curioustill

Quite sad really - I remember back in the days when flying economy you could request for a bowl of noodles as a snack and get it delivered to you!

kiwicyclo

sbiddle

Koru hour always gives the full drink.

nzkarit

For beer. L&P is a glass not the full can.

gratn

ottiehund

Inconsistent, this week Queenstown to Melbourne, I was given a (3/4) plastic cup of coke and the rest of the can was put away in the trolley, and later binned, as I watched, at the end of service (along with several other part cans of various varieties, including several cokes, which I think is simply mean spirited and wasteful) - on the way home I asked for a sparking water along with my tea for breakfast and was given the whole can. No consistency at all, maybe a crew by crew thing? I would have though the airline would have a 'policy' for such things as routine as meal and drink serving?

zebranz

Agree with OP. I fly biz from AKL (and recently VA) in biz. Otherwise from ZQN there are no crews based there anymore. WLG crew not an issue. I eat in Koru too before and pass on plane food. Have to live with the options available. NZ doesn't care.

kiwifrequentflyer

I must be the only person that likes the frittatar. I will admit that I don't feel great after having eaten it as it's greasy but I like the taste of it ;P

I'm excited for VA to offer food. I *think* they are my least favourite to fly trans tasman seat wise and service wise (although I've had some incredibly good experiences - so it's been mixed) BUT they offer WiFi and as I work on planes it's a godsend. Qantas is my favourite service-wise but with no WiFi in sight I don't actively choose them. Air NZ is the middle ground but once WiFi is on every plane they'll become my #1 choice... outside of Emirates A380 of course

cavemanzk

The ironic thing is most of the QF 738s that serve the Tasman have wifi installed, just QF doesn't have an service contact to use it on the TT.

sbiddle

It's not so much a service contract - there is no satellite to connect to.

Qantas have partnered with Viasat for their WiFi. Their current solution relies on the satellites deployed for the nbn which only provide Ka spot beam coverage for Australia.

Qantas won't have WiFi TT (nor on any intl routes) until Viasat complete their new Ka satellite rollout which is due for completion around late 2021.

libertyuk

Regarding economy food, when I have it, QF is a step ahead of NZ, with three choices (really only useful if you are in the front half of the plane), but honestly if you have lounge access why bother? Leaving Australia on QF from SYD or MEL usually, the 1st lounges are a no brainer, from AKL or WLG it isn't quite so good, but it's ok. Equally the NZ lounges in SYD/MEL are fine rather than the Works food, on the AKL/WLG/CHC side it depends on time of day. Of course it suits airlines to have you eat in the lounge, as that is cheaper for them.

Of course without status you are stuck, and then Works simply looks like a very high yielding way to sell meals that are probably $2 pp to supply (and which if you "sold" them you couldn't charge what NZ charges (but it would argue you're paying for movies too).

mad_atta

I've only flown QF Y trans-Tasman a couple of times in the last 18 months or so, and I would agree that the quality was a little higher than NZ - I had a pretty tasty curry and decent bread, though I prefer NZ's ice cream to the Weiss bars on QF. But in all other ways I prefer the (Space+) experience on NZ's A320s to QF's B738s, which have uncomfortable hard old seats and terrible low-res IFE screens. I actually don't have any real complaint about the A320s themselves, since I get to sit in the extra legroom seats, it's just the new meanness of the service that's annoying. Having said that, you can easily order additional drinks (for free) via the IFE once the first run through the cabin is done, and I have not experienced the issue of service being shut down 90mins prior to landing.

The one time I've flown trans-Tasman in Y on VA was definitely the worst of the three carriers as far as food and wine was concerned - really super basic and barely edible, and the wine was genuinely bad. If that's what their new all-inclusive catering on the Tasman is going to be like, they might as well not bother. Their only real advantage is that their seat comfort and pitch are more superior to QF's regular seats.

It's really interesting to see how far and fast things have fallen. I moved back to this part of the world from Europe in 2001, and enjoyed the novelty of being able to fly home to see friends and family in NZ in just a few hours from SYD as opposed to 24hrs from LHR. I got very used to NZ's Tasman service (on their short-haul international B733s at the time) and although the entertainment in Y was main screen only, the service level was incredibly high: printed menus and genuinely high quality food, along with thoroughly decent wine. To this day I can remember one of the most delicious fish dishes I've ever eaten in the air (having subsequently flown many miles in longhaul premium classes) which was in Y SYD-WLG. And I'm honestly not convinced that average airfares were really any higher then, though no doubt many can explain to me that I'm wrong about that. (And don't get me started on how nice it was to be able to upgrade to business on those narrowbody flights. Back then, when Airpoints was a distance-based system (based on km, not miles) upgrade requests cost 6,750 Airpoints one way! <Sigh>)

sbiddle

Most airfares now would be cheaper than they were back then, but tax needs to be factored in. Remember it's between NZ$180 and $200 for tax on return flights to Australia (WLG-CBR was NZ$245 in tax).

A couple of years ago I found my receipt for an Airpoints reward flight from WLG-SYD-MEL-WLG in 2001 - this was the good old days where a flight to LHR in economy guaranteed you a free return trip to Australia. I had to pay just over NZ$40 in tax for the flights and got to experience the joys of flying Ansett on one of their very tired 767s a few weeks before they went belly up.

nzkarit

On TT flights food isn't important to me as have the lounge. And at other times the food in the terminal is often nicer and cheaper.

The FF seats on the TT do make it more pleasant. Though I do find the 737s claustrophobic. I find the extra width and that the A320 is less round with the added height and more vertical walls makes for a more pleasant tube to fly in. Given that rumours are that Boeing and Airbus are going to replace the 737 and A320 with a clean sheet for the next gen (after Max & NEO) will be interesting to see how they make them less claustrophobic.

Also by my count the the A321 has the same number of FF as the TT A320. (6 more if count row 1 which AirNZ isn't counting as FF on the A321 (they are both bulk heads)). Though by my back of the envelope math. If they remove one set of three seats they would add 5-6 rows of FF seating. So the A321 I think will end up with more people not in the FF seating.

Cheetah_SA

My partner and I are flying CHC-OOL on NZ next month in Works Deluxe. It's a 16:05 departure with 3.5 hours flying time. So I was hoping it would be a nice dinner flight (as in a flight with a nice dinner) with a few drinks before, during and after the meal. After what I have read here, it seems I will have to adjust my fantasy rather radically!

Food is probably not that critical as we would most likely have had lunch (and could use the Manaia lounge via Dragonpass for some sustenance). But is the wine on board drinkable? Are top-ups allowed / grudgingly supplied / pro-actively offered?