Flight check: Auckland to Perth with Air New Zealand

Air New Zealand's Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. Photo / Peter Meecham

Plane: Air New Zealand Boeing 787-9, a fancy Dreamliner, my first time flying in one. I was impressed with the spaciousness, the leg room and the larger windows, which can be dimmed or blacked out at the touch of a button.

Class: Economy, on a Works ticket.

Price: One-way Economy Class tickets start at $523.

Luggage: Up to 23kg of checked baggage and 7kg of hand luggage. I clocked in at 13.1kg.

Check-in: Easy, all done the day before using the Air NZ app, so I just had to print out a bag tag and drop off my bag, using the self-service kiosks. Who needs human contact, anyway?

Airport experience: On this May Monday morning, international departures was quiet. So quiet in fact, I wondered if perhaps there had been some kind of incident and people had been evacuated. Most of the check in desks weren't yet open. It was a little unnerving, but turns out it was just a quiet time of day to fly.

Getting through security was fast and fuss-free, and I was left with more than two hours before my flight. I'd vastly overestimated how early I needed to be there. Oh well, got some work done using the 45 minutes of free Wi-Fi.

Flight time: A lengthy 7 hours 7 minutes (shorter than expected, it was scheduled to be 7 hours 30 minutes).

On time: Yes.

Seat: 46H, an aisle seat in the first half of the Economy cabin. There was no one in the middle seat, making for a comfortable flight.

How full: About 70 per cent. There were some free seats available in the second half of the cabin, which others moved to once we'd taken off.

Entertainment: An excellent range of movies, TV shows, music, podcasts and audiobooks.

Service: That great Kiwi service Air NZ strives for. The crew were friendly and helpful, moving people to spare rows once we'd taken off, and getting lunch service out and cleared away promptly.

Food and drink: There were two hot options for lunch - a beef casserole with parsley mashed potatoes and vegetables, or a Malaysian chicken curry with rice and green beans.

I had the latter and it was pretty tasty, although I don't know of many Malaysian recipes that include sultanas... Afternoon tea before landing was a ham-and-cheese panini and fruit salad.

Fellow passengers: Judging by the amount of people watching Pork Pie (the Goodbye Pork Pie remake), it seemed to be mostly Kiwis, either going on holiday or going back to work.

And a mostly older crowd.

Toilets: Modern and clean, with a lovely Antipodes Wild Blackcurrant, Spearmint Leaf and Cardamom hand wash. Note to some passengers... if the light isn't on when you're inside the cubicle, it's not locked. And your fellow passengers really don't want to accidentally open the door on you while you're in the middle of your business. Thanks very much.

Would I fly again: Yes. I loved the Dreamliner. It's a long flight, but there's plenty to keep you entertained.