Aerosett

A while ago, I heard there was no increase on the 772 crew of 10, which I thought was crazy.

On my last 77W flight we had, I think 5, in BP, so I figured to serve the rest of the plane with 5 crew would've been impossible.

Thought the bed product was much better, IFE is much better, the food presentation was great, other than the starter in a bowl. Enjoyed the wines, as always - are there more whites than reds in the selection?

Food was enjoyable, service was very good (slower than the old product though). Those with lamb didn't get their mains until 1:50 after takeoff, fast dine and people eating fish were served quite a bit faster, the lamb was slowest to come out). Seems like plating and preparing the mains is what the crew struggle with, the desserts were timed perfectly after mains.

Sundae was great, dessert trio looked great, but the sundae was better

Overall, great product. Look forward to the induction ovens returning and I'm sure the service will get better with time.

UKBRIT

For those travelling in business premier...no complaints whatsover. Travelled to/from LAX last month in seats 2A and 2J.

Crew's on both legs were uber friendly and couldn't do enough for you without being intrusive.

Only critiscism I could have is you couldn't use your own headphones as the adapters they carry on board don't work (sound only from one ear).

Bed very comfortable for a plane, 2 pillows, blanket. Found the seat position pretty comfortable and lots of room to spread out.

Good choice of inflight entertainment. Screen large enough, kept me entertained on both flights. Glad I had a window seat though as it's nice to look out every once in a while.

Food and drinks served reasonable efficiently and were tasty. They put BA and others to shame.

I'd fly ANZ back to the States any time even forfeiting my BA Air miles as the service/product in Business is far superior.

Hopefully they can keep the cabins looking fresh after extended trips, the lighting is perfect. Worried that the cabins with the whiteness will start to look grubby after a while though.

Rebound

Seems AirNZ haven now put up two seatmaps for the 777-300

338 vs 332

Notably bigger gap on the seatmap now in PE (Reduced from 50 to 44 seats)

libertyuk

I can confirm the views of others on the new PE. I flew LHR-LAX in PE last weekend.

It was 24A, so the window one row back from the front row and I have a few comments.

- It was clearly impossible for the person in the aisle seat to avoid getting up completely to let the window passenger exit. In PE this is expected, but it did seem awkward.

- The seat itself was reasonably comfortable, plenty of elbow room, and it was nice facing outwards.

- Recline/tilt was a nightmare. It wasn't easy, even with instructions (and I don't consider myself incapable of managing complexity), because it got stuck. When returning to upright it took some forcing before slamming back.

- Floor room was tight, I ended up using my cabin bag with a pillow on it for a footrest with the beanbag on my shoes to finish off. With the recline my shin was pushing against the seat in front. This wasn't comfortable and I squirmed a fair bit.

- The IFE screen was either at a good distance and my neck had to twist or be in front of me and be far too close. It was so close i had to remove my contact lenses because they were overcompensating.

- There weren't enough places to put things. I wanted somewhere to stick my laptop, but there was nothing. Having a pocket at the window would have helped, but that wont help people in the aisles. I thought the design might allow something on the sides or between the seats.

- Food service was ok. I found it odd that the starter came out with dessert, which while delicious, sat on the tray for a good hour, because of the delay getting the mains. I had the burger, mainly to try something new and it was disappointing. The bread/bun was a little dry and cold, the beef was good (but not cooked to order, as I presume induction ovens weren't used) and cheese and chutney were very good. However, it wasn't what I was expecting given the hype. The bread brought out, the starter and desserts were delicious though. Service overall was impeccable although not very visible. It was around 6 hours into the flight before ordering snacks via screen was active in PE (although I went for a walk and saw it working in Y).

Overall, if NZ was to stick with this pitch, I would seriously consider paying the same price just for Skycouch, or save my money and get an exit row in Y. It was awkward and tight, and while the seat itself was quite good (get that recline/tilt to work better), I felt claustrophobic. Given I have had two ops on varicose veins in one leg, I have to move my legs regularly, and it wasn't easy.

The food/drink service was good, but not quite what I had been led to believe with the publicity.

I am in PE returning to LHR this weekend, so it will be overnight and I am in an aisle seat (but with a standby upgrade into C which I am praying will come off). Given my work now has a contract to do a lot on the US West Coast in the next year, I would like to use NZ (and there isn't the budget to go C class), and with the improvements i will. However, until then I may have to stick to Y with exit rows or skycouch, or go UA in Economy Plus (!).

flykiwifly

I am dreading being stuck in PE after reading all these reviews. My upgrade cleared from PE to Biz in late April and the new mattresses in biz class and the food service and cabin ambience LHR-AKL were all brilliant. I went back to PE and Y on the new planes to test it out and was so grateful I wasn't there, and that my upgrades had cleared. Y was just unbelievably tight and although I only sat in PE for a few minutes everything that has been posted before rang true. Also the last 2 seats in the middle were so close to the toilets it was unnerving to think of paying that sort of money to end up being constantly disturbed by passengers and also the light and the smell if anything went wrong!
Our return trip was via HKG on the 777 200 and depsite booking 9 months out my upgrade only cleared 2 months before due to loads, with the AKL-HKG sector clearing a month or two before the HKG-LHR sector. No new mattresses on the 777 200 despite reading that this was to be rolled out acroos the fleet - flight was early May. Still teething problems on the 777 300 as in the loos no cloth towels and NO products loaded- Mrsflykiwifly was not impressed. All products and cloth towels were available in the loos on the 777 200 plane on the return journey via HKG.
Hopefully removing the row of seats in PE will make a big difference as our budget does not stretch to biz class and we rely on points and complimentary upgrades for our chance of sitting in biz class. However always important to remember you pay for what you get and the upgrades are the bonus that keep us flying AirNZ at present.

Thai-Kiwi

Interesting - all blocks have lost 1 row.

All other things being equal, the A/B block will have a proportionately larger increase in leg room (7 to 6 rows or 14%) than the D/E block (10 to 9 rows or 10%). The J/K block is in the middle (8 to 7 rows).

I wonder is this will actually be the case.....?

birder

Yes, but remember, there will be LOTS of people trying to get those exit rows. Because we can't see the seat map before booking, it's a real crap shoot.

A better idea (for now) is to fly into San Francisco. The Auckland-San Fran flights are now run exclusively by the 747s.

libertyuk

I subscribe to expertflyer, which for US$5 a month is good value given the frequency I fly, because I DO see seat maps and can see availability across flights. Funnily enough when I booked, all of the seats reserved for Golds/Elites were unable to be selected by me, even though I am Gold. I rang NZ and asked for an explanation. It happens regularly, I book NZ online through the UK website and the "premium" seats are blocked even though they are available.

SFO is no good for me flying from LHR, but interestingly BA has a major sale on and I have found a return Club World ticket (1 stop on the way back) LHR-LAX for less than NZ in premium economy. Don't even have to think twice about that!

Aerosett

I've found the window seat to be quite good, it seems to have better leg/knee room than the outboard aisle seats.

I found the seat was stuck momentarily once, but didn't have any other issues beyond that one time.

I didn't notice this at the time (there was more than enough locker space), but in hindsight, it is true there is little floor storage room, as the under seat area isn't really useable for stowage, unlike a conventional seat.

Definitely agree with this. Actually this was my main issue with the seat, funnily enough!

This has been the norm in Premium Economy for as long as I remember, the dessert has been preset with the starter.

My understanding is that a lot of the perks have been watered down due to servicing time and the lack of fully functioning induction ovens.

Aerosett

I flew on the 777-300 a few weeks ago and there were only paper towels, however recently noticed that there were cloth towels on a 772 and cloth towels have made a return to the AKL Intl lounge bathrooms.

Don't think there were ever any products loaded with the new product, I suspect this is how the afford putting La Prarie products in a Business Class amenity kit (usually only offered in First Class products, found out that jars of La Prarie can be in the hundreds of dollars!)

I have to admit, whilst Airpoints isn't great for flight rewards, especially longhaul and in premium cabins, I find their upgrade policy very customer friendly.

libertyuk

Came back LAX-LHR in Business Premier and the seat was a distinct improvement for sleeping. I had a solid sleep after dinner right through to the breakfast service, for sleeping comfort only rivalled by BA in First in my experience (I have flown few First Classes to be fair).

Catering was excellent, almost ridiculous choice of mains (5?). I think it would be preferable to knock one choice out and have a choice of starters (maybe soup or salad). Besides neither the syrah or the pinot gris being available, the drinks service was excellent. Presentation and flavours of the choices outclassed any other business class I have been on, and better than before.

Breakfast (had the poached egg on muffins) wasn't quite as good, but was as good as I've had on NZ before.

The amenity kit is also quite special, with some seriously good products.

Only downside was the IFE wasn't working when we left LAX, but it was functioning when I woke up. The new screen and interface are all a significant improvement, but I am sure the failure to function for the first 2-3 hours would have been frustrating for many (I just worked on my laptop and used my Ipod). The selection was ok, but could be improved.

Overall, NZ has lifted its game in Business Premier. If it can get the induction oven usage sorted out, then it WILL have done extremely well.

Fix that, sort out the teething problems with IFE, remove the row from PE and I'll be happy with those cabins. Y in Skycouch is an option too, but 10-abreast Y with 33" pitch isn't impressing me. However, I had a conversation with one of the flight attendants and said odds are 9 out of 10 people in Y had no idea what type of plane it would be and what the seating configurations are like. I know a lot of people who fly regularly and by and large they know little about airlines other than general impressions (and FFPs make a big impact).

So well done on the refresh of BP. It isn't the ambience of the nose of the 747, but frankly better food, a better sleeping surface and better IFE make up for this.

everywhere

Good feedback, thanks libertyuk.

alex1948

So true. Not everyone is a frequent traveller so would not notice the difference. 10-across B777 seating doesn't seem to have affected EK's carryings.

Aerosett

I wonder whether the IFE issue you had was a more isolated incident - I had no issues, actually the most reliable flight I've ever had on NZ for IFE.

Have tried the Y seat, the interesting thing I've noted is that the outboard seats are at 33", but the inboard non-Skycouch ones are at 32".

The width doesn't phase me, I think the width is better than other 10 abreast 777s, but they have sacrificed aisle width to preserve the seat width. The narrow aisles make the cabin look busy, but I found actually sitting there to be no problem.

Rotodavid123

Just flown in to LHR on NZ2 from AKL. In my opinion, the new 773 BP offering is a step up from the other flights I have done in 772 and 744 BP cabins. I'd rate it better overall than a recent QF trip to Europe using both 744 and A380 BP services

The new BP seats are much better - don't know whether they're more padded or the mattress helps - I've never been much of a sleeper on the long haul journeys and yet I managed to get 5-6 hrs which for me is a miracle.

Service and food were pretty good and the new IFE a step up. Mind you their movie selections could be a little more extensive.

Back to NZ in 3 days time on NZ1, so hopefully a repeat of my outbound experience.