My seat: Wasn't quite as plush as the Air New Zealand website had suggested, given this was a leased jet. In fact, the seat was barely any better than an Economy Class seat — the footrest was flimsy and a bit rubbish, the soft, supple leather seat was neither soft nor supple (nor leather) but it was wider than normal, it is true.
Fellow passengers: Well, the chap next to me had clearly never been on an aeroplane before and felt the need to describe everything to his wife on the other side. "Oh look, it's a light that illuminates the entire row of seats! I can turn it on! And off! And on!" Sadly, this extended to leaving his movie running while he snored.
How full: Economy was nearly empty. Business Class was nearly empty. Premium Economy was full to overflowing, something the crew were not terribly happy about.
Entertainment: Because it was a leased jet from Singapore, the entertainment was poor. Most of the movies had traditional Chinese subtitles hard-coded to the screen, and the range of new releases was minimal. Even the insomniac trick of watching every episode of The Big Bang Theory didn't work — there were only four episodes available. Madness.
The service: Because of the crowding I have to say the service was not tremendous. The crew seemed frazzled and a bit overworked and missed out the usual Air NZ poise and calm.
Food and drink: There was no announcement as to what was coming so when a hot entree/cold dessert was delivered, several passengers thought that was the whole thing and scoffed the lot, then complained when the main course arrived after they'd eaten desert.
The toilets: Served their purpose admirably.
Luggage: We took suitcases inside larger suitcases to cope with all the gifts and candy we bought (hey, it was Halloween).
The airport experience: We bought Strata Lounge passes before we upgraded the tickets so had a look inside Auckland Airport's own lounge experience. It was lovely — busy but peaceful, plenty of seats and good quality food all round. But the terminal Wi-Fi ... let's just say it put the "why bother" back in Wi-Fi. Slow, clumsy to sign in and despite promises of extended duration as a Strata Club member, I couldn't figure out how to make that work at all.
The bottomline: Not as good as an actual Air New Zealand Premium Economy flight, but a step up from regular Economy.
