Head to the Americas with the airline that just keeps on winning Airline Excellence Awards – it is the carrier just across the pond – Air New Zealand.
So for those long haul flights across the Pacific, landing into one of six ports in North America or to South America's vibrant Buenos Aires; take advantage of Air New Zealand’s Business Premier™ or Premium Economy sale fares and experience for yourself why the awards just keep coming.
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Business Premier
What’s included when you fly Business Premier:
- The luxurious leather armchair converts into one of the longest beds in the sky: 6’7.5” fully lie-flat, with memory foam mattress, duvet, and two full-size fluffy pillows
- Free standard seat select
- Premium check in, priority baggage, priority boarding and Koru lounge access (where applicable)
- Two pieces of carry on (up to 7kg each)
- Three pieces of checked luggage (up to 23kg each)
- Inflight entertainment
- Delicious menu options, matched with premium New Zealand wines
- A higher Airpoints Dollars and Status Points earn rate
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The All Important Seat
When in an upright position the seats in Business Premier are more like decent sized armchairs. The 22-inch wide signature chalk coloured leather seats are comfortable for taller and wider frames and recline to a fully lie-flat six foot seven and a half inch bed – one of the longest in the sky. When this is converted and combined with the thick memory foam mattress, fluffy duvet and two full size pillows - it is considered one of the most comfortable beds available in the sky.
For the non-sleeping part of your journey there is an in-seat power socket, a USB port, hours of on demand entertainment and a cleverly designed table that is big enough to have two people dine – a nice change if you are flying with a travelling companion.
Those Little Extras
Premium quality headphones and an amenity kit that you actually want to use and keep. It includes high quality deluxe toiletries to make your journey more comfortable.
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Food and Beverage
Unsurprisingly Air New Zealand consistently excels on the food and beverage front, no matter what cabin you are flying in. Kiwi chef Peter Gordon (The Sugar Club, Bellota, Auckland), is Air New Zealand’s consultant chef working with a talented culinary team to design the inflight menus. The culinary experience starts on the Trans-Tasman flight where you can expect top-quality dishes with fresh local NZ produce such as the slow cooked lamb shank, smoked seafood pie and poached chicken salad.
On the night flight to Los Angeles, dinner selections feature two entrees, four mains and three desserts; plus a good offering of New Zealand cheeses. With a menu that changes monthly, highlights have included a sweet paprika dusted hapuka, gourmet beef burger and roasted tomato and black bean soup, while for dessert a popular favourite has been the vanilla bean and spicy apple crumble.
Selecting wines for drinking inflight takes special care as there are unique conditions to consider – low humidity and high altitude affect the palate; therefore Air New Zealand has a panel of expert Wine Consultants to select the perfect wines. The Business Premier Beverage service sets the bar high with an initial glass of Champagne prior to take-off. After departure Business Premier passengers can select from some great New Zealand wines; with approximately two to three whites and reds as well as a sparkling and a sticky on offer. Recent award-winning wines on board have included the Kemeu River Chardonnay, Ribbonwood Pinot Gris, Urlar Pinot Noir, Abbey Syrah and a Tohu Noble Riesling.
Premium beers, including craft beers are also available in addition to top shelf spirits, ports and liqueurs.
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Premium Economy
What’s included in a Premium Economy Fare…
- Two pieces of carry-on (up to 7kg each)
- Two pieces of checked luggage (up to 23kg each)
- Luxury customised leather seats with more personal space
- Standard seat select included
- Premium check-in, priority baggage and priority boarding
- Delicious menu options, matched with quality New Zealand wines
- On-demand entertainment including the latest movies, TV shows, music and games
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It’s All About the Seat
The armrest provides a proper buffer between yourself and the adjacent stranger, with up to 43-inch pitch – the largest in it’s class and almost double the recline than economy, in addition to the large cotton covered pillow and sizeable blanket, enables a decent sleep.
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Then there’s the food and wine
Consultant Chef, Peter Gordon also influenced the Premium Economy menu with three dinner options that change monthly and have included slow-cooked beef cheek with horseradish mash, roast chicken breast served on cous cous, and a blackened salmon accompanied by citrus labna. Desserts are always light enough to squeeze in and sound too tasty to resist, plus there is always a consistent and excellent selection of award-winning New Zealand wines.
Breakfast choices often include popular favourites like scrambled eggs or sweet hotcakes with blueberry compote and whipped cream.
Why the Awards?
Crowned the 2018 Airline of the Year by leading international aviation website AirlineRatings.com last month, makes it the fifth consecutive year that Air New Zealand has received the top honour. The award makes a nice pairing with Air New Zealand’s Premium Economy Service that has won the AirlineRatings.com award for Best Premium Economy - also for the fifth year running.
Why the Awards Matter?
AirlinesRatings.com assesses the airlines on 13 major criteria for the awards each year. These include passenger reviews, in-flight product offerings, safety, profitability, fleet age and environmental policies. For the savvy traveller, these criteria are important because they go much deeper than just upmarket toiletry bags in Business Class or availability of the latest movies. These criteria provide more holistic, objective and rounded-out assessments of the airline from a broad range of stakeholders – so that passengers, no matter what cabin class they are travelling, can feel comfortable with the airline’s safety and service.
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Image credit: Air New Zealand
