Mickidon

We haven't been on NZ in years and were looking forward to what we remembered to be an excellent experience in J. Unfortunately, things got off to a
bad start with our flight to RAR cancelled with no alert necessitating a dramatic change in itinerary literally from the airport. The flight from IAH was perfectly
fine but today's jaunt back to LAX was less than stellar:

-Auckland lounge was a scrum, with barely any seats available - was prepared for this from FTers.
-Boarding was called and everyone ended up standing around the podium for 20 minutes until the pilots showed up. No problem waiting, of course, but
don't make an announcement that boarding has commenced if it hasn't.
-The leased EVA plane was just less of a premium experience than the plane from IAH. No bedding, no wireless, no ordering from seats, etc.
-This was the second flight that I observed no blankets being passed out in J. Some people knew they were overhead, but others didn't and they ran out.
-The crew chattered noisily in the galley between the two J cabins for hours, making it difficult to sleep. Not a proactive team at all.
-Assigned a VERY remote post to disembark at LAX and the buses were jammed. As is always the case, being off the plane first has no benefit if a bus transfer is required. As it turns out, my "priority" tagged bag was pretty much the last one off the plane.
-One note at LAX: we were ticketed on NZ and so our UA boarding pass did not have TSA precheck on it. We were going to ask UA to print out a new one but the CLEAR lane was available and we survived taking off our shoes.

I'd leave plenty of time at LAX for an Int. to Domestic transfer - there were many planes at the remote location and many people running around to make their connections.

Although none of these items were critical - other than the cancellation - the whole experience was "meh" at best.

sbiddle

Until the TBIT midfield expansion is complete satellite gates are the reality of life - there is not much any of the airlines can do except push for priority for gates for arrivals rather than departing flights.

Two recent flights on the Dreamliner has reminded me how superior the mid haul Dreamliner crews are compared to the long haul 777 crews.

kiwifrequentflyer

I wonder if there are specific days that Air NZ gets put at those gates. My recent arrival at LAX had us all nicely dumped in the actual terminal itself. I hurriedly walked to get to customs quickly, only to discover it was an absolute mess of queues. It was so bad that they stopped interviewing people and just started stamping passports in one big queue. I have travelled through the USA many times in my life and I have NEVER not been interviewed, haha.

Good to know on EVA. I had the choice to fly one of the planes or not. I thought I might for a different experience (the photos look nice) but ultimately stuck with Air NZ metal.

I'd hate to arrive at a phantom gate but I do secretly enjoy the busses when you depart from them. The plane geek in me likes driving across the tarmac and plane watching. Even though they do absolutely cram you in. One guy who was flying PE said "this hardly feels like a premium experience" 😂

FoxFlyer

I'm scheduled for the EVA leased plane in May. I had thought the "hard product" was better (reverse herringbone), but now concerned about the soft product.

Are you saying there is NO bedding on a 14 hour flight? No blanket or pillow? If catering is from AirNZ, is the bedding and other soft product amenities not the same as if on NZ metal?

Shamrock55

Oh mate there is nothing worse then getting a lovely bed in J but then being kept up all night by chattering crew. I had an FA and a deadheading pilot chat for literally two hours near me on a flight to Japan once.

Mickidon

There was no mattress topper, which there was on the NZ plane. There was a pillow on the seat and there were some blankets in the overhead bin, but they were not proactive in letting people know that. As a result, people from coach were grabbing them and some of the J pax took 2. The IFE was not a developed (no ordering from seats, for example) and no wi fi. I agree that the seat might be a tad more comfortable on EVA but that was the only piece that was better. We also had poor luck in having
non stop chatter in the galley during the night, which made it difficult to sleep, but can't blame that on the metal.

nzkarit

AIrNZ mattress topper is for their seats and most probably does not fit the Eva seats.

If people were taking two blankets does that mean they are running the Eva plane cooler? As normally find the AirNZ 777s are run really warm. As last time on one overnight, I was hot in shorts and a tshirt and no blanket