Sector - MEL-AKL
Flight number - NZ124
Class - Business
Seat - 3K
Aircraft - B747-400

I'd missed my boarding call and NZ did not have a separate queue for premium passengers. Consequently I'd to join the hoi polloi in boarding the aircraft. At least it was orderly.

I'd picked a seat in the nose as the upper deck cabin is shared with Premium Economy, and appeared to lack any ounce of exclusivity. That sounded just a touch snobby but if I'm flying Business - I do not want to have a shared cabin, and crew with a lower tiered cabin. I also do value priority dis/embarkation...

Sitting in the nose turned out to be a fine choice. I was in the forward-most cabin which was smaller and hence felt pretty private. There was a family with 2 young children in the same cabin but the kids were mercifully rather well-behaved throughout the entire flight.









Pre-take off drinks were offered as soon as I was seated. A choice of orange juice, water and sparkling wine were available - no prizes for guessing what I'd picked.



The cabin crew were generally friendly and attentive. My constant picture-taking must have conveyed the impression that it was my first time on NZ Business Premier, and one of the crew explained at length the intricacies of seat and the IFE system.

We then took off very much on time. Taking off in the herringbone configuration proved to be interesting, but not as 'different' as I'd thought it'd be. Drinks were again offered post take off, along with a bag of crisps. There wasn't any champagne offered on this trans tasman service and so I stuck with the sparkling wine, which was rather decent tbh. At this stage I was staring to notice that the cabin crew did not greet anyone by name. That took away some brownie points I was hoping to dole out in the inflight survey I was picked to respond to.

The seat, along with the ottoman were every bit as comfy as I'd expected for lounging. However I did find the herringbone configuration a bit anti-social as it wasn't possible to see my seat mates. This made it impossible to turn around to chat with the person next to me like I normally do.










Some wear and tear...

A full lunch was served shortly after the drinks service was completed. I accompanied my meal with NZ's very well-done garlic bread. We started with a rather bland appetiser of Karengo seasoned prawns on black bean angel hair noodles with cerviche dressing.



The meal was then immediately redeemed by the extremely succulent Seared peppered Cervena with roasted thyme vegetables and potato wafers.



I concluded with the adequately tasty Mango and pineapple trifle with caramelised pineapple and vanilla compote,



and had to decline the cheese plate as I was feeling very bloated by that stage, as tempting as the blue cheese and brie both looked.

Full menu here.

I did not really employ the use of much of the IFE as I was trying to finish reading a newly acquired biography of Marie Antoinette. However the sight of Rockwell Collins did not fil me with a whole lot of confidence.

We landed in AKL in good time, and transmitting devices were allowed to be switched on once the plane had left the run way.

Next: NZ89 AKL-PVG J