Seating on NZ Business Premier

[Keith009]

Just booked an award MEL-AKL-PVG in Business Premier. First time on NZ BP so I'm psyched. [OT: Of course SQ SYD-SIN-PVG around December would be potentially a way cooler experience if the big baby gets delivered on time and would be a nice way of saying goodbye to *A but it turns into a scandalously expensive 3 region award complete with skyhigh SQ YQ using LH miles...]

MEL-AKL-MEL is operated by the 744 - I was wondering what people's feelings are RE upper deck vs the nose?

I usually go on the UD on other carriers - but I notice that the NZ 744 UD is shared by both BP and PE pax and as far as I can tell, it's one big shared cabin with no curtains separating the 2 classes. Has this proved to be a problem wrt attention rendered by FAs to BP pax, and overall feel of the UD cabin?

Right now I've selected the following seats:
MEL-AKL NZ6 19A
AKL-PVG NZ89 3A
PVG-AKL NZ88 5K
AKL-MEL NZ5 4K

Opinions appreciated.

Thanks,
Keith

 

[trooper]

I've only ever managed a "points" upgrade BP flight.. and that was a 777...

BUT.. I fly PE on the 747 whenever I can and I would recommend you go main deck in BP... and as far forward as you can get... There is no separation between Y+ and BP upstairs... so while I would certainly claim that us Y+ types are very nice indeed D ) I reckon you might as well go for the best seats in the house.. which look to be the forward main deck area....(Upper deck staff seemed to have to work very hard.....)

As an aside.. I enjoyed the BP flight a lot... ate too much cos I'm a bachelor and lousy cook... and it was mostly very good so I couldn't resist! The flat bed was a revelation... it was very firm... but I slept just fine!

 

[Keith009]

Thanks for that, trooper.

 

[trooper]

I think I just confirmed what you already thought!!!!

I can only compare AirNZ's BP with QANTAS business class from about 5 years ago (747 SYD-LAX)....

And I would say the same as a buddy of mine who was on that 777 flight last month (in Y+) when I got that upgrade... He flew Business on United last year and he took one look at the BP seat/product and said "This is a whole different class of travel..."

Enjoy your trip!

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Unless you have a tight connection, upper deck is great. The aisle is wider than in the main business cabin below, and pax to crew ratio is good (plus any babies in business tend to be downstairs - no guarantees). I haven't flown UD since NZ enhanced (yes a real improvement) the premium economy service, so possibly service a bit more rushed for business class as a result. That said, row 7 at the rear of the nose zone is very private.

On 777 (ie AKL-PVG) there is no real difference between seats. I prefer forward to rear - slightly more private (premium economy pax use toilets at the rear of business class).

When are you flying? I'm on those flights too later this year (across 2 separate trips).

Enjoy your trip. NZ longhaul business class is a decent step above QF.

 

[Keith009]

Thanks for the comments, Kiwi Flyer.
Will leave my seat allocations as they are then since there are no strong opinions one way or the other.

I'm doing MEL-AKL-PVG on 5th Dec and returning PVG-AKL 11th Dec, AKL-MEL 12th Dec. Still undecided as to whether I should add another city in the region like ICN due to 'one enroute stopover' allowance, but it'd mean less to spend on my DONE4 in Jan. hmm...

Oh and out of curiosity I asked the agent to try SQ and see what availability is like. From SYD I and O seem to have been zeroed out for the flight I wanted in anticipation of the Whalejet... So I wouldn't have been able to nab an I class on the relevant flight out of SYD even if I wanted anyway. That's some consolation.

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

My flights are months before then, although also passing through MEL 24th Dec.

Not surprised A380 flight zeroed out

Are you coming to Queenstown do in November? If so, just a thought you could make that the en route stopover (and separate ticket NZ-MEL-NZ to resume award in December)?

 

[Keith009]

Are you coming to Queenstown do in November? If so, just a thought you could make that the en route stopover (and separate ticket NZ-MEL-NZ to resume award in December)?

As mentioned in ur thread on FT - I'd love to, but Nov = exam month.
I thought about nesting a few ex-NZ tickets with the enroute stopover rule but again, trying to save as much cash as possible for the big RTW.

Hmm, now thinking of ways to fine tune the record before sending it for ticketing. Oh - and Kassel SEN line is great , much better than the Aussie number anyway...

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

As mentioned in ur thread on FT - I'd love to, but Nov = exam month.

sorry, I forgot