As many of you may know we recently went back to England visiting our family and friends for the first time in almost two years! In New Zealand, Air New Zealand has a very strong reputation, this is our review of flying with Air New Zealand.
Many of the kiwis we came across won’t fly with any other airline and are proud of the airlines history and safety record. Just recently the Auckland Museum hosted a special exhibition celebrating 75 years of the airlines success. It was something that the kiwis embraced and loved. We had never flown Air New Zealand so we thought we would give them a go! This is our review of flying with Air New Zealand based on the experience we had.
The Back Story:
Picture this: We just had a nice well deserved beer in the departure lounge after a busy and stressful day cleaning and moving out of our flat! We headed to the gate as requested it was 10:05pm. Isaac was had his new headphones on and was listening to music. He had just brought them from the airport and really couldn’t hear a thing when the announcement came. 30 minutes before we due to board (10.30pm) the announcement was the flight was delayed.
I sighed, Isaac was still oblivious. I then expected the lady to announce a delay of a few hours, I was eyeing up the sofas in the corner as my camping spot for the next few hours. But instead she told us it was delayed until tomorrow morning at 7.30am!!!!
The Service we Received:
Then the chaos came! I nudged Isaac to take his headphones off and listen, okay it was more of hit really and he looked across at me all annoyed and was confused at my knee jurk reaction. “It’s delayed until tomorrow morning” I kept repeating to him until it clicked what I was saying to him. Everyone was quiet at first not sure on what there next move was but Isaac shot up and went straight to the front desk.
Aucklander’s were told to go collect there luggage, go home and come back in the morning. Technically we were Aucklanders, but we were homeless! People who needed accommodation were to wait at the gate for further instruction. Isaac quick front desk sprint really did speed up the evening events. We found ourselves front of the queue for accommodation.
The hotel was the Holiday Inn 6 minutes from Auckland airport. We were one of the first to get our accommodation vouchers and we found ourselves to be one of the first at the bus stop. Air New Zealand representatives were at every stage of the entering NZ again, screening the luggage and at the arrivals hall directing people where to go. So it was all fairly swift and easy. The coach however wasn’t there, but I do think this was because we were one of the first out!
We jumped in a taxi to the hotel and decided not to wait for the free coach, (again to beat the crowds) as we checked in Isaac called the Air New Zealand number he was given.
When situations like this happen the airline main goal is to get you to your end destination the quickest and safest way possible.
The representative we spoke to on the phone was very attentive and forward thinking. He could see that our Shanghai connection would not work for us and would not get us into London in time for our departure to Bruges. He gave us three options and once we said “okay” we were rescheduled onto another flight the following evening. This time it was NZ2, via LA through to London. It is actually the fastest route, we don’t have to change planes and the lay over time in LA was very short. In hind sight this was the much better option for us we had a extra day and half rest in a lovely hotel room paid by the airline, got some much needed rest and didn’t have to worry about changing planes or seats with the airline. Don’t ask me how but somehow we departed 24 hours later but only arrive 18 hours later!
Our On Board Experience:
At this stage we were happy to be on the plane! I always get a slight sense of excitement when I get on the plane, I strangely look forward to messing with all the dials and buttons to find out what they do. I like going through the TV and seeing what movies are available, I like getting the blanket and snuggling into it. But straight away we both could feel a slight sense of claustrophobia. Unlike most airlines ANZ have recently adopted the 3-4-3 configuration on most of there latest models. I read they took an inch out of each seat to allow space for a extra seat. That extra inch as immediately missed!
To add to frustration Isaac’s TV monitor didn’t work for quite a while and needed a factory reset to get it working again! We found the amount of movies to be fairly limited. The TV monitor was also slow at reacting to our demands which was beyond frustrating!
If you like to recline back to relax then you would like the seats, they recline back really far but it is a little unfair on the person behind you, we don’t think they should be allowed to recline this far back.
One other experience we weren’t impressed with was the food it really was also insubstantial, for both breakfasts we had some sloppy looking yellow stuff that was apparently egg. I won’t go into detail, but think Ryan Air or Easy jet standard you will catch my drift! Once they put you all to bed like children (which I always find amusing!) the snacks can be ordered via the TV. We have flown long haul on numerous occasions, Singapore Airlines were constantly coming over with water with ANZ you have to order these. The snacks also just consisted of white chocolate cookies, when you are feeling hungry after such a small a substantial meal this is just not enough! We also did miss the hot towels that other airlines supply.
To Summarise:
Essentially after our experience we think if customer service is important to you and you want to be looked after when a delay happens or appreciate that a airline want to get you to your end destination in the safest and quickest way possible, whilst being approached by polite attentive staff then Air New Zealand should be your top choice. We were very impressed with how they handled our situation and helped us when we got lost transiting through the maze of LAX airport (which is a whole other story!).
We could not fault them for that, however if for you comfort, food and working equipment during a long haul flight is important to you then I would consider another airline. They were missing a few fundamental elements of comfort and with some small changes as mentioned above they may just have the perfect long haul in flight experience that will set Air New Zealand well above the rest.