Currently thinking about a trip to Oz and/or New Zealand.

Air New Zealand have some pretty decent fares circa £2k and will be rolling out their new product by the end of the year.

The concept doesn't look that dissimilar to the Virgin Suite. Do any regular VS flyers have any thoughts about how this will compare?

No real reviews yet in the NZ forum (that I can find!) although a reasonable marketing flash demo at http://erequest.airnz.co.nz/nz/longhaul/demo_flh.htm

I agree it looks nearly identical to Virgins Suite. Does this mean that Air New Zealand is eliminating First Class? The website seems to only refer to economy/premium economy and the new business products.

Hi,

Air New Zealand is eliminating its First Class ( as from June 2005).

The suite concept is almost identical ( apart from the coluoring-as it is used under licence I think)

Not sure about the other UCS services on VS that ANZ may have ie ( bar, lcar transfer, inflight beauty therapist)

Regards

TBS

The suite is the same product as the VS Upper Class Suite and Air NZ have licenced it from VS. As TBS says the colouring is different but in all other respects, design, functionality, etc., it is the same.

Bazz

Is it installed in the same way or is it orientated slightly differently?

from

http://www.flatseats.com/Reviews/nz-spc-1.htm

"Direct aisle access for all passengers made possible by unique herring bone layout."

Hi,

From the photos, it looks lie it is installed in the same way as VS.

Regards

TBS

I am doing a RTW in November on SQ,VS and NZ. Yes the new Air New Zealand will be almost identical to UCS but without the bar and the beauty therapist.

Where did you find the £2k fares - I can't find anything for less than £2600

Thanks
Louise

with difficulty.....

Started at airline network - www.airnet.co.uk - it came up with loads of fares (ex-UK in Nov, return in Dec) for about £2100. No availability on outbound, plenty on return.

Couldn't find the fare rules and eventually found www.wefly.co.uk

This site has a great search engine - you can put the criteria in, search on 'fares' and it finds the fares. (for those BA lurkers, it even finds ex-TIP, ex-ATH fares etc)

For the NZ fare, on wefly it finds a 'Z' fare for £2135....(OK, not £2k but getting close)

Go to http://www.optimalmove.com/flyertalk/galileo.html to find appropriate itineraries in Z (typically NZ1 LHR-LAX then NZ5 LAX-AKL are the outbound sectors with availability - all the UK booking engines seem to default to NZ1 LAX-AKL which rarely has Z) and you should fnd an LHR-LAX-AKL-SYD-AKL-LAX-LHR itinerary all in Z you can book.

£2100 to OZ in Z (earning 45k status miles in some star alliance programs) seems reasonable to me. Especiallly in the new NZ Biz class. Their new Premium Economy product looks reasonable too.....

That's great - thanks. Have acouple of trips planned for later in the year and have just got back from SYD where my UA upgrade didn't clear for the SYD- SFO leg There is no way I'm doing that again in coach!!

Louise