Air NZ: NZ1 - New York to Auckland.

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noroad

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#2974583 29-Sep-2022 06:00

noroad:

I'm on today's NZ1 in PE, unless some miracle happens and my upgrade comes through.

So, I did this flight yesterday. No real drama or issues. The check in at JFK left a bit to be desired as clearly the staff are not AirNZ staff and not up to the normal level we expect. This being said everything worked and no one really had any issues apart from the total lack of any signage as to where the check in actually was at the airport. Business and premium economy were full as expected and economy had the intentional free seats. I thought the flight would be delayed as the arriving NZ2 had to wait for about 1/2 our for another plane to exit its gate but they seemed to do the turn around pretty quickly so made up for that. Flight time was 16:42 and it was smooth and without any issues. Interestingly I felt better after that flight in PE than I did on the 12H PE flight on the 777-300ER on the way to San Francisco. The 40-41K average flight level and better pressurisation/humidity of the 787-9 compared to the 31-32K level of the 777-300ER is significantly more comfortable for the passenger.

frankv

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#2974686 29-Sep-2022 10:29

Scott3:

Air NZ Have dropped they number of seats they are selling on the return trip from 215 to 180. (for reference the trip in the other direction with favorable winds can take 260 seats).

I think you mean number of economy seats.

So for an economy passenger there's a 20% chance that you'll have an empty seat beside you. A small bonus, I guess.

Scott3

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#2974949 29-Sep-2022 17:05

frankv:

Scott3:

Air NZ Have dropped they number of seats they are selling on the return trip from 215 to 180. (for reference the trip in the other direction with favorable winds can take 260 seats).

I think you mean number of economy seats.

So for an economy passenger there's a 20% chance that you'll have an empty seat beside you. A small bonus, I guess.

Numbers were for total number of seat's.

Current config is 27 Business Premiere, 37 premium economy and 215 economy for a total of 275. Given only 260 are sold northbound, I assume 15 are used by crew.

So selling 180 seat's + 15 for crew rest, would give 195 occupied / unavailable seats out of 275, so 80 empty seats.

If all the empty seats were in economy 80/215 would be empty. Or 37% of the economy cabin.

As to which seats are actually sold will come down to the airlines revenue maximization strategy.

Obviously selling the more expensive seats at the front of the plane would be better for the airline if possible, but if their modeling shows they won't be able to sell them, might as well sell economy seats instead to at least get some money. (and then market bidding for upgrades etc.)

With 80 empty seats on the plain, I imagine air NZ will be pricing their skycouch product attractively. Effectively it is a way to get 2 passengers to pay a bit extra to get a third seat (or one passenger to pay a bit extra for three seats).

KiwiSurfer

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#2974991 29-Sep-2022 20:21

noroad:

The check in at JFK left a bit to be desired as clearly the staff are not AirNZ staff and not up to the normal level we expect.

The vast majority of staff at overseas ports are not employed by Air NZ. They employ only a very small number of senior staff who supervises the Air NZ operations at each port. At most ports (with Rarotonga I believe being the only exception) they contract ground services (including check in) to external providers. Most Australian/American ports are contracted to Swissport. At many Asian-Pacific ports it is typically other airlines (e.g. ANA, Air Tahiti, Air Samoa, China Eastern, Eva Air, etc) or local third party providers.

I guess with Air NZ being a new airline it will take the staff some time to get used to Air NZ procedures. No difference to any other port really.

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