For five years Air New Zealand has been named Airline of the Year by AirlineRatings.com. Having always heard great things about this carrier, I was incredibly excited to travel on Flight NZ 3 from LAX-AKL for the opening of Cloud39. After an early positioning flight from ORD-LAX and a lunch meeting in West Hollywood, I headed back to check out the Star Alliance Lounge before an evening departure.
Air New Zealand Business Premier
Available on their long haul metal (777-200, 777-300, 787-9) the standard cabin is a 1 – 2 – 1 herringbone configuration. The seat didn’t recline or lounge as far as I’d prefer, but was plenty comfortable. The lack of recline is because the seat flips over to create a full bed that is among the longest available in class.
The entire crew was so attentive and friendly. One of the attendants offered to make a bed up further back in the forward cabin as there were open seats. This being my first time flying in this type of configuration, I didn’t mind the angle, but didn’t love staring at the feet of the passenger to my left (my seat was 1k).
Amenity Kits
The amenity kit is a nice sized pouch, faux black leather on the outside and a bright signature purple interior. The kit has a little plastic tag to ensure they haven’t been opened. I like this better than other carriers who hand them out wrapped in plastic.
Products include: eye mask, pen, mouthwash, toothbrush and toothpaste, ear plugs, socks and Ashley & Co hand cream and lip balm.
Is that Adrian Grenier?
Surprise! Adrien Grenier made an appearance in the safety video. It’s pretty goofy…exactly what you’d expect:
Dining
The food was absolutely superb and the service was hands down the best experience I’ve had compared to 6+ other carriers. The timing of service was spot on and upon sleeping in, I was shocked to have been offered an arrival meal, especially with less than 20 min prior to landing.
Menu
Lunch
Service started with some bubbly and mixed nuts:
Followed by: Prawns with tomato chilli sambal mayonnaise, napa cabbage slaw, grilled baby corn and spring onions. Served with delicious black olive, rye and garlic breads. I paired this course with a nice sauvignon blanc.
The main I chose was the Seared cod with chargrilled broccolini, yuzu butter, parsnip puree and green olive tapenade. For this course, I opted for the pinot noir.
Mint chocolate chip ice cream is my favorite, so that was an easy choice:
And because a review wouldn’t be complete unless I tried #allthethings, the selection of cheese, fig relish and crackers were quite nice too.
Dinner
As I mentioned, I slept in pretty late and by the time I woke up there was about 25 min left until we landed. I asked with the expectation of being told no, and to my delight, the attendant happily (and quickly) changed my bed over and brought both courses with time to spare.
To begin I opted for the poached prawns, watermelon and black radish, pumpkin seeds and tamarind dressing.
The main I selected was the slow roasted beef brisket with mascarpone mashed potatoes, roasted baby turnips and carrots with vegetable crisps.
Arrival
The airport seemed pretty quiet upon our arrival (a few minutes late our scheduled time of 6:35 pm). There’s no expedited lane for upper class passengers and the automatic kiosks worked with all e-passports. The arrival hall had native music playing, sounds of a lot of sheep and this pretty cool archway.
The post Review: Air New Zealand Business Premier LAX-AKL was first published on Coworkaholic.