Aerosett

Agree, it's a pity the induction oven concept has ended.

A lot of the interesting catering ideas have been dropped, it's a fairly conventional service now in all the cabins.

Aerosett

Out of interest, what do you mean by the wine selection was small?

The usual selection on NZ is 3 white, 2 red, a dessert wine and a Champagne.

aaronhowe78

I only saw one white, one red and one dessert - as usual a whopping great booklet full of wine options though! Maybe they were only sending them out one bottle at a time

Aerosett

My guess is that insufficient wine was loaded or the usual mix was not loaded.

Dogs_Ears_Up

A couple of points that might help - at least I hope that they do.

Cabin Temperature
On the 777 (-200 & -300) & 747 the temperature control panel is at least in the cabin: Many smaller, older aircraft have it in the Flight Deck, so some progress has been made. Flight Attendants set the temperature, but there is often a slight discrepancy between the requested and actual cabin temperature. This is further complicated because the aircraft slowly amends the cabin temperature on its' own as the flight progresses and humidity changes over time.

Generally, it is very difficult for FA's to determine the 'perceived' cabin temperature for customers: We are standing up and moving around so our perception will be very different. The most effective thermostat is... You, the customer. If you are uncomfortable, you should tell us as soon as possible and we'll happily do our best to get it right - then tell us again. Please remember that temperature adjustments are not instantaneous: There is a 10 - 15 minute lag between the adjustment and the end result. This makes adjustments tricky, and by necessity, incremental.

Wine
We wouldn't (in the normal course of events) leave wine out for customers to help themselves: It would make it difficult for us to monitor consumption levels. A small number of idiots spoil it for everybody, as usual. That said, wine is always available on request, and we would be happy to line up our on the day selection for you to sample - preferably not in the middle of the meal service since you may ask!

Aden

I flew LHR -> LAX -> AKL on the 773 earlier this week, first half in J and last half in Y+.

I didn't notice a great deal of difference in the J product to the other airlines I've flown. I didn't like the fact you have to get up and pull down the back of the seat to get the bed out - I much prefer Air Canada's style of lie flat where the seat has a full range of motion from sitting up to flat - but then I like to really slouch in my seat.

The food was great. Service was friendly but not attentive. At one point I ended up with 3 glasses balanced precariously on my little fold out table because the staff didn't seem fussed about clearing dishes. In the end I took them up to the galley myself. I think this perhaps is a symptom of treating the flight as a night flight - it doesn't quite mesh with the 3.30pm departure time.

I found the new PE space seat (with the extra leg room) excellent.

The only gotcha is you need to be able to sleep sitting up: there is very little recline. As I tend do this every other week on trains it wasn't a problem for me.

The shell seat + the big pillow they give you mean you can scrunch it up on the side of the shell and have something to rest your head against and there's piles of leg room so you can stretch right out.

I found the bean bag for your feet too small and I didn't like the sensation of having something unstable under my heels. I ended up giving it to my neighbour who stacked it with her's and managed to get at least marginal elevation that way.

I really liked the angle of the outer seats. Initially it felt a bit weird but once used to it the angle towards the window is great, you can look right out it without having to turn your head.

I was able to climb over my neighbour while she slept, but only if she didn't have her table / tv out.

Food was good, certainly a step below the meal in J, but fit for purpose.

Service was excellent & friendly.

On both legs of the trip the in flight entertainment system ordering for snacks was disabled for the whole flight, have they completely given up on this?

All in all a decent trip spoilt only by the fact that upon arriving in Auckland Air New Zealand had half their flights cancelled due to technical problems (including mine) and then promptly misplaced my luggage.

mad_atta

Thanks for the review.

Limited recline aside, how did you find the new BP seat compared to AC's pods? I've flown many miles in AC's pods and, while I like them (and their ability to recline continuously into a bed) I've always found them significantly less comfortable to sleep in - they seemed narrower, harder, and lumpier than NZ's BP beds. For me, the inconvenience of getting up to make the bed is worth the payoff of a better sleeping surface - plus the extra width is nice.

My point of comparison is NZ's older BP seats, and by the sound of it the main improvement of the new one is the better, softer sleeping surface. I'd be curious to hear how you found that by comparison?

aaronhowe78

Thank you, that does help. The cabin temp on the first leg was definitely way higher than the way back - I did think about asking it to be lowered but I didn't want to be "that passenger" (the same reason I don't use the call button to ask for drinks, that's just my way). The duvet is deceptively hot though, and I felt I had to keep it on while in bed - I used Lucky's tip to wear basketball shorts on the sleeping part of the flight, but couldn't help worrying they looked like long johns, so I stayed covered up!

Dogs_Ears_Up

Please... - you shouldn't worry about being 'That Passenger' - ever! You've paid and that gives you the right to be there and to ask for reasonable stuff in a reasonable manner. The people who are 'That Passenger' are those who ask with attitude and they are (mercifully) few and far between. The relationship we aim for should be one of a guest visiting somebody else's house - a guest. If you get attitude back from somebody when you have politely made a reasonable request, then the issue is with that crew member and needs to be addressed.

The call button is there to be used, but as in all things, with a degree of sensible moderation: I would personally roast any crew member that I was made aware of who gave a premium class customer a hard time over using it for a drink!

Aden

The Air New Zealand pods feel bigger and the mattress they put down does give a uniformly soft surface to sleep on. I found the duvet a bit hot and didn't use it.

You can also have someone come sit on the foot rest at the end of the seat if you want to eat together etc. I recall the Air Canada pods having a sign there stating you shouldn't sit on them.

Otherwise very same same.

aaronhowe78

Forgot to mention this before, but in case anyone was wondering you can't play video from the USB port if you have a memory stick. The system reads the stick but won't bring up the player for anything other than music, image and PDF (?!) files.

Reason077

There is a small table there but it doesn't seem to be used for much. They might put some fruit and snacks on it towards the end of the flight, when the bar area is being used by the crew. For most of the flight the self-service snack bar and wines are set up in the galley/bar area between the two BP cabins.

Yes, 2L is used at LAX and AKL, so 7A/B is prime territory if you want to be first off the plane there. At LHR, there is premium boarding via 1L.

Yes, I'd agree 7A/K are pretty good - tucked away and private. But note that these seats are missing a window (ie: one window rather than two) so not the best choice if you like a view.

Congregation should not be a problem. Row 7 is well forward of the toilets, and if anyone is queuing they tend to hang out in the 2L door/galley area where there is more space. There are curtains separating both BP cabins from this area.

Aerosett

A positive review of PE here on LAX-LHR.

aaronhowe78

Worthy of note too, that my points from this flight were posted to my Aegean account within 48 hours, and I'm now the proud (?) owner of a *AG account for what it's worth.

mad_atta

My impressions of the new BP on the 773, flying LAX-AKL on Dec23 (NZ5):

The first impression of the cabin, entering at night, is a definite wow. The purple lighting and mostly white colour scheme, with inky black contrasts, looks infinitely more contemporary than the old one. Having just climbed off one of CO's newly refitted 752s with their new BusinessFirst flatbeds, the contrast in design, ambience, colors and materials was like night and day - CO's cabin was comfortable but every design choice they made was dowdy, cheap or low quality, whereas NZ's cabin looked premium and stylish.

Service flows were not slow at all, but the load was so incredibly light (only about 30%) that the staff's workload was hardly typical. The overall look of everything, from cabin to menu to crockery etc was much more coordinated looking. The new plates were a huge improvement - much larger, so the main courses didn't look like they would overflow them. The food itself seemed to have a much fresher edge in taste and presentation - it seemed much more like good food you'd eat on the ground, not airline food. I would have said this was due to convection ovens, but I gather they were removed, so NZ must be doing something else differently.

IFE was noticeably improved, both in terms of screen size/quality and the quality and design of the interface (far faster to browse through all the movies, as you can see about 5 onscreen at a time rather than one; and the system is extremely responsive to fast forward and rewind).

Finally, the bed. I'm not sure how much is due to the new mattress and how much is the seat design, but wow the comfort levels have improved significantly. I had, by some considerable margin, the most comfortable night's sleep ever on an aircraft. Noticeably improved from the old one, and in a different league to Air Canada's pods.

It was interesting to sit in the older style BP seats on the 772 AKL-SYD. They seemed lower and smaller (definitely seemed a smaller gap between the seat and the ottoman) and the inferior screen and IFE interface were definitely noticeable.

Overall, I was extremely impressed by NZ's new BP product. It's the best business class product I've flown. I'll be curious to see how LX's new staggered biz seats compare when I fly them in a few months time...