New 773 refit seems dissapointing
 

After taking a bunch of BP flights on the 777-300 over the last few months (and a couple of UA Global First flights mixed in), I really think it's time they give the product a bit of a refresh -- particularly with things like United Polaris coming out they're really starting to fall behind the competition.

Reading this, I was a bit like "woah" -- not just chilled almonds with the drink!
http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.c...ss-777-review/

A little disappointing they haven't taken the opportunity to do a bit of a bigger refresh of the product when they refit the 773s this year but rather just reinstalling those same seats with new IFE.

I was on a refit -300 in BP a few weeks back and it seemed like they'd missed the final day of refit work where they were supposed to go through and tighten everything up...it was a total rattle trap. .... literally falling off left right and center.

I've not been in a lot of other J hard products and find it perfectly adequate, but I understand they've gotta keep up with the Joneses.

I did a J leg on SK's refit A340 last month and loved both the hard and soft products.

Agreed that its time the J seat gets an upgrade from the MK2 model, although VS tried an new MK3 design on the A332 yet switched to back to the orginal on the 789.

The Virgin seats are as cheap as chips to buy vs something newer and better like a B/E Super Diamond.

It is now getting close to a 18ish yr old design and is slightly disappointing compared to newer products but it does still deliver an outstanding sleep experience which is clearly the main consideration for NZ.

I'm sure NZ must have considered other seats because 1-1-1 vs 1-2-1 on most 789's is a significant loss of BP seating.

Don't forget that Virgin J is a LOT cheaper, usually around $2700 one way SYD - LAX compared to $4500 for ALK - LAX. That kind of saving makes the extra flight to SYD worth it.

When your traveling for Business, and time = money then going via Australia isn't always the best, basically you lose an whole day with travel.

NZ on AKL-LAX means you can get an full day in the Auckland office, then arrive in LA the next day ready for an Lunch meeting.

The times work quite well, finish work get to spend the night in my bed. 7am flight to SYD followed by a 11am to LAX and I arrive at 6am ready for breakfast with a saving of $3.5k

Hard to justify the costs to work when the savings are that high, I get the option of flying J with Virgin or PE for the same cost with AirNZ.

Not always. In my experience, I find AKL-U.S. cheaper than SYD-U.S. I also notice the cheapest SYD-U.S. options connect in AKL.

Flew NZ1 on OKP. PE Spaceseat still on LHR LAX leg which I was pleased about, I will miss the Spaceseats. However was looking forward to trying the new PE product - next time.
Even more pleased with RU to BP clearing at gate for the home leg.
Tempted to try the VA product by the linked story, and is an option for me.

Im not a regular ANZ customer but have 4 777/300 flights in J coming up. How do you tell if you are on a refurb bird?

LOok at teh seat map for the PE section.

BP there is no difference

As nzkarit mentioned, the difference is in the PE section (old plane has 44 seats in 2-2-2, new plane has 54 seats in 2-4-2). Also, the new planes are coded as 77W instead of 773 in a GDS.

I completely agree that the hard product is lagging (though I do acknowledge that as a bed it's the most comfortable business class product I've ever tried), but I get the feeling that it's going to be a loooooooong time before we see something new. The fact that NZ's chosen to refit all its 'premium' aircraft (ie the 773) with the same product seems to indicate we'll be stuck with it for quite a while yet.

So you'd think that they could perhaps spend some of their savings on better soft product... eg investing into bringing the quality of wine and food back up. Would be nice.

Suspect maybe might see something new when they pick the 772 replacement?

Last week they seemed to be throwing everything in the mix 787-10, A350-1000 and 777-8X. Though kinda doubt the 787-10 is an actual contender as its range is too small. Unless split the 772 replacement it with the 777-8x and 787-10. Use the 787-10 for the mid haul into South Asia, Aussie and Pacific. Then have the 777-8x when need the legs East coast US, South America, UK (only say as QANTAS is looking at SYD-LHR with the A350-900ULR and 777-8X)

AKL-LAX is a *lot* further than SYD to LHR. Reastically it's inevitable that it will be possible within 10 years or so once we see the next generation of aircraft. The simple reality is however that such long flights don't stack up.

I don't see PER-LHR being a roaring success and if and when SYD-LHR becomes possible the whole investment in PER would be redundant which won't make the locals happy. The question has been raised by some questioning whether the current pricing from PER to LHR is actually that profitable.

When you start getting to a 20hr flight you've got low pax numbers, high fuel costs and the real world reality that you're burning lots of fuel for the first few hours just to push a very heavy plane along.