Air New Zealand premium economy opinions

I'm considering a transpacific cruise that ends in Auckland, and hoping to use my Aeroplan points for part, if not all, of the flight home. I'm afraid I won't be able to get business class from New Zealand to North America, and I'm too old and too big to try to fly economy that far.......but I've been looking at the "spaceseat" in premium economy, which is looks comfortable. I might end up paying for premium economy to North America, then using my Aeroplan points the rest of the way. (Actually, my thought it using points for a RT ticket to and from the cruise departure point, then buying the portion of the ticket between Auckland and there.)

 

Has anyone flown in the Premium Economy on Air New Zealand who would like to comment? Especially about the novel spaceseats. The bump between Premium Economy and Business is almost double (about $1600), which is too much for me.

Has anyone flown in the Premium Economy on Air New Zealand who would like to comment? Especially about the novel spaceseats.

Are you sure you would get a spaceseat?

 

I'm not up to speed with what Air New Zealand have been doing. But IIRC the spaceseat was introduced on the new 777-300ER (77W), and it was a passenger experience disaster (like quite a lot else on that aircraft). The solution was to remove one whole row of seats from that cabin.

 

What I don't know - but you might want to find out - is:-

1. What aircraft type would you be flying on?
2. Does premium economy on that aircraft have the spaceseat or some other premium economy seat type and configuration?
3. If it's the 77W with spaceseats, has the emergency reconfiguration been done on all aircraft?

From what I remember of the crisis, the spaceseat after the emergency reconfiguration was pretty roomy.

 

Places you might look for this information, if you don't get much help here and the NZ website is too opaque, include FlyerTalk and Australian Business Traveller.

What aircraft type would you be flying on?

1. Does premium economy on that aircraft have the spaceseat or some other premium economy seat type and configuration?
   
2. If it's the 77W with spaceseats, has the emergency reconfiguration been done on all aircraft?
   

From what I remember of the crisis, the spaceseat after the emergency reconfiguration was pretty roomy.

 

Places you might look for this information, if you don't get much help here and the NZ website is too opaque, include FlyerTalk and Australian Business Traveller.

 

What was the passenger disaster? Crisis? I'm curious! Yes, the flights I am specifically looking at are the 777-300 with spaceseats, but I don't know about the "emergency configuration" or whether it's been done. I know the premium economy on the 777-200ER wouldn't suit me as it's set up for more leg room, but the seats are the same width and same 3-3-3 configuration. I want a wider seat more than I want more legroom.

 

It's still a ways off, but I'm thinking about things....

What was the passenger disaster? Crisis? I'm curious!

The spaceseat, as originally installed, brought a huge number of complaints about the restricted space for legs, knees and feet, as well as many complaints about motion sickness (which it was thought might have been induced by the offset axis of the seat coupled with the claustrophobia-inducing tight pitch).

 

A small bit of digging today suggests that what you're looking for is aircraft with only 44 premium economy seats. The original cabin had 50 seats, and NZ took out a whole row, ie 6 seats. It may well be that the fleet has long been completed now, as it was done as an emergency measure - as I say, I haven't followed the story since then. Goodness only knows what that's done to the economics of the cabin, but fortunately that's for others to worry about.

 

The other bits of the passenger experience disaster included the 10-abreast economy cabin - with its ultra-narrow aisles - wasn't properly allowed for when equipping the aircraft with catering trolleys, so they were literally banging into everything on the way up and down the aisle. Seats, knees, elbow, the lot.

 

And the super-duper eat-on-demand system. It couldn't cope, apparently because it was designed with the idea that there would be a steady stream of meal orders during the flight. But in fact, when real passengers flew on the aircraft, they mostly wanted to eat at the time that the airline would traditionally serve the meal anyway - at the beginning of the flight, before settling down to go to sleep - so the airline abandoned eat-on-demand in the economy cabin and went back to a traditional meal service.

We flew Air NZ from Perth, Western Australia to Auckland (economy unfort.) then Auckland to LAX premium economy - loved it, we found them very spacious, the best part for us was the chair in front cannot recline into your space.

 

We didn't really sleep too well on the way over, think that was more about be excited about the month long trip, but I tell you on the trip back, we didn't even wait until dinner had been through and we went fast asleep.

 

We're going back again either next yr or the following, and we wouldn't hesitate in flying Air Nz prem econ again.

 

I don't have anything to compare it too, but everytime we fly we end up with the people who have to recline all the way back into our laps, having a bad back, I can't put my chair back, I have to have it straight otherwise bad aches for me, and it was heaven to not have this happen on such a long trip.

 

The one thing I didn't enjoy much is the silly beanbag footrest.

 

oh and you do get a cute little toothbrush and paste, some lip balm, moisturiser and purple socks. We got some nice Nz water Auckland side, but not LAx return side. There was a pillow and blanket and you get comfy headphones to use the personal entertainment unit, this unit is also where you can order drinks and snacks from.

 

We flew last April (2012), which was after the cabin was modified and the row taken out to give more space.

Oh forgot to say, the Novotel at the airport you can hire a day room, the hotel is literally right outside the entry doors of the airport, and we found it to be totally sound proof.

 

The Air Nz lounge at the airport is lovely too, they had chairs you can sleep on, hammocks etc, showers and wifi.

The other bits of the passenger experience disaster included the 10-abreast economy cabin - with its ultra-narrow aisles - wasn't properly allowed for when equipping the aircraft with catering trolleys, so they were literally banging into everything on the way up and down the aisle. Seats, knees, elbow, the lot.

 

LOL! Well, that sounds funny in hindsight, but I can see it would truly have been a disaster in practice. I did read about the loss of PE seats from 50-44, so I can see their planes now have the improved configuration.

We are also looking at a cruise that ends in Auckland but are most likely going to fly from Auckland to Sydney to connect to the Air Canada flight to Vancouver. We've looked at some of the Air New Zealand pricing and it's pretty expensive relative to Air Canada (and Qantas).

We are also looking at a cruise that ends in Auckland but are most likely going to fly from Auckland to Sydney to connect to the Air Canada flight to Vancouver. We've looked at some of the Air New Zealand pricing and it's pretty expensive relative to Air Canada (and Qantas).

 

Interesting.....I found Qantas more expensive. Perhaps it was the time of year I was looking at. I didn't consider flying to Sydney and home from there. Thanks for the idea; I'm going to look that up.

Does anyone else have experience with premium economy on Air New Zealand? We are flying from LAX to London. Would this be better than premium econ on British Airways?

We are flying LAX-SYD next year. We are breaking the flight into segments (which I've done before on another trip), and flying into Honolulu. HNL is a good hub for flights to NZ and Australia.

 

You can go to HNL in economy, have the overnight sleep, and then purchase business or premium economy for comfortable seating for the longer flight into Auckland.

Coming back from Lisbon last fall we missed our connection in LHR to LAX on United. We were booked in business but the only option was to either wait until the next day and fly United business or leave right away on Air New Zealand premium economy(business checked in full).We chose Air NZ once they agreed to give us a partial refund for our non- business class seats. I found the seat very comfortable and the food and wine( especially a lovely NZ Pinot Noir) quite nice.The big negative to me was no foot rest. The bean bag is a joke.But by putting my small carry-on bag in front of me on the floor I was able to put my feet up and get some sleep.