RTW4

I COMPLETELY agree with OzFLIER. I took the LHR-LAX flight in first and thought the food was incredible. In fact the afternoon meal was sensational with KIWI pound cake that was the best pound cake I have ever tried. Incidentally , there were 8 of us in first and the DOM was flowing for most of the flight

taupo

We have just completed two flights in NZ F.
NZ 3 Feb 08 and NZ 6 Feb 20.
Service was exemplarary.
Food was outstanding. Seats are comfortable. As previously mentioned, the NZ website picture of the F seat does not do it justice. It reclines to almost flat. I am 6'4" and had no problem getting comfortable in it, both on may back and side.
The amount of personal space is bordering on the absurd, but please don't change it.

We had some humour on the way home. We travelled with our 20 month old, she was quiet for the first 9.5 hours (slept), then was awake, making the occaisonal happy shrieking noise. She entertained the other passengers except for one, who was completely pi**ed. ThenI recognised who he was, lost all sympathy for him. Remember the man who ran for political office in NZ many moons ago, he is a NZ bizz tycoon, takes himself very seriously, was knigted (why I don't know), punched out a helicopter pilot on the shores of the Tongariro river. Any guesses??
My only complaint is that the luggage with Priority and First tags seems to come off with all the others. At least ours came before those of Sir I Am More Important Than Anyone Else's

MrSydney

Sir Bob Jones by any chance?????

taupo

You got it.

Kiwi Flyer

Presume you are talking about LAX? Priority tags seem to make no difference there.

At AKL the priority tags are recognised, but seems just in one category (and of course over half of pax are priority so doesnt mean much). My experience at AKL ranges from first bag through to ten minutes after the first bag. LAX OTOH always takes ages.

taupo

Bags were slow off in both Lax and Akl.

FlyMan

All my luggage - incl. hokey-pokey ice cream box w/dry ice and Gibbston Valley wine box - are the first ones to come out this morning at LAX via NZ 6.

When I flew in AKL two weeks earlier, my stuff came out after Y class pax bags.

According to my Air NZ friends at AKL, LAX bag handling people often put priority and normal bags into the same container without considering "priority" handling before loading to an aircraft.

BTW, NZ 6 First Class was really good - great service, yummy food...

Kiwi Flyer

Good stuff Trust your wine is in one piece with no wastage.

Sooo, its LAX (insert other airport here) ground crew's fault that priority sometimes doesnt work at AKL.

FlyMan

All my wines made safe and sound.

Yes, it's LAX agents' fault. They are supposed to separate air containers for priority bags from regular bags, but it seems they are not. These folks at LAX are not even Air NZ employees - simply agents for NZ. NZ AKL staff send warning/complaints regarding baggage handling, but LAX folks don't pay attention or simply ignore messages.

Not to mention, when I traveled domestic NZ, my bag was always one of the first ones to come out.

everywhere

Well within the next few years they are planning on redoing the 747-400ER cabins and there is alot of speculation that they will go down to a 2 class service. When you read the newspapers it says they are eventually going to redo the cabins with Lie-flat Sleeper Seats in Business and Entertainment Systems. No Mention about 1st.

PinHoLe2003

Well, it does sound like NZ does have excellent service in F, but is it worth more points than J? If the service is the main draw, will it not be similar in J? I have heard that biz service is truly excellent and, if not for the seat, wonder why make the extra expense for J. The two seats do seem similar on the web site.

Fiance and I will be traveling to NZ and Fiji or Cook Islands for honeymoon in June and are trying to redeem a * Alliance award through ANA on NZ.

everywhere

Well if your flying to

Fiji from LAX you can't travel 1st anyway, its only on the 747-400ER Route from AKL - LAX and LAX - LHR. But i think it is worth extra especially for the 13 hour journey

PinHoLe2003

Thank you. Did not know that LAX-Nadi did not have F service. I think that at least one of the segments will be on the LAX/SFO-AKL non-stop, so I still wonder if the difference between F nad J is very striking.

Kiwi Flyer

Biz on NZ is great, but first is much better. The seats arent the same - although both are quite old.

See my trip report where I flew NZ first AKL-LAX and vv. There is a comparison between business and first towards the bottom.

Edited to add: since its your honeymoon (congratulations btw ) why not splash out on first?

[This message has been edited by Kiwi Flyer (edited Feb 27, 2004).]

Kiwi Flyer

Neither the Fiji or Cook Island routes have first.