I forgot to mention that on the PER-AKL flight we got business amenity kits, which was a surprise. These must have been just about the last of the old stock as for the past several months (at least) Air New Zealand has not been using amenity kits but rather passes around a basket of items for business class passengers to select the items they want.

A few days later I noticed the AKL-PER and PER-AKL flights hadn't automatically posted so I made an online mileage claim. This was processed instantly which makes me wonder if they have all the data to verify the claim why couldn't the points have been automatically credited?


AT LONG LAST NEW NZ LONGHAUL

Anyway, it's again time to head back to the airport straight from work. This time premium check in is fairly empty and so it doesn't take long until I have a fistful of boarding passes and processed for immigration. I half expected the immigration officer to comment on all my trips but she doesn't say anything out of the ordinary. Back in the lounge I check some email and take a refreshing shower.

I'm looking forward to the flight. Since the new longhaul product was launched nearly a year ago I've had a series of flights on non-refitted 747s, 767s and even a couple of aircraft substitutions from brand new 777s to the old 767 Today at least I'd get to see for myself if the experience lives up to the hype.

There are plenty of reports on the new longhaul both in Trip Reports forum and Air New Zealand forum. In business class the old seats have been replaced with the Virgin Upper Class suites, and the IFE now has avod which is a great benefit on the long flights across the pacific. There are a few other changes as well (such as pre-ordering breakfast early in the flight so you can get some extra sleep).

We had a slow taxi again, and I saw several executive jets - I'm not sure what was on but this is more than the odd one or two usually seen at Auckland.

I found the suite great - in my experience easily the best business class seat, although of course I haven't flown all airlines. Rather more enclosed than the Singapore Airlines first suite for example, but still ample room to stretch out and plenty of places to put things (reading material, water bottle, etc).

As usual, the service was great as was the food. Dinner service started quickly, which is good for the overnight flight, and breakfast started about 2 hours out of San Francisco.

The Sauvignon Blanc was again Wither Hills, and I sampled the reds - Villa Maria Pinot Noir, Villa Maria Cabernet Sauvignon and Vidal Shiraz. I felt the reds were a bit too young.

The IFE was easy to use, although unlike some other airlines the handset was not marked with symbols for pause, stop, fast forward and rewind. It took about an hour into the flight before the system was working as they took several system reboots The ife was switched to the arrival video about an hour out from San Francisco - unlike some airlines' systems there is no way to ignore the arrival video and continue watching your movie/tv show/game.

I watched a couple of New Zealand feature movies, and some other shows, had plenty to eat and drink, and also had a good shortish sleep for a few hours. In short - a great flight.

San Francisco was clagged in with rain and low cloud, so we didn't see anything until just above the runway. Unlike my previous visits to San Francisco, the Air New Zealand flight arrived before several other international flights and thus immigration queues were short and I was through domestic security within 10 minutes.