libertyuk

I've been thoroughly impressed by Air NZ refusing to let my partner surrender her pre "Seat Select" exit row seat for the row behind (she doesn't want the exit row now that we are not travelling together), without her having to pay more for the privilege. Despite NZ being able to sell the empty exit row seat for more than the seat behind, the attitude is that this would be an unwarranted "privilege" and she's lucky she is still allowed to sit in the exit row (lowly NZ Silver that she is, worthless compared to the casual tourist willing to cough up £50).

NZ*Trout

Currently oneup bids are not evaluated or accepted automatically. It is possible, but AirNZ are manually assessing bids at this point - hence the seven day bid cutoff date. So it is plausible that seat select fees are accounted for - much as class of service, frequency and success ratio of upgrades, itinerary, and other variable may well be. The process is opaque by design.

The process may be automated in the future, though. The driver being to reduce the lead time required to place bids, and presumably to lower OneUp labour costs also. The NZ folk I talked to say that Plusgrade does indeed have the ability to take many of the above factors into account - for instance after say two unsuccessful bids, auto accepting a third.

gdbsti

WADR, None of us (nor their reps apparently) know how AirNZ divide/process/award upgrades anymore. My point of annoyance like many here is the constant changes and nickel & dime approach adopted by the airline. Even UA will apply E+ purchased seats to F purchased upgrades.

NZ*Trout

Sure, I was only passing on information from the top that I have received. I don't like what the airline is doing so I don't give them my business.

Trumpkin

Yet more problems with seat selection. For a flight later this week I'm apparently not allowed to select space+ despite GE status and my Airpoints number being associated with the booking. For another booking one flight isn't apparently available for seat selection via the web site and for the last I don't even get a seat selection button.

All sorted out via a call to the call centre, but 6 out of 6 flights since the change haven't worked smoothly.

robbau

Within 48 hours:

Was just able to reserve 1D on a Q300 (can't remember if this was usual) and 1A/1C (WD Seat on A320 TT).

I have never had them give access to the WD rows in an A320 - they have always sat empty if no WD passengers (IME).

Then again I am Silver/Koru so G and GE may have had more luck.

Anyway, this was a pleasant surprise.

FullyIntoNewZealand

Thanks for sharing, this gives me hope....

stephen2d

I think it might be time for a flash mob action, flash mob that acts by not showing up? We should mount an online campaign and pick a date where as many as possible of us (here in NZ) don't fly. Reschedule your meetings, we'll plan and do it in advance, if we get thousand people that would be awesome (or not). Am I an idealist in my not so fresh age?

robbau

TBH this has not affected me too much. For myself, I only fly enough to make Silver (although might get to Gold next year) and I have purchased Koru to get me some of the higher tier benefits.

One of the main reasons for purchasing Koru was for premium seat select and I was miffed when this new scheme came out. So far, though, the only loss for me is not being able to select 19A or 19K TT on the 767 upon ticket purchase but I will dabble with other options in the rows 7 to 17 cabin.

I don't get the "priority boarding" benefit for premium seats on regionals. Boarding the props has always been a free for all up until now. Are they going to start boarding by rows now? Good luck with that.

everywhere

A very persistent John Walton from Australian Business Traveller has managed to get information out of Air New Zealand in order to produce this very useful article: Air NZ's new Seat Select extra-legroom system explained.

nzlilibet

Excellent article - thanks for providing the link.

If only some of the NZ business/travel/aviation writers were capable of doing such detailed research.

Gasfoodlodging

Let me guess...you came across this tosh today??

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/n...ectid=10850401

I read it in the print edition this afternoon...and I am tempted to write an email to the author. He has completely left out any comment on the recent changes at AIRNZ...a complete shocker. I would suggest that he has a very comfortable ride from the PR dept at AIRNZ and was afraid to get their backs up.

He could have easily commented on the direction that AIRNZ are now taking...and in fact leaving it out is very sloppy and unbalanced writing,

nzlilibet

Yes, I certainly did and was flabbergasted. As you say, very sloppy and the work of a bad reporter imo. Tabloid journalism?

Felt so angry have sent an email to the Herald guy saying his article was lacking. Sent him a link to the Australian article!

Blackcloud

What you never met ThatJohn

AlastairR

Hi All,

First I would like to introduce myself, my name is Alastair Rhodes and I look after Direct Ancillary Revenue for Air NZ. As part of my role I have managed the implementation of the paid seat select and prepaid baggage products which has generated a large amount of feedback in this forum !

As it seems there are a number of common themes arising I thought that I would jump online and endeavour to clarify some of your questions/concerns primarily around seating:

Free Seat Select
• 75% of Air NZ customers currently get free advanced seat select and these customers will continue to get free seat select in the future.
• The only customers that previously did not get seat select were non HVCs travelling on Tasman/PI and domestic seat only or seat and bag fares. These customers can now purchase seat select in advance for a small fee ($5 domestically and $10 on the Tasman).

How it relates to Frequent Flyers
• Our aircraft continue to have premium seating zones exclusively reserved at no charge for Gold Elite, Gold and Koru members which cannot be purchased by other customers.
• There have been no changes or adjustments to the trans-Tasman A320 HVC seating zone which flies the majority of Air NZ’s Tasman capacity, with 30 seats at between 33-35” pitch dedicated for sole HVC use.
• 43% of seats (57 in total) on the domestic 737 fleet continue to be reserved for our HVC flyers. Six seats in rows 3 and 4 are available for purchase but only on non peak hour flights which means they are available to HVCs during peak times. Similarly, a total of 57 seats on the domestic A320 continue to be reserved for HVCs, with four seats (in rows 4and 5) being available for purchase during non peak hour flights only.
• The main change is that we are now selling the Exit rows. These Exit rows were generally not part of Space+ allocation as most were previously blocked out for Airport use only and were not available for advanced seat selection. Further, the front rows of the A320 and 733 aircraft are not defined as an Exit row for the purposes of paid seat select.
• An improvement in the online booking process means that you can now see which seats are available at the time of booking rather than solely post booking, meaning you can tailor your schedule if the seat that you want is unavailable. In addition to this, if any Exit row seats or Preferred seats remain unsold they will become available free of charge to our HVC members 48 hours prior to travel.
• We have slightly reduced the number of premium economy seats available for our HVC’s on our wide-body Tasman services (which account for less than a third of all Tasman flying). As we don’t sell Premium Economy on the Tasman (excluding Perth) we have made a small number of these seats now available for paid seat select. However, to offset this we have increased the number of economy seats we reserve for HVC’s on these wide body Shorthaul aircraft by 20%, meaning that if you do book late you should still have seats available to choose from which are located at the front of the economy cabin.

The below table outlines the % of seats that are reserved exclusively for HVCs which we are confident is superior to what most other airlines reserve, especially on our key Domestic Jet and Tasman routes.


Aircraft % of Seats
Beechcraft 1900D 21%
Bombardier Q300 32%
Aerospatiale ATR72 32%
Boeing 737-300 43%
Airbus A320 (171D) 33%
Airbus A320 (168I) 18%
Boeing 767-300 (Short-haul) 14%
Boeing 777-200 (Short-haul 13%
Boeing 777-300 (Short-haul) 10%
Boeing 747-400 (Short-haul) 11%
Boeing 767-300 (Long-haul) 21%
Boeing 777-200 (Long-haul) 13%
Boeing 777-300 (Long-haul) 8%
Boeing 747-400 (Long-haul) 9%



Thanks Alastair