NZ99 From Australia, joined Dec 2007, 62 posts, RR: 0 Posted (4 years 6 months 1 week 6 days 3 hours ago) and read 11675 times:
------------------ Kia Ora all! Welcome to my 5th Trip Report! ------------------
^^All Comments & Suggestions Welcome!^^
As i begin my report, I’m sitting in seat 5A, 11276 meters high in the sky and listening to good life by Kanye West and I would have to say I myself am enjoying the Good Life!!
This trip was a quick one across the “ditch”. 4 Days meeting a new entry into the family and caching up with my sister. It was a great trip with fantastic weather every day. I enjoyed a plesant trip over to sydney on the 772 via AKL which was nice but was incredibly full.
------------------Travel Log ------------------
Air New Zealand flight 786
Sydney Mascot Intl to Christchurch
Airbus 320 (ZK-OJN)
Seat: 5A(Window)
Cruising Altitude: 37’000ft
Departure Gate: 63 (Terminal 1)
Scheduled Departure Time: 18:20 (AEDT)
Actual Departure Time: 18:46 (AEDT)
Arrival Gate: 28
Scheduled Arrival Time: 23:20
Actual Arrival Time: 23:18
------------------Aircraft Information------------------ ZK-OJN
First Flight on 22OCT05
First Delivered to NZ 16NOV05
------------------Tuesday 29th October------------------
A usually short drive from Mosman on Sydney’s North Shore to Mascot Airport took a while today, we hit some major traffic on the Eastern Distributor but cleared after a 20 minute crawl through the cities tunnels. We were at the airport not to late, around 10 minutes to 5 in the evening, check in was a breeze in the Business / Star* Gold queue and got our preselected seats of 5A,B&C in the new Space+ section of the A320.
After passing quickly through the express customs & security queues in the temporary customs hall we did a quick bit of duty free shopping. We were then on our way to the NZ Lounge, the staff were extremely friendly in this lounge as always, the food selection was decent with several hot dishes available.
West Pier Departure Lounge
Air NZ Lounge
The Lounge in Sydney has some excellent features, plenty of workspace with computers as well as Wi-Fi and many seats to relax and watch aircraft movements. Two Air NZ aircraft pulled up in front of the lounge, a 767 to AKL and the 320 to Wellington, ours to CHC was tucked around the corner.
Spotting at SYD wasn’t to bad on this late afternoon. KE, CA, DJ, BA, NZ, SQ, JQ amongst others made an appearance this afternoon. It was an average day so not the best light for snapping.
767 to AKL
Waiting for Red-Eyes home to North Asia, KE and CA
SQ77W Arriving
DJ from Nadi later head for Christchurch
2 Competitiors of the Tasman NZvsDJ
BA heading home to LHR
Hi Fly 333 Wet Lease
Our Plane to CHC
The Mighty 77W
Boarding began slightly late just before 6pm. The queue was short and we were on-board in no time, We were underway slightly late, had to wait for a HiFly A330 wet leased to the Royal Australian Air force to push back next to us
ZK-OJN
Walking down the long Pier
First look at the new Interior for me
The Space+ seating is great. The legroom is excellent and the seat felt really roomy, as well as comfortable, it was great having a USB port to charge my cell-phone as well.
View from 5A
Bye Sydney
My favourite Air Show screen. The Flight Controls!
The Captain announced the flight time of just over 2 hours 30 minutes with a short taxi around T1 to runway 16R
Air bridge cemetery haha
Over the M1
SYD Tower
Sydney CBD in the distance
However this never eventuated, we ended up taxiing all the way to 16L which took a while, and finally at a little after quarter to seven we were away, and up over Botany Bay
We took a slight left hand turn after passing the Port of Botany, with good views of the eastern suburbs right up to Bondi and beyond. We also got some good views of the NSW golf club.
After pushing up and into the cloud it was a few minutes until we popped out the top. I always love the feeling punching out the top of the clouds and into the sunny sky! so good!
Legroom, Very Good!
We soon leveled out and I was straight into the entertainment system. All i can say is fantastic, the system for an A320 is amazing. The touchscreen is great to use, and the interface is simple. A great page is the site map which allows you to access every section of the system. The Airshow is fantastic, It includes Great tracking whilst on the ground, World Times, and my favorite screen, the Flight Control Display! Excellent. The remote is nice as well, with a qwerty keyboard on the back. It was interesting to see that 3 buttons below the central control were not used. These are for the light and crew calls which apparently can only be connected on the 767 and not on the A320.
Home
Remote
SiteMap
“Watch”
TV Homepage
Pilot View on the airshow
EK A340-500 bound for SYD passing us
The System really has been extensively built, down to the minor details like the Aspect Ratio, and flight information on the Movie/TV Controls
Personal Music Playlist
The Meal service took a while to come around. The two options were a steak and mushroom pie or the chicken pieces. I had the chicken which was great. Mums pie also didnt look to bad. Its quite funny that every time i have been on this flight (NZ786) a pie is always one of the options on the menu, but sadly i wasn't a fan of mushrooms
The flight flew past extremely quickly, I usually find this sector quite boring as i constantly fly it but this time there was something different, I’m sitting in seat 5A, 11276 meters high in the sky and listening to good life by Kanye West on my PTV’s personal music playlist and I would have to say I myself am enjoying the Good Life!!
After what seemed about 30 minutes flying we had begun our decent as the first lights of the South Islands west coast were visible many kilometers below us. As there was some turbulence over the Southern Alps due to the South Islands infamous North-West Wind all the crew were buckled in very early.
It was a bumpy ride down, there were a few people yelping from time to time but it was all over within 10 or so minutes
As the turbulence subsided the quant little towns of the canterbury plains came into view, and CHC appeared in the distance. We headed south of the city, made a left turn over Rolleston and turned final for runway 20 at CHC airport. I was a fast yet smooth landing a few minutes ahead of schedule, The video wasn't to good so im not going to put it up for show.
It was about a 30 second taxi to gate 28. We were the 2nd International Arrival of the night, a Jetstar A320 just arrived before us and was parked next to our gate at 29.
Disembarkation was underway when the air bridge operator made a show after a couple of minutes, immigration took no time, and bags were picked up in less then a minute. After a short queue at MAF customs we were out into a warm Christchurch night
I would have to say the new NZ short haul product is Fantastic. The seats are roomy, comfortable and the meals simple yet tasty. All NZ need now is SQ crew and their short haul would by-far be #1
Now time for the ratings....
NZ786
Departure / Check In 9
Lounge 8
Boarding 7
Aircraft 10
IFE 10
In Flight Meals 8
Cabin Crew 7
On Time 9
Arrival / Bag Claim 9 FINAL SCORE 8.6
Well thats it for a fantastic trip, i’m sure that my next few trips to Sydney will be with Air NZ for sure!
All comments and suggestions on the report are very welcome! Thanks in advance
Regards & Happy Flying
MHTripple7 From United States of America, joined Feb 2008, 1050 posts, RR: 5 Reply 1, posted (4 years 6 months 1 week 5 days 20 hours ago) and read 11127 times:
Wow NZ looks really nice. Their IFE looks great with all those unique features. Great TR!
NZ107 From New Zealand, joined Jul 2005, 5672 posts, RR: 40 Reply 3, posted (4 years 6 months 1 week 4 days 22 hours ago) and read 10192 times:
Nice TR. Wow the NZ IFE suprises me! I guess I'll be having fun with it in Jan then! I think I'll be fully fixated to that airshow programme. Thanks for sharing, hopefully I can compile a TR when I do that flight.
Globetraveller From Germany, joined Apr 2008, 377 posts, RR: 22 Reply 4, posted (4 years 6 months 1 week 4 days 21 hours ago) and read 10143 times:
Thank you for the great trip report NZ99.
I must say, the new product, especially the new hardware, on the shorthaul NZ A320s looks very impressive. The IFE looks amazing and I love the new seats. Very nice indeed!
Buck3y3nut From United States of America, joined Jul 2006, 864 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (4 years 6 months 1 week 3 days 17 hours ago) and read 9391 times:
Wow, this is something very unique. I wish other carriers had this kind of graphic interface as well. The whole map feature is rich and truly amazing. It does look like Google Earth has powered it. the IFE looks really nice and smooth as well.
Great trip report. thanks a bunch for writing it and sharing it with us...
B747forever From United States of America, joined May 2007, 16574 posts, RR: 11 Reply 9, posted (4 years 6 months 1 week 3 days 15 hours ago) and read 9298 times:
Kiwiandrew From New Zealand, joined Jun 2005, 8435 posts, RR: 15 Reply 10, posted (4 years 6 months 1 week 3 days 15 hours ago) and read 9289 times:
great TR , now can someone please explain to me why NZ pax on a 3 hour hop in an A320 can get all this IFE while AF on an 11 hour slog from CDG-MRU on a 744 can only provide a battered old ceiling video monitor with utterly crap movies
[Edited 2008-11-10 10:47:06]
Moderation in all things ... including moderation ;-)
B747forever From United States of America, joined May 2007, 16574 posts, RR: 11 Reply 12, posted (4 years 6 months 1 week 3 days 10 hours ago) and read 9121 times:
Quoting Kiwiandrew (Reply 10): great TR , now can someone please explain to me why NZ pax on a 3 hour hop in an A320 can get all this IFE while AF on an 11 hour slog from CDG-MRU on a 744 can only provide a battered old ceiling video monitor with utterly crap movies
Ryanair!!! From Singapore, joined Mar 2002, 4652 posts, RR: 27 Reply 13, posted (4 years 6 months 1 week 3 days 9 hours ago) and read 9079 times:
I have to say I am very impressed with the PTV offerings on the A320!
Quoting NZ99 (Thread starter): All NZ need now is SQ crew and their short haul would by-far be #1
Now now... we wouldn't want the infamous efficient but souless femme-bots to take over what is a humane batch of Kiwi-spirited cabin crew do we? As far as I am concerned, if my personal experiences with NZ'ers are anything to go by, you guys are doing just fine and in no urgent need for the intervention of Singaporeans.
Welcome to my starry one world alliance, a team in the sky!
NZ99 From Australia, joined Dec 2007, 62 posts, RR: 0 Reply 14, posted (4 years 6 months 1 week 3 days 6 hours ago) and read 8946 times:
Thanks all for the replys!
Quoting Ryanair!!! (Reply 13): Now now... we wouldn't want the infamous efficient but souless femme-bots to take over
Totally Agree, all the mainline NZ crew are fantastic i just feel the Zeal 320 Crews which service this sort of flight could learn a few lessons from the Singapore Gals! They are all really friendly they just lack professionalism....
Quoting LHR777 (Reply 6): Great report, awesome-looking IFE. Are the maps powered by Google Earth? They have that Google Earth 'look'....
They do have that feel a little, but its just the standard Wiseman 6000 maps i believe
Quoting Kiwiandrew (Reply 10): great TR , now can someone please explain to me why NZ pax on a 3 hour hop in an A320 can get all this IFE while AF on an 11 hour slog from CDG-MRU on a 744 can only provide a battered old ceiling video monitor with utterly crap movies
Make's ya wonder where a little carrier like NZ gets the money to fund all these upgrades where i'm sure a larger group like KL/AF should be able to fund these upgrades easily....
Maxisno1 From New Zealand, joined Jul 2007, 212 posts, RR: 0 Reply 15, posted (4 years 6 months 1 week 2 days 19 hours ago) and read 8628 times:
Hiya,
Wonderful trip report! I myself had the pleasure of flying on the upgraded 767 in J a couple of months back, but sadly the crew were still getting use to the AVOD and as a result the IFE had to be restarted a few times & I was moved because my screen froze. They just weren't use to the flash equipment! One can't blame them .
Glad to see they have improved & I look forward to reading more trip reports from you!
Quoting NZ99 (Reply 14): Make's ya wonder where a little carrier like NZ gets the money to fund all these upgrades where i'm sure a larger group like KL/AF should be able to fund these upgrades easily....
PlaneHunter From Germany, joined Mar 2006, 6183 posts, RR: 79 Reply 16, posted (4 years 6 months 1 week 2 days 1 hour ago) and read 8362 times:
Great report about a good airline - just flew NZ039 HKG-LHR and can comfirm your positive impressions. Fantastic too see ANZ has been upgrading the IFE on the A320 fleet - the system is even a bit more advanced than the one on the 744.
Quoting B747forever (Reply 12): And why LH even doesnt offer PTVs on the 744??
LH is a PTV airline now - but numerous 744s will leave the fleet once the A380s arrive. Probably the newer 744s will be upgraded - but not as long as profits shrink in these turbulent times.
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while AF on an 11 hour slog from CDG-MRU on a 744 can only provide a battered old ceiling video monitor with utterly crap movies 
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