On time: The plane had travelled from London prior to this leg of the journey, and was 45 minutes delayed due to late departure from Heathrow.
Flight time: Scheduled for 12h 45m, but we made up time in the air and landed five minutes ahead of schedule.
Fellow passengers: NZ1 flies from London, stopping to refuel in LA. So along with the Kiwis returning home, and Americans headed for Middle-earth holidays, there was also a good representation of Brits.
Luggage: 23kg of checked baggage. After a hefty dose of shopping in West Hollywood, I scraped in at 21kg. I'd only checked in 13kg on the way out.
Airport experience: LAX's Tom Bradley International Terminal has its ups and downs.
Getting through security takes forever, with grumpy TSA staff herding passengers like cattle. Once through, the departures areas is light, bright and modern with some good shopping and cool features, like the three-storey LED columns showing graphics like waterfalls, and forests. Food options are of course limited and over-priced, as is standard with most airports around the world.
Food and drink: In the airport? See above. In-flight — actually pretty good. Dinner after take-off was Mexican beef with rice and green beans or Tuscan chicken with potato wedges and fresh vegetables, followed by a lime-and-coconut mousse cake. I opted for the chicken, which was tender and tasty. The mousse cake was best avoided. My breakfast omelette was hot, hearty and filling.
Entertainment: One of the things I appreciate most about Air NZ's entertainment system is the absence of ads. Other airlines make you suffer through three to four ads before programmes start; on Air NZ you're straight into your chosen show or movie. I was exhausted after a busy trip to the States, so went to sleep straight after dinner and didn't wake up again until breakfast.
Service: Jonathan and Therese, the cabin services manager and assistant, were running a friendly, helpful crew.
Toilets: Four at the back of the cabin, which were mostly clean and tidy.
Would I fly again? Yes. It was great having the extra legroom for a reasonably comfortable sleep on this overnight flight.
