Air New Zealand NZ135 Auckland-Brisbane on a 744

[nzom_pilot]

This is my first attempt at a trip report and the format is based on the thousands I have read on various online forums over the last few years, comments welcome.

 

13 October 2008

 

NZ135

 

AKL-BNE

 

Boeing 747-4F6

 

ZK-SUJ – Auckland

 

Seat: 59K upgraded to 29A

 

STD:0925 ATD: pushback 0935, wheels up 0947

 

STA:0955 ATD: touchdown 0939, on gate 0947

 

Departure: Gate 6, Runway 05R

 

Arrival: Runway 19, Gate 80

 

The day started early at 0500 local, which was made even worse when thought of in Brisbane time (0200!). After getting ready and checking out of the Centra Auckland Airport hotel, I caught their shuttle to the International terminal.

 

After locating and filling out a New Zealand departure card, I joined the queue for check in, which was almost non existent. Checked in by a very pleasant Air New Zealand employee who informed me that my airpoints dollars upgrade from economy to premium economy was most likely to be successful due to light loads in PE, and that she would allocate me my economy window seat 59K, and that the gate agent would confirm my upgrade and give me the new boarding pass.

 

Headed upstairs to the viewing area but there weren’t many aircraft in that I needed to photograph. Then headed to one of the landside café’s, for a spot of breakfast, it was below par to say the least.

 

After passing easily through passport control and security I explored the international terminal. Since I last flew international from Auckland in 2004 there have been significant changes to the international terminal, the most notable being the addition of a “2nd” story to segregate the arriving and departing passengers.

 

Movements of note around the international terminal were Pacific Blue 738s ZK-PBF, PBJ and PBI, Qantas 747-338 VH-EBX, Cargolux 744F LX-GCV, and Air New Zealand Boeing 737 ZK-NGE on the domestic connection NZ303 to Christchurch. My aircraft ZK-SUJ arrived on gate 6 shortly after 0700 from LAX.

 

 

Next to us on gate 8 was Boeing 772 ZK-OKB which pushed back at the same time as us as NZ99 to NRT.

 

 

When the gate agent had arrived and settled in behind her computer I went up and asked about my airpoints dollars upgrade. She quickly looked up and confirmed the upgrade was confirmed and printed me a boarding pass for seat 29C. She handed me the boarding pass and stated it was an aisle seat but at least it was in PE. I said that was a pity as I had the window in economy, and then said I supposed all the window seats in PE were taken. She had another look and said quite a few were open, and promptly changed my seat again to 29A.

 

Boarding was quick and easy with the usual advance boarding for passengers with small children, and those needing assistance, followed by Business Premiere and us the Premium Economy passengers. Everyone was on board well before scheduled departure time, unfortunately we had to wait for the remaining luggage to be loaded and paperwork to be completed causing a short delay in departure.

 

29A is located in a section of only 8 seats, forward of the economy cabin in the space just behind door 2L and boarded by the stairs to the upper deck. Out of the 8 seats in this section there were only 5 filled. This is a nice section of the aircraft and remarkably private in flight, but seemed to be missed a lot by the crew during their service. We got the meal service but I noticed that other sections of the PE cabin had been offered newspapers etc, and we barely saw the crew other than at meal time, or when handing out arrival documentation.

 

Air New Zealand’s premium economy gets business class service on international flights, but is operated like normal economy on the short Trans-Tasman hops, i.e. no pre take of drinks etc. One thing you do get though is an Express Arrival card for fast tracking through the arrivals process. Unfortunately from December Air New Zealand is changing things so that PE is now not bookable on the Tasman legs and will instead be offered to Star Elite, Star Gold and other valued passengers as Space +, inline with the new space + zone’s being installed and offered on the domestic Boeing 737 fleet.

 

Leg room was amazing in PE, and the seat was slightly better than the standard economy seat, with leg rests and side bin storage between the window and seat. We also got the Air New Zealand noise cancelling headphones, instead of the standard ones available in economy.

 

 

After push back at 0935local and waiting for OKB to be pushed back across our path, we took the short taxi from the International apron via A10 to runway 05R. After holding briefly the throttles were advanced and we thundered off down the runway. The take off roll was rather short as we rotated and were airborne by the Qantas/Pacific Blue wing of the domestic terminal, at 0947local.

 

After climbing out on the 05 heading we took a left turn across the city crossing overhead Middlemore hospital, then heading for the CBD and harbour, before crossing the coast overhead Piha.

 

I settled in to my seat and watched the IFE. I managed to get in two episodes of The Big Bang Theory, two of the Simpson’s and one episode of Bro Town, as well as having time to look at the airshow map. There was a little bit of an issue with the IFE in our section with it going off shortly after we boarded until we were airborne, and the couple in front of me had to have theirs reset twice in flight.

 

The meal service was a breakfast service, consisting of either a continental or cooked breakfast. The smell of the cooked breakfast was too tempting so I settled on that. It consisted of a piece of ham quiche and a sausage, an apple and cinnamon muffin, and a bowl of fresh fruit pieces, mainly orange and pineapple. It was accompanied by orange juice and coffee. There was a full bar service offered but I don’t think wine quite fits with breakfast! The coffee was the best I’d had on any flight I’ve been on, and was a thousand times better than the rubbish I had in the terminal café.

 

 

The weather in Auckland when we left was an almost cloudless sky, with beautiful sunshine and temps in the mid teens. Across the Tasman, there were large patches of cloud, but it was nice and sunny at our cruising altitude. There was no turbulence until we descended off the Queensland coast, through the cloud. The weather in Brisbane was slightly worse than Auckland with broken cloud, although the humidity and temperature were higher than Auckland.

 

We tracked up the coast probably to SAVER before heading for Moreton Island and down through the area of aptly named points, LEAKY, BOATS, SINNK, etc before landing on runway 19 at 0939local. We then taxied to the International terminal and arrived on Gate 80 at 0947local.

 

While taxiing in I spotted Air Niugini Boeing 767 P2-ANA and Our Airline Boeing 737 VH-INU waiting to take off from Runway 01, with Qantas Boeing 767 VH-OGT next to us on Gate 81 just about to push back as QF69 to CNS and NRT.

 

Overall I have to rate this as an excellent flight. I’ve become a huge fan of the Premium Economy seating on NZ and will have to travel to either HKG or LAX to experience the full features of it. The service when our area was remembered was great, but points were lost as we seemed to be forgotten. The IFE selection was good, the extra legroom, noise cancelling headphones, side bin storage and leg rests were big plusses as was the private cabin feeling.

 

Check In: 8/10

 

Boarding: 9/10

 

Seat/comfort/etc: 8/10

 

IFE: 8/10

 

Service/crew: 7/10

 

Meal: 7/10

 

Overall: 47/60 78%

 

 

[Guest Darren Masters]

Nice trip report mate. Thoroughly enjoyed reading it

 

 

[Nick]

What a great read thanks mate

 

 

[Uncle Chop Chop]

Wonderful Trip report.

 

 

[Guest EY327]

Awesome trip report and good pics. :)