Rebound

So excess baggage is going through the roof yet again too????

trooper

Yup... reckon that's it with NZ...

I travel for target shooting competitions... and as a Gold I can take 2 x 23kg bags to (say) LAX in Y.. right?

NOW however, even if my bags are under 23kg.. and one is a gun case...the gun case will cost me $200 extra..

Total B.S.:mad

Even madder now...

Go to the Seat Select FAQ's... The one about "Why have we introduced Seat Select..."

Bald faced LIE.... "No existing seating entitlements are being taken away"

REALLY? Then why can't I just pick an exit row for free now?

ANZ787900

Well the question I ask is how full are the flights usually - full enough to deny anyone a row of seats to themselves?

It shouldn't be that hard for Air NZ to do - I assume they would look like someone who paid for the whole skycouch anyway from having it printed on the boarding pass etc so I think they'll just fill the back (and middle block of the forward section) up completely before touching the skycouch rows.. Air NZ needs less than 200 people in Y (80%) to start denying users use of the whole skycouch because there'd be someone else on the block of 3. So you take 200 as a base, add maybe 5 people who get skycouches.. Which means you have a maximum possible allowance of 15, if it's done the way it 'should' - to allow for G/GE/KC to use the skycouch. Add one more passenger and that'll reduce to 14 and so on.. That's how I see it anyway.

trooper

Anyone know how to make the online question form WORK?

No matter what I do nothing I type in anywhere seems to register (When I hit "Continue" it tells me to put in First Name, Last Name etc)

baldingeagle

Been lurking for awhile, here's my thoughts on the new fees...

So what will be the long-term impact of these changes? Despite a bunch of FFers getting annoyed, will NZ realize increased profit? UA has endless little fees and charges, are they better off for it? Unfortunately, I think the answer is yes, but it will be interesting to see in this case.

However, NZ has (or had) a much better brand to protect than UA. Maybe some of their C/F long haul cabins are nice, but from my perspective as a mostly-Y traveler, they offer a poor product and seem to exist mostly on the benefits of their FF program. NZ has great staff service, a really good on-board product and a bunch of top-quality lounges around the world. It is different, I think, when a premium brand such as NZ descends into copying the business model of lower-quality competitors. Yes, it may work for UA and others, but is it right for NZ?

Organizations with respected brands have to tread very carefully. Netflix customers were stunned and angry with the changes last year, not just at the price increase, but the way it made their whole relationship "messy" with the company and burst a lot of users' bubbles with the firm.

If it makes them more profitable in the end, then I guess we can't really object, but I for one would like to see an organization succeed but standing their ground and not just going down the same path as everyone else. People will pay for a premium brand, but when you nickel-and-dime them, you make it very clear that you're (no longer) such a brand.

libertyuk

I can understand selling priority seating to non-G/GEs, but to block G and GEs from pre-selecting on purchase is rather outrageous. You would have thought at least a bit of intelligence would have left GEs alone, allow NZ Golds to pre-select a week out, and even give NZ Silvers 24 hours.

However I chose to take a look at the price schedule on the NZ based website:

http://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/seat-select

compared to the UK one:

http://www.airnewzealand.co.uk/seat-select

and see a peculiar set of inconsistencies. No charge for selecting standard seats on domestic flights if UK based.

However, the craziest one is that NZ thinks it can extort the same nominal amount in £ from UK based customers as it does in NZ$ from NZ ones. £75 or NZ$75 for an exit row? The same mind numbing stupidity as OneUp treating a £200 bid as very weak but a NZ$200 one as average on the bidding gauge.

Nevermind, as BA Silver I get pre-selection for free at the point of booking across OneWorld.

FlyingFilmGuy

Holy crap! Now that I DON'T like! But even worse, the "preferred seating" is only $30 NZ, vs. £50 UK! That's a 325% increase in cost, just cause you're UK based! That's outrageous!

craver

They won't allocate free skycouches to Koru members.

FlyingFilmGuy

Comparison of Seat Select pricing in different markets:

* Converted into $NZ at today's exchange rates
* List is separated as "NZ / AU / UK / EU / US / CA / JP / HK / CH"
* Cheapest rate in Underline. Priciest in Bold.

Domestic New Zealand:
Standard - $5.00 / NC / NC / NC / NC / NC / NC / NC / NC
Preferred - $10.00 / $6.36 / $19.49 / $23.51 / $12.24 / $12.28 / $4.51 / $4.74/ $4.90
Exit Row - $10.00 / $6.36 / $19.49 / $23.51 / $12.24 / $12.28 / $4.51 / $4.74 / $9.81

Tasman & Pacific:
Standard - $5.00 / $12.72 / NC / NC / NC / NC / NC / NC / NC
Preferred - $20.00 / $25.44 / $19.49 / $23.51 / $12.24 / $12.28 / $10.53 / $4.74 / $9.81
Exit Row - $20.00 / $25.44 / $19.49 / $23.51 / $12.24 / $12.28 / $10.53 / $9.47 / $19.61
Bassinet Row - $20.00 / $25.44 / $19.49 / $23.51 / $12.24 / $12.28 / $10.53 / $4.74 / $19.61

Long-haul International:
Standard - NC for all
Preferred - $30.00 / $38.16 / $97.45 / $94.03 / $61.17 / $61.38 / $30.08 / $31.57 / $39.23
Exit Row - $75.00 / $95.39 / $146.17 / $133.21 / $91.76 / $92.08 / $75.20 / $94.70 / $98.07
Bassinet Row - $25.00 / $31.80 / $48.72 / $47.02/ $30.59 / $30.69 / $22.56 / $31.57 / $29.41

FlyingFilmGuy

Some observations from the pricing table:

craver

Thanks for putting the table together kiwi_norway, and interesting observations! I wonder whether NZ put as much effort into implementation as you did into putting this together.

PacificTwo

Indeed, nice work on the table!

I'm guessing that to some extent prices are based on competitive analysis of similar offerings in the particular market (you'd hope so at least, otherwise I'm not sure what the marketing folks are actually doing!). For example, here are the rates on VS ex UK in economy (source):

Extra Legroom Seats
UK to Los Angeles/Las Vegas: GBP35/USD60

Exit Row Seats
UK to Las Vegas/Los Angeles GBP80/USD130

And I believe VS elites are not exempt at all from these fees, but if anyone has contrary experience/details please correct me.

So it's at least possible from a cursory comparison in one market with one airline that NZ have put some thought into their pricing.

FlyingFilmGuy

To be honest, the BIGGEST thing that surprises me about this announcement (more so than the move to charge for premium seating) is the blatant discrepancy in pricing for different markets.

I would maybe expect 10-20% fee difference based on floating exchange rates following an initial fee structure being set, but to have fees in one territory that are 5x that of another?!?!?!?!?! Come on!

(Of course, there's every chance I've got my math wrong, or the currency converter was lying to me.)

FlyingFilmGuy

But these VS prices are relatively similar in the different currencies (3% difference for Exit Row and 7% difference for Legroom). Also, a quick check of their foreign sites (I just checked China and South Africa) shows the same prices displayed, in the same currencies, (GBP and USD) for various markets.

I completely agree that NZ would have put some thought into their pricing. I just don't agree with the outcome of that thought process.

celle

They do not keep fares down! I can consistently get cheaper fares from EK, SQ, TG for my return flights AKL-LHR-AKL.

In addition, If I buy flights from the UK to NZ, they are cheaper than buying them from New Zealand. In other words, LHR-AKL-LHR costs less than AKL-LHR-AKL. For my next journey, I will be buying a one-way AKL-LHR (not with NZ) and then purchasing LHR-AKL-LHR when I get to the UK. I travel this route often enough to be sure of using the return ticket.

I am forced to fly NZ within New Zealand, because no other airline services my town, but I never get the super-cheap flights advertised for flights such as AKL-WLG.