Air New Zealand downgrading us for a leg

[sammy]

Last March, we booked premium economy return flights from Sydney to Houston via Auckland.
We flew over in December, and all was well.
Until they emailed us that they have chartered a plane from Hi Fly on the Auckland to Sydney leg. On checking their planes (A330 and A340) they don’t seem to have premium economy.
We emailed ANZ but have received no reply.
Can they do this? What are our rights?
Can we ask to be moved to another trans Tasman flight with PE class?

 

[oz_mark]

Can they do this? What are our rights?
Can we ask to be moved to another trans Tasman flight with PE class?

From Travel alerts - Travel alert information - Flight information - Plan | Air New Zealand
I don’t want to travel on this aircraft so what are my options?
If you do not wish to travel on this aircraft you can change to another Air New Zealand operated service and may do so at no penalty or fare cost within 7 days of your original travel plans. You will need to book in the same cabin class as originally purchased. For travel in a higher cabin class additional charges will apply. If you no longer wish to travel because of the flight being operated by Hi Fly you may opt for a full refund without penalty regardless of fare rules. Please contact your original booking agent.

 

[sammy]

Thank you so much for that link. I was unable to find it despite searching.
It’s actually given me all the information I need ( apparently the planes do have a premium economy cabin after all)

 

[laffer]

Thank you so much for that link. I was unable to find it despite searching.
It’s actually given me all the information I need ( apparently the planes do have a premium economy cabin after all)

Out of curiosity who are hi fly? Similar to jet connect? I found in Europe it was hard to know who the actual operator was (Google flights was good for showing it). Plane livery doesn't mean a lot these days?

 

[mannej]

Out of curiosity who are hi fly? Similar to jet connect? I found in Europe it was hard to know who the actual operator was (Google flights was good for showing it). Plane livery doesn't mean a lot these days?

Hi Fly provide charter services

 

[lobby]

Has anybody flown on the hi fly A340 yet? I'm flying PER-AKL in Y next week and was just wondering what to expect.

 

[trooper]

A bit of a poke around seems to indicate that what Hi-Fly calls "First" NZ is calling Business...
Hi-Flys "Business" appears to be categorised as Y+ by NZ.... (Hi-Fly says 12F/42J/213Y...NZ says 12J/42Y+)
Appears you will fly on either CS-TQZ ... 9H-FOX or 9H-JAI. (Portugal and Malta registered respectively)

BTW "First" has a seat pitch of 86", "Business" has 58-60" Y has 32-33"
Entertainment is "Panasonic S2K and XH" (whatever that means....)

I will look forward to a trip report!!!!

Further research suggests at least ONE of those aircraft is ex_Emirates... All three are 2-2-2 in F, 2-3-2 in J

 

[thompo]

I flew SYD-AKL late 2017 on the A340 and it was a step back in time onto an ex-Emirates plane. Y IFE has tiny little dim screens with ~15 channels playing movies on repeat - I'm glad I took my tablet with Netflix downloaded.

Neither PE or J (J and F in Hi Fly lingo respectively) are lie-flat, if I was paying for J PER-AKL I'd be very disappointed.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

FWIW Lucky on onemileatatime said he had a blast on the Hi-Fly ex EK plane - first class with the old 2-2-2 [almost] full flats. Business - if it's what NZ is selling as PEY, would be very generous compared to the standard NZ offering.