Melia

Hi all

Just wondering if anyone else feel it’s a real hit and miss with Air NZ crew in business class.
We have had some really bad service lately especially on long hauls

nzkarit

Yep mentioned in many threads.
Also 787 seems far better than 777 crews

sbiddle

Yip it's been a problem for many years.

My flight to SFO last month was probably the best long haul BP flight I've had in 5 years - and ironically the crew was the same F/A and same FSM that I had coming back from ADL in July in BP and they were amazing on that. My 777 crew back from LAX in PE were very average and both by 777 flights to HKG in Sept were also very average in PE.

I've probably had around 10 longhaul 789 flights in PE and BP over the last few years and all have been superb.

gambda

Oh yes.
My recent flight to IAH in BP- very friendly crew and always had a smile on their face and great service. Crew addressed me by my first name which I liked.

On the contrary NZ1 back to AKL in BP couple of days ago was just meh.
Service was quite hasty and it seemed like they didn’t wanna be there.

Also they served me the wrong special meal for breakfast in the morning and the crew was adamant that it was what was on their records until I pulled up the app and showed them the meal request in the booking. Then the FSM came around and said sorry and blamed it on the “bloody Americans” (those were his words) not getting it right. Very unprofessional I thought.

ace86

Give them feedback, talk to them about it, ask to speak to FSM ISM ISC onboard or email Flight Comment if its below par service. We as kiwi’s don’t seem to speak up when we are unhappy, we just moan about it when we are home or on the internet. They are not robots but some consistency should be expected. I hear there is a lot of restructuring/ redundancy talk on 777 at the moment, could add to their stress (shift work/flying/away from home).

Rebound

Great crew on Monday to HKG, / 787

Melia

I have emailed them many times but every time they just reply with a generic response offering no solution to my experience, I think they just don’t care

I was on a 787 flight yesterday and the crew was Wonderful but most of my flights are 777 and 80% is below average service

Melia

So unprofessional, on my recent 777-300 flight the crew completely missed giving me my entree and bread at dinner service.
I had to ask for it and the flight attendant who missed me didn’t even apologise

sopwith7

Same thing happened to me on my last AKL > LAX leg; completely missed for main, then barked at by crew when I very gently reminded them a few minutes later. Granted this was in PE. Does it seem like the meal service is too stressful for the more ... well seasoned ... crew members on 777 300s? They seem pretty grumpy about having to do the appetizer / bread / dessert, then come back through with the main for the whole PE cabin.

JayKiwi

Had a very mediocre 789 TT flight recently; food and experience. The clear erosion of the TT BP experience over the last 5-6 years doesn't help; mostly soft product, and it has all been discussed here piece by piece. No single removal of any aspect of the TT experience in BP is that bad on its own - it is the sum of it's parts however that shows, as it did to me the other day. It is very much the marmite factor for many of these elements, eg, no amenity kits, bedding, water bottles - as many will make a reasonable argument that these elements are OTT for a TT flight. But if you take a TT flight at full revenue cost in BP against a ratio of long haul for BP (which I know is a questionable way to do the sums), it can hardly be considered a bargain. Still, it is an argument that will go on and on, and I still make an effort to go to AKL to connect to a widebody to access BP upgrades for TT despite all of this

JANZFlyer

Whilst not specific to, the difference seems to be the 777 vs 789 crew i.e. "long haul" vs. "mid haul" crews *despite the mid haul guys having the longest flights!

Majority of the former are on amazing contracts which pay significantly more than the 789 guys. Without being ageist - generally they are much older, so much so I thought as a doctor I would have to assist one of them who looked >75! The contract and conditions make it difficult to justify leaving, even though some of them probably should. I find the 789 crew in general (**based on about 1 J flight TT every 2 weeks) to be very good! Friends that are FA's on the 789 have also pointed this out to me, it seems many are aware (again based on personal opinion).

sbiddle

I don't regard the age of the crews as an issue and have had some amazing experiences with some of the older crew members, but one of the worst flights I've had in recent years was a 777 flight with a FSM who was so old he probably started on the Solent. Interestingly when I flew back from LAX the other week while sitting in Koru a large family next to me who had all flown in on the same flight. All they could talk about was the poor service from the crew in economy, how they were all so slow, and that they should all just retire. How many people really have this perception?

IMHO now if you have a good FSM / ISM on a flight you will typically have a good flight, and that if you have a poor FSM / ISM you will have a poor flight. When crews are totally random and don't necessarily always know each other but are all trained the same way and know what they're doing, this shouldn't make a difference - but it definitely does.

I think it's just a bit like anybody having a grumpy boss at work - the way they set the tone of the work environment makes all the difference. If they're somebody with an ego and attitude it simply reflects that through everybody else.

I often tell an ISM / FSM if I think they're good and also tell them if I've had great service from crew member as they have to do reviews after each flight. I've also told a few they've been pretty useless.

Shamrock55

I was recently very surprised on a trip back from Japan that there was nobody in the J or PE cabins that could speak Japanese!

The flight was totally full as they usually are from Narita and there were probably only 3 of us in J that were not Japanese. The two FAs that were serving the cabin were speaking really slowly trying to make the poor Japanese understand them, the majority of whom had little to no English. The FA closest to me would just say "Do you want fruuuuuuuit....or graaaaaanoooooolaaaaaaa........or oooommmmletttee". Saying the word in English so slowly obviously wouldn't make any difference if you cant understand the word in the first place. There was obviously a Japanese-speaking FA in Economy as she kept doing the PA announcement but I was surprised nobody up front was dual lingo. Imagine paying so much money for a J ticket then struggling to order your meals. Pretty poor service, but I guess maybe there just wasn't the right crew mix on offer that day. I would have thought they could just at least point to the menu item in Kanji but she didnt seem to want to do that either.

Melia

On my recent IAH to Auckland leg I had a FA who was 70 ish and half deaf, I literally had to shout in his ear during meal service

NZ_Flyer

I used to find the 777 crews consistently better than the 787 crews - but agree with most its now the other way round as the 787 crews have had some experience and are now polished and the 777 crews know sunset is fast approaching. However definitely agree that its usually the FSM that sets the tone for the rest of the crew to follow.

787 crews still consistently inconsistent but definitely getting better.