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-   -   777-300 ER mini-reviews (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-new-zealand-air-points/1166416-777-300-er-mini-reviews.html)

Blackcloud Jan 16, 2011 2:17 pm


Originally Posted by DownUnderFlyer (Post 15667641)
I am surprised how excited people are about the 773. Aircraft wise a 777 is about the least comfortable plane IMHO. Loud, big, unpleasant. I can see the appeal for PE and maybe the skycouch but for Y or C I'd rather be on a 747.

Don't get me wrong, I like what NZ has done to PE and J on this bird, it really is just about the aircraft itself.

Just my $0.02.

+1^
I really hate the 777 for those reasons.
Plus if you are a single Economy flyer then the new seats would not be comfortable at all.:td:

birder Jan 16, 2011 2:18 pm


Originally Posted by Blackcloud (Post 15670331)
+1^
I really hate the 777 for those reasons.
Plus if you are a single Economy flyer then the new seats would not be comfortable at all.:td:

+2 :td:

everywhere Jan 16, 2011 11:43 pm


Originally Posted by Gotta Requalify (Post 15665983)
...Food What food? As stated by KiwiBigDave, they are trying the Transpacific offering on Trans Tasman. Apart from getting a pre-departure drink, I was served nothing else for over 2 hours in a 3:15 flight. No Water, no other drinks, no food. When my main course for the breakfast did turn up 50 minutes before arrival, the serving size was larger than previous, the plates are larger, but the food was cold. You can see what they are trying to do, but they need more practise.

I was travelling with my family – the two children had special meals. One was a childs meal and the other was gluten free – their pre-plated meals turned up 45 minutes before arrival. They had nothing delivered to them before that. The child's meel was the same as the one described by KiwiBigDave. The Gluten Free Meal was Scrambled Eggs, Sausages and Hash Browns - Good Size as well. I had the hot cakes but they were cold.

Drink With 30 minutes to go I got served my first drink since before takeoff. They also have new glassware and plates for everything. The sparkling wine glasses are different.

...

Overall I can see where they are heading. It is in the right direction. But didn’t like the practise they gave on me. Waiting for over two hours in business class for any sort of service item was a bit too long.

That is quite appalling service.

kiwibigdave Jan 17, 2011 3:29 am


Originally Posted by Gotta Requalify (Post 15665983)
Food What food? As stated by KiwiBigDave, they are trying the Transpacific offering on Trans Tasman. Apart from getting a pre-departure drink, I was served nothing else for over 2 hours in a 3:15 flight. No Water, no other drinks, no food. When my main course for the breakfast did turn up 50 minutes before arrival, the serving size was larger than previous, the plates are larger, but the food was cold. You can see what they are trying to do, but they need more practise.

I was travelling with my family – the two children had special meals. One was a childs meal and the other was gluten free – their pre-plated meals turned up 45 minutes before arrival. They had nothing delivered to them before that. The child's meel was the same as the one described by KiwiBigDave. The Gluten Free Meal was Scrambled Eggs, Sausages and Hash Browns - Good Size as well. I had the hot cakes but they were cold.

Drink With 30 minutes to go I got served my first drink since before takeoff. They also have new glassware and plates for everything. The sparkling wine glasses are different.

Overall I can see where they are heading. It is in the right direction. But didn’t like the practise they gave on me. Waiting for over two hours in business class for any sort of service item was a bit too long.

Picking up on this one after ntddevsys's comment, the service on the flight I was on was a bit better than described by Gotta Requalify, though I do recall thinking it was somewhat slow.

What strikes me now is both a comment elsewhere (from Freeth?) that they over-staffed the plane on the early journeys (my recollection was four crew in the Y+ zone), and an observation that this aircraft has almost the same number of seats in J and Y+; 44 vs 50. That's 94 'premium seats' on the 773, compared to 62 on the 772, and 85 on the 747.

So how that's going to pan out for future service levels will be very interesting methinks. i.e. If service was a little slow for me with around 1 crew to 10 pax in Y+, and slower for Gotta Requalify in J with presumably a similar ratio, how will fewer crew in future handle both cabins? Especially on a TT service.

Anyone know what the expected crew count is going to be 'up front' in the 773 when all is settled?

Gotta Requalify Jan 17, 2011 5:47 am

They told me that for proper long haul flights, there will be a separate crew just for Y+, no longer will J crew also have to worry about the 50 Y+ passengers.

Not sure what galley they will cater from. Hopefully it won't be the J Galley as otherwise the back business cabin will see lots of meals coming pass going from the middle galley to the Y+ cabin.

cavemanzk Jan 17, 2011 8:45 pm


Originally Posted by Gotta Requalify (Post 15673850)
They told me that for proper long haul flights, there will be a separate crew just for Y+, no longer will J crew also have to worry about the 50 Y+ passengers.

Not sure what galley they will cater from. Hopefully it won't be the J Galley as otherwise the back business cabin will see lots of meals coming pass going from the middle galley to the Y+ cabin.

From the seat maps it looks like there is a Galley between 3R/L can anyone comfirm?

kiwibigdave Jan 17, 2011 9:03 pm


Originally Posted by cavemanzk (Post 15679188)
From the seat maps it looks like there is a Galley between 3R/L can anyone comfirm?

Correct, there's a galley between the Y+ and Y cabins.

Apparently siting it there posed some design challenges with respect to it being over mid-wing, a location you don't usually find a galley. (Something to do with wiring vs fuel transfer lines beneath?) But NZ wanted it available to serve Y+, and so that's what they got.

deconz Jan 22, 2011 11:13 pm

Route: BNE/AKL 23/01/11
Day/Night flight: Day NZ 136
Cabin / Seat No: 5A (window)
Seat comfort (width ok?): Better than the 772 and 744
Legroom: Great - no bottom lip underneath the ottoman
Ease of getting in and out: Never a problem in BP
Food: Treated to a long haul meal service
Drink: Flowing well
FA attentiveness: Excellent - very lightly loaded in BP today
AVOD: Great wide screen - touch sense a bit slow
Would you do it again?: In a heart beat - wished I was going onto LAX tonight
Other thoughts?: Antipasto selection offered with pre-departure drinks. Awesome to be offered soup on NZ in J cabin. Food could have been a touch warmer but certainly was very tasty indeed. Steak ordered medium-rare and came more like medium. Fantastic LARGE wine glasses ^^^

Seat just a little softer - didn't bother trying out the bed on this very quick 2:35 TT crossing.

rowingman Jan 24, 2011 12:19 pm

777-300 ER prem econ seat review
 
Route akl to lax

Day/Night flight nz 6, dept 7pm, arr 10am +/-

Cabin / Seat No. (aisle / window / middle) Prem Econ, middle (K?)

Seat comfort (width ok?):[I] I fly a lot, and felt compelled to submit my first posting ever. Seats are a bit odd. At 6'1", I found the "every seat a bulkhead" comment rang true. The leg well is small in width, and the seat is intentionally angled from the fuselage, which leaves me a bit twisted. I found the leg well smaller than merely sliding down and extending my legs under a seat in front of me (economy or many domestic biz or first seats), so less leg freedom. I am not large, but the width is an issue as my elbow kept shutting off the AVOD, or turning on or off the reading lamp.[/I]

Legroom:
choices were legs together in the well on the bean bag, or lowering the between seat armrest and sitting with legs spread.

Ease of getting in and out: just fine, but again, this is an odd airline seat. The ANZ website/advertising shows some lithe female draping her shapely legs across her seatmate. I found myself during my 10 hr stay thinking that she must have contortionist among her virtues given that I couldn't figure out how anyone could accomplish that in any comfortable way. I did not dread this seat, but it is decidedly economy with some pluses, and maybe a bit of minus. If you can snag exit row in economy, I might work to save the money. Food: lots of plates, silverware, table setting and clearning. I liked the rubber placemats (things don't slide). Table is small (back to seat comments above, similar to prior post about the table placement), and kind of limited in its range of motion.

Drink:
ANZ international service, cocktails mixed on the cart from regular sized bottles, NZ vodka and wines, nice glassware (bubbly glasses particularly nice). Better than 90% of other carriers.

FA attentiveness:Good, but obviously they are figuring out the airplane. Some were carrying instructions on how to operate the ovens. We did have 10 hrs to get to know each other. They seemed so busy that I did not want to burden them by using the AVOD system to order a coffee. I waited them out. ANZ french press coffee is always most appreciated and better than other carriers (Qantas does well on that front as well).

AVOD:The screen is quite large for the distance from your face to the screen given seat pitch. On its swivel arm (which was a bit loose so it tended to move toward me on ascent or turbulence) it is almost too close to look at comfortably (try sitting too close to your television for the effect), so I kept it stowed and swiveled my neck instead. Airshow or whatever it is called does take some time to boot. My traveling compadre had his screen "reboot" twice from a frozen state (even got what looked like a C prompt for those of us from a certain age). Movie selection was great. Overall an 8 or 9 out of 10, although my screen did not reboot. The jack location for the headset did create some problem. My elbow kept hitting it, and that resulted in a huge screech from the noice cancellation (back to the seat review above, re seat width).

Would you do it again?: I might fly economy if I could book exit row (take your bag out of the overhead after takeoff and use it for a stretch your legs leg rest. Frankly most of my travel is in J, and this was an experiment trying to save $$ over Qantas J. ANZ has generally great service, great flight attendants, and clean airplanes. I felt compelled to write the review (and join flyertalk after reading it for some time) given that the Prem Econ seat seems a bit odd, somehow tight (86 kg, 185cm person). But I hesitate because I greatly appreciate ANZ's effort and innovativeness in this attempt.

mad_atta Jan 24, 2011 5:42 pm


Originally Posted by rowingman (Post 15724491)
Route akl to lax

Day/Night flight nz 6, dept 7pm, arr 10am +/-

Cabin / Seat No. (aisle / window / middle) Prem Econ, middle (K?)

Seat comfort (width ok?):[I] I fly a lot, and felt compelled to submit my first posting ever. Seats are a bit odd. At 6'1", I found the "every seat a bulkhead" comment rang true. The leg well is small in width, and the seat is intentionally angled from the fuselage, which leaves me a bit twisted. I found the leg well smaller than merely sliding down and extending my legs under a seat in front of me (economy or many domestic biz or first seats), so less leg freedom. I am not large, but the width is an issue as my elbow kept shutting off the AVOD, or turning on or off the reading lamp.[/I]

Legroom:
choices were legs together in the well on the bean bag, or lowering the between seat armrest and sitting with legs spread.

Ease of getting in and out: just fine, but again, this is an odd airline seat. The ANZ website/advertising shows some lithe female draping her shapely legs across her seatmate. I found myself during my 10 hr stay thinking that she must have contortionist among her virtues given that I couldn't figure out how anyone could accomplish that in any comfortable way. I did not dread this seat, but it is decidedly economy with some pluses, and maybe a bit of minus. If you can snag exit row in economy, I might work to save the money. Food: lots of plates, silverware, table setting and clearning. I liked the rubber placemats (things don't slide). Table is small (back to seat comments above, similar to prior post about the table placement), and kind of limited in its range of motion.

Drink:
ANZ international service, cocktails mixed on the cart from regular sized bottles, NZ vodka and wines, nice glassware (bubbly glasses particularly nice). Better than 90% of other carriers.

FA attentiveness:Good, but obviously they are figuring out the airplane. Some were carrying instructions on how to operate the ovens. We did have 10 hrs to get to know each other. They seemed so busy that I did not want to burden them by using the AVOD system to order a coffee. I waited them out. ANZ french press coffee is always most appreciated and better than other carriers (Qantas does well on that front as well).

AVOD:The screen is quite large for the distance from your face to the screen given seat pitch. On its swivel arm (which was a bit loose so it tended to move toward me on ascent or turbulence) it is almost too close to look at comfortably (try sitting too close to your television for the effect), so I kept it stowed and swiveled my neck instead. Airshow or whatever it is called does take some time to boot. My traveling compadre had his screen "reboot" twice from a frozen state (even got what looked like a C prompt for those of us from a certain age). Movie selection was great. Overall an 8 or 9 out of 10, although my screen did not reboot. The jack location for the headset did create some problem. My elbow kept hitting it, and that resulted in a huge screech from the noice cancellation (back to the seat review above, re seat width).

Would you do it again?: I might fly economy if I could book exit row (take your bag out of the overhead after takeoff and use it for a stretch your legs leg rest. Frankly most of my travel is in J, and this was an experiment trying to save $$ over Qantas J. ANZ has generally great service, great flight attendants, and clean airplanes. I felt compelled to write the review (and join flyertalk after reading it for some time) given that the Prem Econ seat seems a bit odd, somehow tight (86 kg, 185cm person). But I hesitate because I greatly appreciate ANZ's effort and innovativeness in this attempt.

Thanks for the great and comprehensive report, rowingman, and welcome to FT :)

How did you find it for sleeping? Any comments on the recline or sleeping comfort otherwise? And did you find that the beanbag usefully raised your feet a bit? Also, I'd be curious to know whether you ever tried the previous generation NZ Y+ seat as that would provide a useful reference point.

rowingman Jan 25, 2011 3:30 pm

You are more than welcome mad_atta. I found sleeping a bit contorted (the every seat is a bulkhead comment someone else made rings true to my experience). I commuted DC to Europe weekly for three years, and now go US transcon every other week, and consequently have a lot of airplane sleeping experience under my belt, and this wasn't the best. I can and have slept standing up (don't ask), but the Prem Econ seat is a tight fit without a lot of flexibility.

With even a standard coach seat, with long legs if you "slouch" and can generally get your legs and feet completely stretched out under the seat in front of you. With the NZ Prem Econ seat, your leg room is more restricted (width and depth), hence my comment about either jamming my legs together in the well on the bean bag (where I found a knee knocker bump of plastic which created issues), or sitting with legs spread, knees bent (sorry for the image) with the between seat armrest down. The bean bag was good for elevating your feet off the floor, and perhaps a quick hamstring stretch, but reading about the seat prior to travel, I was hoping it would be sufficient for back of calf leg rest support, which it was not, probably due to size of bean bag and depth of the foot well. The depth of the footwell prevented me front simultaneously extending my legs and elevating them off the floor.

To directly answer your question, I have flown J on ANZ previously in the old seat, and Prem Econ on VS more frequently than I care to admit, and push come to shove, I would probably take the oldest VS Prem Econ seat over the new ANZ seat. I like ANZ, the safety videos, the flight attendents (not to be sexist, but the NZ domestic ANZ flight attendents are among the most attractive women I have seen flying, comparable to Emirates crew), the kiwi ethos etc, but I think the new seat may be a case of less might actually have been more. There is a lot going on with this seat. But they should be applauded for the effort.

RandyNZ Jan 27, 2011 10:12 pm

Welcome to FT, rowingman, and thanks for the trip report!

Did you notice whether people in the A/B and J/K seats had to climb over each other to access the aisle? Did those seats on the sides seem to give a sense of privacy for pax?

I liked your comment about the lady being a contortionist - I must admit that it crossed my mind that my neighbour may not like me doing that! :p

kiwigirl2 Jan 29, 2011 10:57 am

Route: Lax to Auckland

Day/Night flight: Night. NZ 5 departed 10pm.

Cabin/Seat no: 25 E&D adults in 'couples seating' and kids in 24 A&B in individual seats on left hand side. Weird seat numbering. Reccomend family traveling together to check seat map to ensure they are seated together. We were originally all in row 24, but this would have left the kids seated opposite strangers not us.

My hubby and I really enjoyed our seats. By leaving the padded table between us down, we gained extra room between us. Made things feel very spacious. Of course this feature wasnt available for our girls seated in A&B.

Downside. The tilt mechanism is a complete pain!!! Everyone we talked to had problems. The kids simply couldnt put their seat back without help and it took me 5 attempts to sort mine out. Then after all the fiddling around, it was kind of like "is that it???" Not as much recline as I had anticipated or wished for.
Also the pocket in front is tight and tiny. Thinking of bringing that thick paperback book to read on a long haul flight and storing it there....I think not.

Legroom: We arent 6 foot tall so had plenty of room. Just took a bit to get used to being slightly angled to the side. For couples in the middle this means you are angled away from each other. If you want to turn and talk to each other you should put the padded table up between you and swivel your legs under it, coz theres simply no room otherwise. ie Gone are the days of putting your feet under the seat in front.
We thought the beanbag foot rest was a nice touch.

FA Attentiveness: Brilliant. Couldn't have been better. Went around each passenger as plane filled and answered questions and explained different features. Were very apologetic when meals etc were late. Explained they were still getting used to the new systems. Quite understandable I thought.

AVOD: Looks amazing. I think it will be a huge improvement on the old system. Unfortunately we didn't get the full effect as it wasn't working properly. The Games feature didn't work at all, much to my kids despair and neither did the Airshow or the newest feature My Flight. Very disappointing. Especially on such a long flight. We also didn't know how to turn the jolly thing off, as it was a touch screen we assumed you would turn it off on the screen somewhere, but couldnt see how. After trying to sleep with it shining in my face for several hours, I finally asked a FA who didn't know himself. Discovered the off button was located in the control panel beside my shoulder, that was forgotten under my pillow. Probably quite logical really, but considering we had been travelling for days at this stage, our brains had become mush I think.

Meals: Very late arriving. Both kids had well and truly fallen asleep. Huge delays between starter and hot meals. At least an hour if not more. Ran out of cutlery at one stage. Believe they went to Economy searching for more.
At breakfast my hubby had his rubber placemat, and cutlery removed after the fruit and yoghurt was finished with. We were surprised at this and thought the meal was small if this was all there was. Another FA came along 10 mins later and asked why no one wanted more as there was still a hot meal for breakfast to come. Was put into a bit of a 'flap' when realised someone had mistakenly taken everything away from quite a few passengers. This of course coursed another delay and everything was replaced.

Drinks: Were only offered 2 during the flight (with meals). As my AVOD wasn't working couldn't order more on demand.

Bassinetts: A close friend was travelling with her 3 month old child in PE. She was exhausted as had been travelling for many hours before this flight. FA unable to locate a basinett for her.
Bit of an oversight. Spend first 2 hrs trying to settle her son on a pillow beside her, but was really concerned that it wasnt safe. Eventually took her through to Business and settled them on a flat bed together.

Final thoughts: Would we do it again? Yes. Sure they have some problems to tweek and iron out, but give them a couple of weeks, and things will be perfect I'm sure. Much superior product to the old PE seats. Have to remember this is an economy product, not business.

Thai-Kiwi Jan 29, 2011 11:50 am

Excellent report! I do presume that there is a crew 'call button' to get attention for assistance? Noting your comment below....

Originally Posted by kiwigirl2 (Post 15760773)
Drinks: ...As my AVOD wasn't working couldn't order more on demand.

Cheers, TK

kiwibigdave Jan 29, 2011 3:34 pm


Originally Posted by Thai-Kiwi (Post 15761094)
I do presume that there is a crew 'call button' to get attention for assistance?

It's on the remote, in the side of the armrest.


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