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-   -   No newspapers in Koru lounge (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-new-zealand-air-points/1976428-no-newspapers-koru-lounge.html)

Colours Jul 1, 2019 10:58 pm

No newspapers in Koru lounge
 
Hi, someone from the Kiwi Journalists Facebook site shared this, if true it is sad. i used to enjoy sitting down to a long read of the print versions.
And Air NZ says it is stopping them in the name of sustainability! Meanwhile on the tarmac sit planes that burn through thousands of gallons of fossil fuel.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...e04fd2b9f.jpeg

kiwifrequentflyer Jul 1, 2019 11:06 pm

Well one is kind of necessary for operations, one is not...

I guess getting rid of newspapers isn't super necessary but tbh I had no idea anyone ever actually read them. All of their magazines and newspapers sit unused everytime I have been in a lounge.

It's the same whenever flight attendants in business on other airlines go around handing out newspapers and magazines. "Hi would you like..." "No." "Sir would you like..." "No." No one ever takes them. I always thought of them as a relic of the past that Airlines are still stuck in from the days before personal devices.

WLGNZ Jul 1, 2019 11:22 pm

Many many people read them. Hundreds are appreciatively taken by clients everyday.
I for one value them as a distraction on the two hour prop flights around New Zealand.
Removing these is the removal of another service customers appreciated. And seems likes 'enhancing' another valued customer service away under the guise of sustainability.

nzkarit Jul 1, 2019 11:44 pm

Also with the crowding in the lounges is there actually enough space to open a newspaper?

drajknox Jul 2, 2019 12:17 am


Originally Posted by WLGNZ (Post 31260491)
Many many people read them. Hundreds are appreciatively taken by clients everyday.
I for one value them as a distraction on the two hour prop flights around New Zealand.
Removing these is the removal of another service customers appreciated. And seems likes 'enhancing' another valued customer service away under the guise of sustainability.


Originally Posted by Colours (Post 31260465)
Hi, someone from the Kiwi Journalists Facebook site shared this, if true it is sad. i used to enjoy sitting down to a long read of the print versions.
And Air NZ says it is stopping them in the name of sustainability! Meanwhile on the tarmac sit planes that burn through thousands of gallons of fossil fuel.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...e04fd2b9f.jpeg

I agree - sad. I appreciate them. As newspapers introduce paywalls it’s not adequate to say WiFi is an adequate replacement. If as others have said people don’t use them then why are they often gone by noon in many lounges! Oh well we can instead be entertained by antics and selfie taking by the extra giggly teenagers now eligible for complementary lounge access. And by watching the parents, who only qualify due to Parental hold, trying to control their newborns. N.B. Posted partly, but not entirely in jest.

Beano Jul 2, 2019 12:31 am

Perhaps the airports may introduce free newspapers like in the brisbane domestic airport (near the gates )

nzkarit Jul 2, 2019 12:55 am

An interesting way of doing it could have been teaming up with some "news sites" and done a paywall bypass when accessing from lounge Wi-Fi.

gratn Jul 2, 2019 2:37 am

I don’t have a lot of time for the MSM, but will miss the newspapers. It’s not about access in the lounge, which WIFI addresses, but instead is something I enjoy taking and reading on the plane. I agree with the poster above who said this is Air NZ dressing up a cost saving cutback as a response to customer demand for sustainability.

brenrox Jul 2, 2019 3:03 am

Sustainability....yet they send tens of thousands of those coffee cups to landfill each day which can't be recycled.

libertyuk Jul 2, 2019 6:26 am

Newsprint, from a sustainable renewable resource, which is recyclable. It's greenwash nonsense from an industry that has a significant environmental impact.

After a long flight I LIKE to read a newspaper and not stare at a screen to read news, especially with more and more papers being behind paywalls. Virtually all serious Australian newspapers are behind paywalls, and Qantas offers both electronic and paper copy access. In BP before takeoff the IFE is not exactly convenient to watch, so reading a paper can be a great way to pass the time before reaching altitude, and I prefer "slow" consumption of news which isn't about flicking to articles of obvious interest, but scanning across them all. Many times I've flown from LHR and been in the AKL domestic Koru Club and picked up a newspaper to find out what was going on in NZ, rather than flick through my phone or fire up my laptop to do so.

Is it enough to reconsider NZ over alternatives when I'm flying Oz-US twice in the next couple of months? Probably not, there are many factors between schedule, seating, fares, lounges, on-board service, but this is just another small negative. NZ is still good enough that when it is price competitive with QF, I tend to pick it (although the incentive to use it beyond renewing Elite status is poor), but nickel and diming like this just shows what NZ can do when it knows it has a dominant market position domestically in NZ and on many routes (especially for business travel).

ps107 Jul 2, 2019 8:51 am


Originally Posted by nzkarit (Post 31260531)
Also with the crowding in the lounges is there actually enough space to open a newspaper?

The Strata lounge provides newspapers iirc :D

walshmi Jul 2, 2019 10:42 am

There’s plenty of newsstands at the airport that sell papers. Flick the attendant a couple of $ and they will give you one.

drajknox Jul 2, 2019 11:22 am


Originally Posted by ps107 (Post 31261664)
The Strata lounge provides newspapers iirc :D

And hot food later than NZ for late night departures in my recent experience.

mapleg Jul 2, 2019 11:59 am


Originally Posted by Colours (Post 31260465)
Meanwhile on the tarmac sit planes that burn through thousands of gallons of fossil fuel.


Yes...it's like those hotel chains that say why don't you reuse your towels every day, and we won't change the sheets either. It's all about sustainability, although me thinks it is their bank accounts that they relly wish to "sustain". Is ANZ going to make a charitable donation to an environmental cause with the savings from getting rid of the newspaper? ......pause...pause...nope, did not think so.

At least in some parts of the world they toss you a freebie or discount if you elect to reuse your towels and similar as an eco statement.

poopbunny Jul 2, 2019 1:49 pm

The BS 'spin' is as annoying as the issue itself.


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