How comfortable is ANZ premium economy?
 

I will be flying ANZ from SFO to AKL, and back in November. My question is how comfortable are these seats? Also, when the person in front of you reclines, is there a comfortable space, or is the seat back in your face?

They have 41-42 inches of pitch which is bigger than the average for premium economy which tends to be around38 inches on most airlines. Even reclined the seat in front will be well away from your face

Width is pretty standard at around 19 inches

Think of it as a slightly narrower version of US domestic first class

My brief experience is that there is plenty of room from even a fully reclined seat in front of you. See this review: https://www.ausbt.com.au/air-new-zea...my-seat-review

The only thing I didnt like was the legrest. I had expected the legrest to extend under gentle spring load to accommodate anybleg length - but it didnt. This meant that either the legrest was just supporting the lower leg with feet dangling, or if heels were lodged in the fold-down metal ‘heel rest’ then thighs were off the seat. I thought maybe I needed to put more force to lengthen the legrest, to no avail.

edited to add: a photo taken of the PE seat in NZ’s 789.

The adjustment clip is on the footrest itself on the right hand side.

As an overall product PE is miles ahead of what it was then. The 77E was still the same 3-3-3 as economy but with greater seat pitch. The 744 was the better offering having the downstairs area, but the seats were still the same.

Sure the you got a table cloth and better booze was on offer back then, but the food isn't really significantly different to what you get now which is still fundamentally the BP menu but with fewer options. The Zodiac seat now is a million times better.

If you're going to talk about the "good old days" of PE it was circa ~2014 on the 77W with the Spaceseat before they but back the booze to the same as economy.

And adding to that still miles better than most airlines PE catering - most airlines do PE with an single tray (often the same meals as Y) and is done by the crew in Y who will disappear todo the Y meal service. NZ's PE you are pretty lucky to have 2-4 dedicated crew just to PE alone, who provide an more Business Light Service.

I was amazed at Lufthansa's PE offering which is the exact same food as Economy but for the fact it comes with a real glass on the tray and from memory a real knife and fork rather than plastic. As I was sitting in the first row of economy and there was no real divider as such on the A340 they just hand the extra PE meals still in the trolley to the first few economy passengers.

I travelled on the 747 early in the PE era too...but I have no idea where you get the idea it was "business class without the lie flat". It was fine... the spaceseat was better IMO...the new product is also fine... but in any way comparable to Business? no.

CX and SQ come to mind as well - there PE meal is just about 100% the same as in Y (Additively both of there Y meals are of an better standard than NZ's) and use Y crew to serve the PE passengers.

I have made numerous trips across the Pacific on NZ in PE, and cannot say enough good things about it.

At 6'4" the legroom is ample, the width is fine, the seat back in front does not intrude into personal space when reclined, the overall service level is definitely premium when compared to economy.

Your responses make me less apprehensive about flying to Aukland in November. Would like to have flown business, but can use that money that I would have spent for more trips.

PE is great, my company doesn't pay for Business often so for me its perfect. I can get work done during day flights, and get some decent sleep on night flights. The service is great, food always good and as above the benefit of having dedicated toilets for PE is excellent.