ffdunedin

On NZ108 on 5th April, and currently unable to select seats. I presume this is due to the flight being operated by the Hi Fly A340 until 30 March (or according to the Air NZ website). Anyone know if this date is the definite date that the A340s will be gone?

nzkarit

I'm sure Air NZ would like to know the answer as well.

NZD was up flying today so RR has got enough part to fix two engines at least. Looking at Flight Aware NZD has NZ107 110 & 289 lined up for tomorrow

brenrox

I had heard that 2-3 of the 787's are reaching their limit for hours, and may need to come out of service as a result...I didn't get specifics, but assume it's to do with the engines

nzkarit

All planes have so many hours between services. Engines are just one part of that. In normal conditions airlines have X spare engines, on hand so can do engine overhauls separate from other maintenance. As engine overhuals take different amounts of times compare to the rest of maintaince, so the cost of X more engines makes sense to keep the frame flying. As an engine change is relatively quick job to perform overnight or during the day for the wide bodies in NZ's case.

It wouldn't surprise me with 3 789s parked up, AirNZ have deferred the maintenance as long as possible opposed to keeping to the optimal fleet utilisation schedule. The 777s have also been getting less downtime as well lately.

I also assume the three parked 789s have most of their maintenance tallies back to 0 hours.

dadig

Having optimal redundancies is one thing but if you appoint execs who run the airline like a manufacturing soap company like Unilever takes it to a whole new level. Oh wait...

SeaProf

Just as a data point, I was very recently on AKL-SFO (NZ8) and unable to select seats until about a week before the flight. This had nothing to do with HiFly as it was on a 777. I've never learned why we couldn't select seats until so close to departure.

sbiddle

Were all the seats sold? If they are seat select will be unavailable, even if all pax haven't selected seats.
The other is that while not common, aircraft swaps can occur on this route as it's flown by both 777s.

Cproffitt

I'm on NZ30 Auckland to Buenos Aires in a bit over a week and the Seat Select is not available. This has never happened to me before. I will be extremely peeved if we end up with HiFly! Especially since we shelled out for PE..

cavemanzk

The HiFly 343s are only on AKL-SYD and AKL-PER, everything else is being operated by an mix of 777/789s.

CHCflyer

Was booked in business from AKL-SYD-LAX but somehow ended up in Y AKL-SYD (I am elite and was hoping I would get at least a J-seat, with J-pax getting F seats). The guy next to me had bought Y+ - he was annoyed too. His IFE had a cracked handset (looked like someone had snapped it in two) and the screen was disconnected from the supporting arm, so no IFE for him. A yoghurt and a muffin for everyone on the breakfast flight (NZ are not able to offer seat and a meal fares on the Hi-fly service) - I loaded up in the lpunge. Old IFE on a loop - no idea what the films were as they had all started when I plugged in the headsets and there is no brochure to let you know that you are watching Lego - the movie.
Aisles are immensely narrow - but Hi-fly's crew are tiny. A very tired old Emirates crate that means that you really do cr*p out if you get this product.
I think this must be a dream job for the Portuguese crews after a month of repatriating Monarch passengers from Ibiza to Manchester and Gatwick.
Kiwi crews are a nice touch in theory but meaningless during the flight.

Cproffitt

Good to know, thanks. Things still must be quite chaotic though if they can't confirm the plane/seating a few days out. Not holding out much hope for my biz class upgrade clearing.

sbiddle

That's a very normal scenario at a week out.. typically because the cabin is full.

Cproffitt

I don't think that's the issue. They switched off the Seat Select about 5 weeks ago. Yet I am still able to do a dummy booking for 9.

sbiddle

That's a very normal scenario at a week out.. typically because the cabin is full.

dc9northwest

2 of my flights had unavailable seat maps from ~1 or 2months to ~1week before the flight. They do NOT appear full, however there was a change from a 772 to a 789, and one from a 789 to a 772 within that timeframe.