Simon Wilson flies Business Premier to Vancouver on Air New Zealand’s newly refitted Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner and returns in Premium Economy on the same plane.
Visas and requirements: New Zealand citizens travelling to Canada must have a valid passport and an eTA (Electronic Travel Authorisation), which allows tourist visits of up to six months. Apply through the link supplied by Air New Zealand or go directly to ircc.canada.ca. It costs CAD$7 (NZ$8.50), the application is easy and the response should come within a day or so.
Departure airport experience: The dedicated check-in area for Air New Zealand’s frequent flyers, Koru members and customers travelling on a premium ticket worked well. The airline also has an exclusive lift that allows those passengers to bypass the departure hall and go directly to customs and security. But you might have to ask: they didn’t tell me about it when I checked my bags.
The Koru lounge is comfortable and reasonably well-stocked, although when I arrived about 6pm the staff were still bringing out the cooked food. There’s a bar as well as self-serve wine and beer, but no barista: coffee was self-serve.
Seat: I travelled to Vancouver on Business Premier and returned on Premium Economy. The plane was on just its third run since a complete internal refit, and the cabin attendants were excited.
With good reason. Business Premier has a 1-2-1 layout, which makes every seat an aisle seat. There’s a screen between the two middle seats that you can lower if you’re travelling together, but with it and the aisle screen also up, you have considerable privacy.
And space. The seat is 137cm wide and there are shelves and little cupboards: ample room for storing a laptop, handbag, book, water bottle or whatever else you want easy access to. The seat folds completely flat for sleeping: I’m 185m (about 6 feet) and it was just long enough, so I got several hours’ sleep in the 13-hour flight and arrived refreshed.
A couple of problems. There’s no reading light. I asked an attendant and she confirmed it.
And all the controls are lined up on the seat arm, with the call button at the near end, right by your elbow. They already know it’s a problem and warn you about it when you sit down.
I did my best, but just as I was getting to sleep, an attendant popped up at my side to ask if everything was all right. I’d bumped the button.
On the return flight, I was in the aisle seat of the first row of Premium Economy. No lie-flat bed, but a 20cm recline and heaps of legroom, with an adjustable leg rest. Each seat is encased in a fixed shell, so you can lean back without annoying the person behind you. The seat pocket is roomy and so is the tray table. And there is a reading light!
Crew: Crew on both flights were good with the jokes and efficient with the service. The magic mix of informal and highly functional. On both flights they kept the toilets clean and tidy.
Passengers: The premium cabins and the rest of the plane were close to full, out and back, mainly with New Zealanders. Very few masks.
Food and drink: In Business Premier, it’s champagne when you board, a pre-meal smoothie and another pre-meal drink, if you want it. I asked for a gin and tonic, which was made with Scapegrace gin, a good Central Otago brand. But although the airline has created a “Wickstead” G&T with this gin, to honour Emilia Wickstead, the designer of its new uniforms, I wasn’t offered it.
The food didn’t survive the airline curse of losing flavour at altitude, but it was tender and very edible and served with good cutlery and glassware. After the meal, they offer sleepy teas and bliss mixes.
Breakfast was good too, with three toast options, fruits, cereals, porridge and three cooked options. On the return flight, one of them was French toast, which they ran out of straight away.
Entertainment: Seats in Business Premier have a 24-inch HD 4K entertainment screen you can link to your phone, to make it a remote, if you don’t want to use the controller stored in the seat arm. You can also use your own headphones.
There’s free Wi-Fi throughout the plane, so I tried to catch up on some reading on my laptop, but found it fickle, so I gave up.
The choice of movies was moderate, with few new releases, and there were fewer TV shows on offer than I expected. I guess streaming services have tied up the rights.
On the way out I loaded up a selection of “favourites”, so I wouldn’t have to do a new search on the way back. But although my tickets were booked together, the selection wasn’t retained.
The best bit: I was able to sleep well for several hours on both flights and arrived feeling good. No jetlag at either end was a new experience for me and I loved it.
The worst bit: I was looking forward to the Wi-Fi and the French toast.
Final verdict: Fly long distance and feel good at the end of it? I’ll take that tradeoff with French toast and button-bumping any day.
Simon Wilson’s flights were courtesy of Air New Zealand.
This story has been amended to include the above credit.