO flights since this is the non-"economy stretch" version.

Thanks again for your advice...Let's hope you're right...