Economy SkyCouch -- extra fee or included with the seats I selected?
 

Through United.com I purchased four "L" class seats on NZ 7 and NZ 8 (SFO-AKL and AKL-SFO, respectively, marketed as UA codeshares). According to Seatguru, the three window side seats (ABC and HJK) of rows 37-45 are Economy SkyCouch. Using NZ's website to manage my booking, I was able to select three seats together in a supposed SkyCouch row. I'm assuming this is because I'm Star Gold (1K on UA).

Do I now "have" SkyCouch; is it just a matter of lifting the footrest for each of the seats to form the couch? Or do I have to pay extra for SkyCouch? The NZ website makes no mention or offer of SkyCouch in the "manage my booking" section.

YOu can lift the leg rest if you stay in those seats.

Unless you actually book and pay for sky couch you won't get the seat belt, cushion, other seats in the three blocked out for your use, etc

The benefits of what you've got are pretty meaningless - yes you have a Skycouch seat (not all rows with the seats are sold as Skycouch rows) but with 4 of you unless you can find other seats for the 2 other people then pulling the legrest up will be pointless as you won't be able to lie flat with the others in their seats.

Are NZ is also very strict when it comes to seatbelt use in the Skycouch. They are under no obligation to give you a belt kit unless you've paid for the product, so even if you could find seats for the other 2 people If you do not have a belt kit you will get very likely by woken by them. Belt kits are given out as a NZ HVC benefit if they're allocated a Skycouch row but merely being in a row will not entitle you to a belt kit.

Ok, I think I understand now. Thanks for your help. I put my wife and 2 kids in the SkyCouch seats and was hoping that they would be able to take advantage of it, but it seems like they will not unless we buy SkyCouch to get the belts. However, NZ's website does not offer me the chance to buy the belts.

"Buying the belts" is really just buying the Skycouch product. They don't supply the belts if you haven't paid for the Skycouch product. The one exception is when the Skycouch is given as a HVC benefit - I have had this occur at check-in and a belt was provided by the crew and have seen other comments from people on here who have also had belt kits provided in such a situation.

At the end of the day you're trying to benefit from the Skycouch without wanting to pay the fee, and that's really what NZ are trying to prevent.

I'm assuming United don't sell the upgrade to a Skycouch as an option because it's not actually a different product or booking class it's merely a fare basis change.

I'm open to paying the SkyCouch upgrade fee, depending on what it is. I just don't know what the fee is, and it has not been offered to me through any of the UA and NZ digital touchpoints. The fact that it wasn't offered made me think it might already be "included"

Skycouch will never be just included.

If you are on UA ticket stock you most likely can't buy the product, as the UA tickets won't have the option to add the additional product (as it is not something UA offers). It is most likely only available when on NZ ticket stock.

If you rang NZ you might be able to get them to do something behind the scenes.

You can't just "buy" a Skycouch if you have a row of 3 seats booked - the Skycouch product that is sold in this case if you upgrade to the Skycouch (which at a guess will probably be about 75% of a single economy fare) will also include an extra seat since the Skycouch product isn't usable if there are 3 people in that row already.

Air NZ may be able to help you out if you contact them, you just need to decide if it's worth paying the extra for the product.

Hello
Clarification regarding the belts: if there are 2 passengers for 3 skycouch eligible seats, the crew are required to provide the belt pack as you can technically use the functionality of the skycouch and need to be secured as per CAA requirements. If you did not paid for the skycouch, you will still get the seatbelt pack but not the linen package.

From http://www.amadeus.com/corp/xml/docu...ycouch_FAQ.pdf
For reference, SkyCouch fares here: http://www.airnztravelagent.com/site...%2022Nov16.pdf

I don't see why.... you can simply keep the seats in their original config and use the normal seatbelts....thus meeting those requirements. Additional features of the seat are surely only relevant if you paid for them...

Hence why they will make sure all of the un-used skycouch rows are filled by 3 passengers.

Not sure about these previous comments are based on, but at least anecdotally I have twice before seat selected a Skycouch row (with just me in it and without purchasing the product) and the flight attendants have given me the seat belt kit, but not the linen kit (and it's my first time hearing about that even being a thing).

What part was anecdotal?

Can also confirm flown multiple times as single person in Skycouch row and been given seatbelt pack but not linen. In my experience they tend to look after *G by doing this, especially if the load is light.