Cheree Kinnear talks to Air New Zealand's Head of Aircraft Programmes Kerry Reeves about the exciting changes coming to their cabins.
Video / Jed Bradley / NZ Herald / Air NZ
OPINION
Business class in aircraft is known as the most expensive real estate in the world. Air New Zealand’s Business Premier has been letting the neighbourhood down for some time.
The airline freely acknowledges its ageing hard product (the seats) up the front of its planes is not up toscratch and says help is on the way.
The latest to call the airline out are a pair of “travel influencers” from Tennessee who labelled the layout up the front of the plane the “world’s weirdest”.
The reputation of Air NZ Business Premier’s herringbone layout - designed in 2002 - preceded it.
“I have heard that the configuration of the seats on Air New Zealand business class is some of the worst flying the sky,” Nate says at the start of the video.
When they boarded their flight and walked through the herringbone seating; an experience Kara described as “so weird”.
“I’m just letting the initial shock wear off for a moment and then I’ll give a seat tour,” she said. She liked the range of inflight entertainment (IFE) and said the reclining seat was pretty comfortable.
Nate said Air New Zealand wins the award for the most awkward business class seat configuration.
“I’m just looking at a lot more people’s heads. Somehow I feel like I’m inconveniencing people just by putting my feet up.”
And that’s Business Premier in a nutshell. Unless you’re in Row A (a single line of window seats) there’s a good chance of getting a great view of your fellow travellers’ feet, as seats face into each other. There’s a distinct lack of privacy so it’s easy to see what the person in front of you likes to watch and if you are on a window row there’s a risk of putting your back out if you swivel to look out at the view.
Air NZ followed Virgin Atlantic into the herringbone set-up around 20 years ago. It was revolutionary at the time and was introduced when many competitors hadn’t introduced flat beds. But the Kiwi airline has been leapfrogged by the competition.
On flights out of New Zealand there’s far superior hard product on rivals including the very private suites on Qantas Dreamliners on the flagship route between Auckland and New York, seats more like thrones on Singapore Airlines (on which pre-ordered lobster thermidore out of Changi is still the most popular dish), the First Class style Q-Suite with sliding doors on Qatar Airways and the ultimate luxury in the sky; the splendid lounge bar on the top deck of Emirates’ A380s.
Emirates has a roomy lounge bar in its A380s flying into NZ.
Even the United States carriers flocking to New Zealand have lifted their game. Never famous for high-quality hard product they’ve been re-fleeting with new aircraft fitted with new seats and suites which are said to be top-notch.
Air New Zealand has tweaked its food up front this year. (If an Economy meal on a recent trip to Singapore is anything to go by - that should be excellent).
It internally acknowledges its near-unfailingly excellent crew have to do the “heavy lifting” to compensate for hard product deficiencies.
But this time next year it should be welcoming the first of a new generation of Dreamliners fitted with new seats and new interiors from nose to tail. The new $450,000 Business Premier seats will be more standard business class types seen on other airlines and Air NZ is introducing a new seat type.
Its new business premier luxe seats get a 1.14m-high sliding door and more space.
Right now a price snapshot shows its partner Singapore Airlines (with superior hard product) has the same price for business class on a round trip from Auckland to Singapore in early March.
Qantas non-stop between Auckland and New York has return business class fares starting from around $300 less at the same time. Both are close to $12,000. That’s what you pay for a lie-flat bed, better food, a bigger IFE screen, more attentive service, better access to bigger bathrooms onboard, much more personal space, more storage and on the ground, there’s access to usually very pleasant lounges.
Customers must ask themselves whether Air New Zealand’s Business Premier product is worth the price when airlines on the same routes offer much better.
The answer so far has been “yes” as premium travel bookings for Air NZ have been strong – and that’s where yields are highest. It benefits from loyalty; customers attracted to its massive Airpoints scheme to rack up rewards and it’s also spiritual; Kiwis’ intangible attachment to the airline. But there’s only so long the airline can rely on this, as its Business Premier looks increasingly dated.
Grant Bradley has been working at the Herald since 1993. He is the Business Herald’s deputy editor and covers aviation and tourism.
