You poor thing - having to fly approx 25hrs each way for only a few days?!

Sounds like business travel gone crazy :eek:

Ha! I flew Auckland-Toronto and back with only 3 nights on the ground in Toronto. And I flew in economy the whole way!

Actually had to go to Munich and then 2 hr drive, so something like 35 hrs all up door - door. Flying back home tomorrow.

There are a couple of people on here who did the 2007 Mother's Day Fun Run AKL-LAX-LHR-HKG-AKL in 60 hours...

Economy class experience on 777-300ER
 

One of my first real posts here so thought I'd give it a go :)

So not sure how interested people are in a review of flying on the still new(ish) 777-300ER long haul in Economy class, but me and my partner flew long haul on it (not by choice - PE and BP were fully booked unfortunately so our upgrades didn't go throuh) recently and thought that I would share our experience and thoughts:

Route: AKL-LHR via LAX for refuel stopover
Night and Day flight
Cabin / Seat No.: Economy, Seats 50J (Middle), 50K (Window)

Seat comfort/Legroom
I wasn't too sure how comfortable it would be flying Economy now that it is 3-4-3 configuration after previously flying long-haul on the 777-200ER (We do at least one long haul flight a year) but surprisingly it wasn't too bad.
From memory the seat was very well padded and quite comfortable, the ability to adjust the headrest in both height and the "wings" really helped when sleeping. Luckily we had window and middle which allowed us to share the foot/legroom under the seat in front of us - Between the aisle and middle seat on the 3 configuration there is a black 'box' used to store equipment for the IFE system which takes up some space.
The seat width is OK for Economy, I was as close to my neighbour as I would have been on any other economy class for any other airline, so not much to write about here.

All in all, not too bad - PE may have been better, but I recall sitting in the spaceseat on the open day tour and my knees kept hitting the area in front of me (I'm relatively tall) which wasn't too comfortable so not sure if that pain would have been compounded long-haul. Least they're finally getting round to fixing that next month, which should be good for future flyers.

Ease of getting in and out
The ease of getting in and out was worse compared to previous long haul flights I've been on probably because of the narrowness of the aisles (not surprising when it is 10pax abreast) - Being middle and window rows meant that the passenger closest to the aisle had to move when we need to go to the bathroom, and the narrowness meant that it was difficult to squeeze past to go to the toilet area.
Likewise, it was a similar situation when we needed to get back into the seats, or when passing someone in the aisle was likewise a little bit more difficult.

Food
The food served on the flight was very good for economy class - Reasonable portions, some nice touches here and there with Häagen-Dazs icecream being served as dessert after dinner, Kapiti cheeses, etc.
One of the breakfast dishes with scrambled eggs has quite average, my partner had some sort of pancakes which she mentioned was not bad.
I must make a special mention of one of the dishes I had for dinner I believe on the AKL-LAX leg - It was some sort of lamb dish which was easily one of the most tender pieces of lamb I had *ever* experienced - It did impress me somewhat for airline food, and I have to take my hat off to AirNZ.

Drink
We typically drank as part of the meal service but did order from the drinks menu through the IFE system once or twice. On both occasions the FA attended within 2-3 minutes and brought us our order, and I didn't feel we were left waiting for an excessive period of time, which was good.

FA attentiveness
Generally good throughout the flight, as I mentioned orders filled through the IFE system were brought to us within a few minutes which was really great. At one point I did order a toothbrush set, a set of eye shades and 2 sets of earplugs through the IFE (one for myself and one for my partner) and the FA brought the toothbrush (without the toothpaste) which I thought was a bit strange! the eyeshades, and only one pair of earplugs. Luckily my partner didn't want the earplugs and she already had brought a tube of toothpaste with her so it wasn't a big deal, but I would have thought that the order should have been filled as requested, but perhaps they thought that I might have made a mistake.
The helpfulness and effort put in by the AirNZ FA's on board was excellent especially as my partner started feeling rather nauseous halfway through the flight. One of the FA's helped to give her something sweet to drink (ginger ale, after removing the bubbles) and some snacks as well as she didn't feel like eating anything when the meal service was happening. She also checked on her every now and again after that which I know my partner really appreciated, and myself likewise.

Other than that, there was one point where there seemed to be a rather long time before the trays were removed after one of the meal services, but it may have been due to some of the passengers at the end of the cabin taking a while to get their food.
One of the FA's was having a lot of trouble with setting the mood lighting in the cabin which I noticed as I was waiting for the bathroom, but managed to get everything going after consulting with a couple of the other FA's - It looked like it might have been one of the first times she had been on the new plane :)

AVOD
AVOD and IFE system was excellent, very fast, responsive, quite easy to use, I liked it as soon as I saw it on the open day tour. Being able to see when meal times and when the lights were scheduled to be dimmed really helped to plan when to do things on the flight.
A big surprise was seeing a rally game on the IFE system, a lot of the systems I've flown on previously have never looked like they've had enough power to run a live game - I can say that this one definitely is capable of such use, in fact maybe more than enough, playing the game was like doing it at double the speed which made for some entertaining driving!
Other than that, it was good to be able to watch a movie, then switch halfway through to see the flight schedule or flight path, before resuming the movie/TV show again. No more having to restart from the beginning and fast forward back to your position which is great!
Contrary to other reports, the flight path system wasn't incredibly slow I thought, it did take a couple of seconds to load, but once going was fine. It did show everything in US measure though, which wasn't too useful if you are unfamiliar.

Would you do it again?
We're taking the same route back in a couple of weeks so may quite possibly be doing it again - That is if our upgrades don't go through for PE/BP! All in all, the new AirNZ Economy class has both it's positives and its negatives. I would go to say that while AirNZ have taken some good steps forward in some directions, in others it is definitely a step backward.
All in all, the experience was a positive one and the AirNZ service is top notch.

Other thoughts?[/B]
I noticed that the FA now have trolleys that are a special size to fit down the aisles, despite this they still seem to be able to fit a reasonable amount of food/equipment on the trolleys so there didn't seem to be any excessive number of trips when serving food etc.
Surprisingly onboard the flight it was very warm! Usually I have to wear a jacket or use the blankets provided but on this flight I didn't have to bother, which was great.
Personally I think the best seats to have when trying with a friend/partner is at the end of the cabin where it is 2-4-2 configuration on the sides which make it more convenient when needing to move in and out into the aisles - Depending where you are the aisles are also a little bit wider there too, so trolleys might not hit into the seats as much. :) My 2 cents!

Anyway, hope that this review is of some use to anyone flying and let me know if you would like any pictures, we did take a few of our flight, including some of the dishes for any of you curious to see what cuisine may be on board for those in the cheap seats ;)

Jeremykjtan, thanks so much for a very thorough review. And welcome to Flyertalk!

Thanks for a great review Jeremykjtan - I may be in economy in August if my upgrades don't clear (currently 3 have but 1 sector has not)

FYI - Substantial changes to the Service Flow (i.e. what cart goes where in cabin, what cart contains, how service is offered) in economy WEF 01/07/11 on 773. I did the first one. The results are a smoother and quicker service. Not a game changer but an incremental improvement - the economy service is now "right" so that it doesn't feel like we're fighting the galley in order to give the service. Good News.

Dupe???

Very quickly....

Flew SYD-AKL-LAX and vv in BP in late June...

Still want to marry that memory foam mattress! :D

Initial service after takeoff on the long hauls however was very slow both ways.... Was gasping by the time drink orders were taken. Will have to lose my aversion to using the call button... what a shame.

Food was generally good... although some of the choices seem to be getting overly "fancy" IMO (Didn't fancy cod, lamb or duck.. so was left with the "Chefs selection" which was a bit strange for this simple lad!!)....

Breakfast coming home OTOH was the best BF I've had on a plane... period. Poached eggs/English muffin/Ham/Hollandaise sauce.... and very nicely done indeed...^

I thought some of the details and dimensions of the new PE layout might be helpful to y'all. I had posted this elsewhere, but here is probably a bit more relevant. Oh well, i'm new at this...

Thanks for the information. ^

So the effective pitch is going from ~39" to ~43"/44"/45" (~99cm to ~109cm/112cm/114cm).

I'm 183cm and was unable to stretch out without bending the knees - this should alleviate that.

I do hope this works - one of the biggest problems for those over 180cm is there is really only one "comfortable" position to place one's feet - up the tunnel (Not good for DVT); this does not really address that issue.

FWIW, I still see my beanbag heading up to the OHSB or under the centre seat armrests as there's not enough room for both my feet and beanbag in the tunnel.

So if travelling alone, which PE Spaceseat best?
 

Hi all,

reading through this, a question for those that have traveled in the new spaceseat. in late October I am travelling LAX-LHR in PE spaceseat. Currently, as I want to have easy aisle access and no-one climbing over me, have booked the middle aisle, but would I be better off in the window do you think? The website says the middle row is designed for people travelling together, so how intrusive is the other seat in the middle?

I have upgraded to BP on the AKL-LAX leg, so will be coming off a good sleep hopefully, so will be awake i am guessing for quite a bit of the flight.

Thanks

you are face away from the other seat at abour a 60° angle; put the armrest up and it's quite private.

Thanks Serfty, will stick to my seat.

Does anyone have any advice on the best BP seat? I have three long haul legs in BP on the 773, currently booked in window on row 2 on all the flights, but looking at the seat plan the second cabin, rows 9-12 is smaller so it more private?