Dave Worsley flies from Auckland to New York, via Sydney, with Qantas
The planes: In order: An Airbus A330-200, Airbus A380-300 and a Dreamliner.
Class: Economy.
Price: Around $800-1000 cheaper than Air New Zealand and just about every other carrier, too. Flight time: The first leg was around three hours, the next around 13, and finally six. A long time all up.
On time? Considering there were three different flights, it was fairly good. The flight from LAX to NYC was delayed with explanation of storms in New York. Everyone was kept informed regularly.
My seat: All Economy and all with a seat spare next to me — 30K, 55K and 54F. I prefer the window to have more space to lean and hopefully sleep. Getting out isn’t too difficult as I’m tall enough to almost step over a person.
Fellow passengers: on the first flight it was a few business people, but then it became mainly Aussies and a few Kiwis travelling to LA or New York.
Toilets: Pretty clean on all three flights, which was impressive on the lengthy middle journey.
The service: Can’t complain. Everyone seemed nice to the stewards on every flight and in return they were even nicer back.
How full: The first flight to Sydney was fairly sparse, but then Sydney to LAX had only two or three spare seats… and one of them was next to me. The third flight was 90 per cent capacity as well.
Food and drink: I always avoid the breakfast sausage, so a breakfast of fresh fruit was the initial meal — and it tasted like fresh fruit! In fact on all three flights the food was very edible and fresh and all options were available.
Entertainment: Difficult to recall on the first short flight, but the screens were very clear. Strangely the longest flight had the worst selection and worst screens of the three (it wasn’t that bad, but compared to the others… it came third).
Luggage: Being Qantas club I’m allowed around 30kg, but I actually had 17kg and small shoulder bag with a change of clothes and laptop in it for on board. Unfortunately the luggage at JFK took around an hour to come through.
Airport experience: Aside from shocking luggage delays in JFK it was easy going. Auckland is easy. Sydney as simple for transit, aside from the usual rude staff, par for the course at Australia’s two main airports. LAX can be chaos particularly when transit time is tight, but on this occasion was very easy, even at security checking back in.
Would I fly this again: Yes. When you’re saving a good amount plus flying across the US on an international plane and regarded as an international flight it’s a yes, plus another yes. Sure there’s three hours extra tagged on, but it’s a more pleasurable flight experience. Going from an Air New Zealand flight or similar and then on to a domestic carrier when you hit the US can be a hideous experience.