As an aside, were you able to get seating allocated for the flights on a segment-by-segment basis or would they only allocate on the through flight basis?

I've not been able to convince the phone res people to do it on a per segment basis. Right now we have an aisle/middle pair, and the window seat is free. I just called to ask if it was possible to get the aisle/window and block the middle, and the agent refused to do so saying that NZ does not do that (and never has?!) and that even the checkin agents at the airport can't do it; and that only the duty manager at the airport can, after the flight has gone to airport control.

This surprises me as I've had no problem with them doing middle seat blocking in the past.... admittedly I've also had trouble getting ahold of GOOD reservation agents lately.

"Our Heathrow flights are very full at the moment" is the reason given... which still seems odd to me as there are still W fares available; however business and premium economy do appear to be sold out (showing C1 right now).