Sam Chui on JFK-AKL Inaugural
 

Sam Chui has just posted his review on NZ1 JFK-AKL. Looks like an interesting service:

The thing I find most interesting in the video is at 17mins 15 secs where he gets in a mock up Skynest.

Those beds look very tiny and narrow.

Yes, I'm still not convinced on SkyNest. I couldn't imagine only having it for 4 hours on a 16+ hour flight.

Could you imagine 16 hours+ in the narrow NZ Y seat/aisle?

Well would say most of us here are more pointy end flyers, so yes what we look for is different.

But a four hour break from the seat for a lot of people will be nice. Especially seeing AirNZ isn't following QF with a "yoga" area.

Will be interesting to compare a seat + 4h vs a solo sky couch for cost.

They say premium economy pax may also come back. I wonder if they will get their requests processed first or if truly a first purchase best dressed scenario.

I guess will also mean the first meal in Y is going to have to be timely as would guess people would get pissed off if lost some of their 4 hours to meal.

But comapred to a Y seat, lots of room. And for bigger people having more foot room may be nice compared with some business seats where some people have issues.

While better than nothing those biz seats look terrible. What other airlines have these seats? I feel like Virgin Atlantic may be one of them.

I agree with the poster above that unless meals are done on demand for Y and PY you don’t want to lose your 4 hour skynest slot. I wonder where the seatbelt placement will be but these beds look very tight.

Even the captain wouldn’t say on camera that they offloaded bags.

Agreed. There is no in between lie flat and regular seating, zero privacy and i dont even understand why they put a tv. That is such an awkward viewing position. I would rather fly with 1 stop than this non stop flight.

Food looked good though.

Pretty obvious you've never actually flown in the seat with comments like that. The screen pops out so there is absolutely no issue with the viewing angle.

The seat belt I guess would be across the torso in the sky nest like all the other lie flat options across airlines.

Remember Skynest is a economy product so going to tight. It is not a spacious business product.

Didn't he talk to a FO not the captain? Also not sure at what point they offloaded the can vs when that interview was done. Given some stuff coming up by the flight which may had a tech stop in Nadi they are doing calculations, load and balance, etc right up to push back, so they can reduce the cone of uncertainty on the weather down route.

“What did you do to your mouth?” (points to NZ agent’s Māori face tattoo)

*Cringe*

The seat actually reclines quite deeply and can also be reclined during take-off/landing (which most airlines don't allow you to do).

its a shame they no longer have the "in business premier you can choose your own seat position" from the safety videos, since it isn't too obvious.

I think he talked to the captain or maybe FO when the flight landed in NZ because they said they had to negotiate a new route, etc... but at no point did they mention bags were offloaded.

From his Instagram looks like he flew NZ103 today to SYD which happened to be a 77W again.

Maybe some more videos on NZ from him comming soon?