Sitting together - Family international AirNZ

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sen8or

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#3268360 5-Aug-2024 15:28

If they'd told you at the start that the ticket was $1820 incl seat selection, would you have an issue?

Its more the psychological aspect of being charged an extra fee, which I get, maybe a better way is to do what the cruise lines do. you can either book a specific seat for 1 price, or book a "guaranteed seat" for a lesser price, but you have to put up with completely random seat selection. Same net effect but different way to sell it. They effectively do it now with seat only, set and bag or the works, why not have seat specific pricing

Handle9

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#3268442 5-Aug-2024 21:21

Earbanean:

Semi-related issue. We have a family of 5. On long haul flights we would book 3 in one row and then the 2 aisle seats in the middle block of the same row (or row in front). i.e. leaving the middle seat free. If the plane is not full, middle seats will be empty and we get 3 seats for 2 of us and a kid can lie down. If the plane is fuller and someone is in the middle seat, then we just offer one of the aisle seats to them - which they always take. In that case, we end up no worse than having booked the aisle and middle.

However, Air New Zealand don't allow a booking to leave a single seat in middle of your group, so this won't work with them. I'm not sure if that's a new thing or not. I guess you could still do 2 separate bookings, but IMO that's into the not-worth-the-hassle basket

I don't think Air New Zealands approach to this is unreasonable. You're trying to game the seating system, they don't allow it.

sir1963

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#3270613 11-Aug-2024 15:53

We ( 9 of us including 1 toddler + 1 baby) are heading to the USA this week, we booked sky couches there and back as the best option.

Sure it cost more, but this is a one off family trip to the USA so why not, especially if the kids can sleep and make life better for everyone else on the plane.

CokemonZ

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#3270717 12-Aug-2024 08:58

I looked at skycouches, but it seems at best 2 people could sleep on it, meaning you'd need to add on the next seat for another $600 or so per group of 3?

noroad

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#3270799 12-Aug-2024 11:06

CokemonZ:

I looked at skycouches, but it seems at best 2 people could sleep on it, meaning you'd need to add on the next seat for another $600 or so per group of 3?

Skycounch is booked on top of an economy ticket, last I looked for one person it worked out to about 80% the cost of a premium economy seat. If you have two people booked in economy last I looked it was about $400 extra (to LA)

jamesrt

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#3280133 9-Sep-2024 07:11

Congratulations; this thread made it onto Stuff...

https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/350402748/dont-be-travel-pillow-how-nab-best-seats-plane-free

Referenced part way into the article, under the heading 'What about the kids?'

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sir1963

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#3280137 9-Sep-2024 07:22

CokemonZ:

I looked at skycouches, but it seems at best 2 people could sleep on it, meaning you'd need to add on the next seat for another $600 or so per group of 3?

IF you are small, 2 people could sleep on it

However if you are larger (or older) ...yeah nah.

We had 4 sky couches booked for the 9 of us, I would sit with someone else while the wife got a sleep or she would have her legs on top of mine while I sat.
Grandkids were able to sleep with a parent

They are not that comfortable, but good enough if you need a sleep.

Worth it ?

Maybe, our grand kids (2yr and 9mths) got sleep on the 12 hour flight back from the USA, so they were good in the mornings, no melt downs which was fantastic as we were all still tired and jet lagged so not having to deal with upset kiddies was worth it from our POV.

CokemonZ

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#3280138 9-Sep-2024 07:26

That's pretty funny.

I got essentially the same message from Airnz when I called, I and have to say - best efforts doesn't really cut it. It doesn't sound any better written down either.

As a sorry end to this saga I gave up and paid for the seats.
But I'll complain about to people in my rest home when I finally make it there 😁.

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