I'll do the Air NZ one first, as I'm sure it's something that V-Flyers will be interested in.
It's a good job I checked my flight time. For some reason, I had 12.40 in my head. Of course, Queensland doesn't observe Daylight Savings, so the departure time was actually 11.40am!
The friend I was staying with in Brisbane dropped me off at the International Terminal with about 1h15 minutes to spare before the flight. Just as I was saying goodbye, the inbound aircraft arrived, a 747-400, as expected.
I find it interesting that many Australian airports (and the Kiwi airports too) have completely seperated Domestic and International terminals - I'm told this is done primarily for quarantine purposes, and I wouldn't be surprised. Australia and New Zealand are both so far away from other places, there's many pests and livestock diseases that they don't have. I did notice, both flying into Australia and NZ on this trip that no insecticide was sprayed in the cabin prior to arrival though.
We picked the right door, and check in was just a few yards away. Priority line for Business Class and Star Gold members was well marked, and check-in was done quickly and efficiently by a Qantas employee. My bag seems to get heavier with every stop on this trip, and was now a back breaking 29 kilos - even the check-in guy remarked how heavy it was!
The Qantas check-in person also did the formalities to confirm that I had plans to leave New Zealand, and asked me if I had a printed confirmation of my intended departure flight on me - this was because NZ Customs/Immigration will usually ask for it.
Relieved of my big heavy bag, I headed off to leave Australia behind, first passing an airport employee who even weighed my carry-on bag - 8 Kgs, instead of the 7 Kg limit they impose - I just said 'It's a laptop' - and the person smiled. They are probably very used to it. Okay, it was a laptop, and cables, and I-Pod and Camera and a book... I was also given a departure card to complete.
Down an escalator to a table where you can fill out your departure card, and then line up for exit immigration. The person here seemed much more severe than the cheery people I found behind the desks in Perth! But, a few seconds later, I had a departure stamp in my passport (shame it wasn't on the same page as the arrival), and headed for the metal detectors. The Australians do like your laptop out of the bag, but the good thing is that they don't want it out of the padded sleeve I keep mine in to protect it from knocks. Also no shoe carnival, and all completed with a minimum of fuss.
There's a good selection of airside shops at Perth, one which particularly caught my eye was the RM Williams shop. I really wanted a pair of those proper Aussie boots - and I got a free pair of jeans as well - the boots were a fraction of the price you would pay for them in the UK, and are stunningly comfy.
Shopped out, I went looking for the Air NZ lounge, which was tucked away to the left hand side of the departure lounge, behind a door that you have to buzz for entry!
Inside, the lounge was quite roomy, with plenty of space to sit, a reasonable selection of buffet snacks - cheese, pastries, fruit - a decent bar, and tea/coffee. Wasn't the full-blown Koru Lounge that you get in NZ, but it was pretty decent. The decor was all blues and greens, with lots of wood, in keeping with the Air NZ house-style.
The only real downside of this lounge was that it didn't have a view of the tarmac - though it did overlook a nice landscaped area with trees.
After a while, the flight was called, and it was a short walk to join our aircraft, 747-400 ZK-NBU 'Rotorua'. The boarding proceeded very quickly, there wasn't any scrum around the gate, despite a lot of people being in the gate area - this has been a real highlight of this trip - I've only come across one boarding scrum, and that was SYD-BNE on QF - and the only reason I can put that down to is that it was on a 737, and therefore overhead space is a bit tighter.
I noted that I was handed back the 'large' portion of the boarding pass, and they only kept the small stub. Domestically, QF don't take any of your boarding pass, you just swipe it through the gate reader. Seems to be another feature of this hemisphere [:)].
Down the (single) jetway, and the line there was moving fairly quickly, and a left turn saw me heading for seat 3A. This aircraft had been refurbished and fitted with the suites.
It's very similar to the Virgin suites, apart from the 'sheen' of the suites is more blue-green, and the colours of the leather and carpets. There are also slight differences in other areas of the design, such as the tv module on the end of the swing-arm, and the old reading light still being fitted - but not being as bright (didn't have as many LEDs in it). There is also an overhead reading light still provided above the seat on the Air NZ version, and that seems well focused on to the seat when you're sat in an upright position.
Laptop power on this aircraft is by 110V androgynous USA/Aus/NZ/Euro EmPower.
Headphones use a triangular 3-pin socket - one jack for each channel, and a smaller jack for noise cancellation - so if you plan on using your own headset with Air NZ's new IFE, remember to bring one of those stereo to mono adapters. (I noted this is different to the 737 fleet, which only has single stereo jacks.) The headset jack is also tucked into the seat pocket, rather than in the controller console.
Very quickly, pre-departure drinks were offered, including champagne, water, and juice, and I was asked if I'd flown on this configuration before. I told them that I'd flown it on Virgin, of course!
The refit on these aircraft has been very thorough. Each cabin has been completely overhauled, and it's a very impressive job. Even the lavatories have been remodelled, with up-to-date materials and lighting. The Business Premier lavs feature Living Nature toiletries, and cotton hand towels. The flooring in the lav is quite funky too. You'll just have to try it for yourself, I can't describe it, other than weird, honeycombed, and 3D!
The only real differences beween the ANZ cabin and the VS 744 J cabin is that the ANZ one isn't as 'spangly', the massage area has been replaced by lockers and cupboards, topped with somewhere to leave out drinks and snacks during the flight, with an innovative anti-slide rubberised coating. Of course, there isn't the bar, so there's an extra pair of middle suites in the back of the 'B' zone. There's no removable dividers yet here, either, and there wasn't any 'mood lighting' on ZK-NBU, but apparently, the latest 744 to be refitted does have this feature, as do the four new 777s.
A few more people started to board, and the door was shut almost 10 minutes ahead of schedule. We were asked what drink we'd like after take off, at this point, and all the pre-departure glasses were collected.
After another few minutes, we pushed back, and the four Rolls Royce engines were spun up for our short hop across the Tasman.
A very short taxi out, just a few minutes, because we were taking off to the North East. A fairly short roll, and we were airborne around 11.45ish.
The Senior flight attendant (the equivalent of the CSS) in charge of our cabin came around and welcomed everyone by name, and introduced herself. I didn't see the Purser on this flight other than at the door on boarding and disembarking - apparently, they have an 'office', and this is somewhere in the middle of the aircraft, so it's not unusual for them to be helping out back in Y!
The On-Demand entertainment system, but Rockwell Collins rather than MAS (like Wisemen and V:Port), was started up fairly quickly after takeoff, but preceeded by a very quick (like 3 minute) welcome on board video - and thankfully no news and sport! The Purser also warned us to be patient for the first few minutes of the system being available - just like with V:Port. I still think the best thing to do is to actually be able to leave the system running all the time, with the seats in some sort of 'inhibited' mode, so that the startup is quicker - it seems this is how Wisemen 3000 works on SQ. The Air NZ AVOD system isn't as easy to navigate as V:Port, but I'm sure that's fixable with some tweaking of the menu system. Their skymap is very tarty, but not interactive, and lacks some of the techie information like head/tailwind speed, and keeps doing altitude and speed in meters and km/h. Nothing wrong with feet, knots and Mach numbers!
Drinks were brought around, along with 'vegetable snacks', which turned out to be a bit like prawn crackers! They were quite agreeable though, nice, light and crispy.
Lunch orders were now taken, and while there was a fixed choice of starter, which was parma ham, with marinated mozzarella balls and melon, there was a good choice of main courses, including a salmon melt, a roast chicken, something veggie which slips my mind, and pork medallions on a bed of noodles and with roasted veggies. There was also cheese and biscuits, and ice cream for dessert (offered with dessert wine, as well).
For wine, I had a rather nice Sauvignon Blanc - it would be rude not to, really, though I don't remember which winery it came from.
My table, despite being of the new design, was not playing ball, and had to be freed with a credit-card sized piece of plastic. Air NZ even say in their 'seat instructions' that the table remains something of a 'work in progress', and we should ask for the crew if it is recalcitrant. At least they are honest about the Suite's shortcomings and niggles!
Warmed breads were served with the meal, and there was a good selection. Olive oil for dipping was also available instead of butter.
The salt and pepper pots were these rather cute 'stones' - the salt a white, eggshell finish, and the pepper a rough charcoal grey finish. Very nice, though apparently a pain because they are pre-placed onto the tray setup by the caterer, and roll over on rotation!
Altogether, the meal was very enjoyable, the quality was among the best I've sampled in the air, and very good for a short (3 hour) flight. I was even offered seconds of ice cream!
Just thinking, it would be Club Europe if it was BA, and there was simply no comparison. I asked if the service would be the same on the Trans-Tasman services operated on the A320, and the answer was 'yes' - the meal and beverage service would be almost the same (even with the smaller cabin on the A320).
I have a picture of the place setting with starter and cheese, which I'll upload when I get a minute.
Just as the meal service was finishing, and it was coffee time, we were hit by turbulence - which was expected, as the crew had also hit it on the way over - but somewhat worse on the way back. Coffee escaped from the cups, and this kept up for almost all the remaining flight, with maybe a 20 minute smooth spell before top of descent - during which time I had a more successful retry of the coffee.
All too soon we were descending into Auckland, where we landed about 10 minutes behind schedule, apparently due to lack of tailwind. I don't think anyone minded the delay, as they all seemed to want to spend more time trying out the suite. At least one person commented 'I didn't get to try the bed yet!' to one of the crew.
The Kiwis let me in - no queueing at immigration/customs, priority baggage delivery worked properly (it seems to on most Star airlines, in my experience), I had the fun of telling the MAF (the same as our MAFF) guy that I a) had food, and b) had been on a farm - though all that resulted in was some extra questioning before my bag was x-rayed like everyone else's, and I was probably on one of the first out from our flight.
A very good first impression of Air NZ, and it's been maintained on three subsequent domestic flights, and I have a 12 hour sector on the 777 coming up this weekend as I fly to San Francisco. I'm looking forward to the full-blown International Air New Zealand experience!
Stay tuned for the next instalment...
Cheers,
Mike
