An Air New Zealand Boeing 777. Photo / Getty Images
Belinda Feek flies Air New Zealand from Auckland to Brisbane, Queensland.
Plane: B777-300.
Class: Economy.
Price: Standard basic fare from $208, one way.
Flight time: 2hr, 50m, 10 minutes ahead of schedule. But then we spent that time sitting on the runway due to the backlog on arrival.
My seat: 41K.
Fellow passengers: An out-of-luck American couple who had been bumped off their Delta Airlines Business Class flight because their plane was "overweight" and chucked into cattle class with me. Interesting they choose to bump their more expensive passengers.
How full? Packed. Couldn't see a spare seat, but I gather they were taken by the other seven turfed passengers, including a pregnant woman with a sick child and former Shortland Street-star husband.
Entertainment: Air New Zealand's Seat+Bag deal literally means, seat and bag. I couldn't face three hours of staring into space so I shelled out $10 and watched Borg vs McEnroe. However, half of that was in a foreign language without subtitles, so I'm still left guessing on Borg's side of things.
Service: I didn't require a lot due to my nil requirements, but they were friendly enough.
Food and drink: The bacon being eaten by the lady next to me smelled pretty good. Fortunately I had a few of my own snacks.
Toilets: The cleanest I've seen on a plane for a while.
Luggage: I took a big bag and it arrived on the other side. Bonus.
Airport: Discovered Auckland Airport is undergoing a big reno. Look forward to the result.
The bottomline: You buy a cheaper ticket, you get fewer services. At least the passenger has control over paying for what they want.
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When there's nothing as far as the eye can see, you may appreciate the company.