Air New Zealand

[alastair]

Should anyone be planning on flying to Los Angeles at any time I would highly recommend Air New Zealand. We had to curtail our holiday last week due to a family bereavement and our travel insurance company arranged flights back for us on Air New Zealand. 34 inch leg room in economy, latest in flight entertainment system (choice of 26 films plus games), better food and service than we have previously had on BA and Virgin and excellent cabin crew. They would certainly be my choice if we ever flew to or from LA again.

Air New Zealand have always had a very good reputation in the airline world so I am not surprised, but pleased for you. So sorry it was for a family bereavement [grouphug]

My hubby has worked in New Zealand and flew with them via LA, he also thought they were very good, which coming from a pro BA man (his brother was a BA Captaiin and he is married to an ex BA girl[msnwink]) is high praise indeed!!![clap]

[Katys Grandad]

I may be the bearer of bad news Alastair. Last week I read that Air New Zealand have suffered losses in revenue because travellers to Australia and New Zealand have gone to other airlines to avoid the security checks and lines on stopovers at LAX. They are reducing their flights via Los Angeles and increasing the Hong Kong routing.

[dawn]

Hi Alastair,
Sorry to hear about your bereavement, but glad to hear you had a good flight home

[alastair]

According to the Air New Zealand website they are in October adding a second daily service from London to New Zealand via Hong Kong, not reducing the via Los Angeles service. We had no trouble at all getting checked in and through security at LA, in fact the longest Q we experienced was at Heathrow on the way out.

Thank you also for your kind comments regarding my fathers death. This unfortunately meant we had to cut short our vacation and miss the 12 days we had planned at our villa in Orlando, but that is something we can always do again.

[Katys Grandad]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by alastair
According to the Air New Zealand website they are in October adding a second daily service from London to New Zealand via Hong Kong, not reducing the via Los Angeles service. We had no trouble at all getting checked in and through security at LA, in fact the longest Q we experienced was at Heathrow on the way out.

[/quote]

Thanks Alastair - I've now checked my facts!

ANZ are utilising the HKG route on the extra service because of a lot of people not wanting to transit LAX enroute to Auckland. It seems that passengers flying LHR-Auckland have to enter the US, go through immigration and customs and then queue in long security lines to go back airside just while the plane refuels!

Obviously, this isn't a problem if you are just flying to LAX or having a stopover but it must be a real pain in the middle of a 26 hour flight.

[Ann-Marie]

Definitely agree with you Alastair. We travelled out to LA with Air New Zealand a few years back and the flight and service were excellent. They are always the first airline I check with now when travelling out there. However, couldn't get a good deal with them this year - we're flying out to LA at the end of June and are flying KLM from Edinburgh via AMS to LA. Never flown with them before so hope the flight is just as good - apart from the leg room (only 31 inch leg room with them [msnsad).