Flight check: Auckland to Wellington on Air New Zealand

An Air NZ Airbus A320. Photo / Grant Bradley

The plane: An Airbus A320. This one entered the fleet in July 2015 and is one of 17 in the domestic jet fleet.

Class: In the trenches — Economy.

My seat: 24B. A middle seat and a little squished. I travelled on the day Air New Zealand revealed plans to install wider middle seats into new A320s for its international fleet. No word on retrofitting the domestic planes though, sadly.

The price: There's a big variaiton in prices — you can pay $59-$279 one way. Obviously, it costs more at short notice.

Flight time: We pushed back on time, and the 480km journey took 49 mins, hitting an altitude of 28,000ft.

Entertainment: The KiaOra magazine had a good feature on Savai'i and an excellent info guide to Wairarapa. There was also the quiz on the flip-down screen.

The service: The four cabin crew were courteous and calm. Usual common sense and consistency from Air New Zealand.

Food and drink: Choice of Cookie Time cookie or lightly salted pretzels, tea, coffee and water. And of course, boiled sweets.

Fellow passengers: An 8.30am departure meant a skew to business folks — not a holiday buzz.

Airport experience: In spite of peak time take-off and dodgy weather as the remnants of Cyclone Debbie struck, it was a fairly smooth run out to and through Auckland Airport.

The domestic terminal really does show its age — it was an original structure when the airport was opened in 1966. Help is on the way with plans for a new one being finalised. Wellington is swish by comparison after a recent upgrade.

The bottom line: An unremarkable if a little tight journey aboard NZ411 — in a good way. If you're travelling for work that's how you like it.