Since the day job has now had its pick of my Business Premier photos from the WLG 77W jaunt the other day, I've got the go-ahead to share the rest here on Milepoint. Let's see if the Flickr slideshow embed works: Nope. Alternatively, here's the slideshow (requires Flash, eugh) or the set. My top five: Aft BP cabin (4 rows, includes bassinets, right in front of PE): Forward BP cabin (7 rows, no bassinets): "Welcome" Galley/bar at Doors 2: New bed (OMG I love the purple): New mattress: couple of inches thick: Do feel free to embed any of these around Milepoint -- but only Milepoint, please!
While it's not shockingly new I'd still like to see a NZ5/6 trip report on the new BP! Surprised there hasn't been one yet (or at least I just haven't seen one).
Well, club together with some donations for the ThatJohn Wine And Enjoyment Fund (an unregistered uncharity) and I'm happy to write it up!
I'll do one in April if you can wait that long. I expect there'll be some posted sooner by others though.
Damn, sorry folks, I was hoping to get the ones for PE and Y+Skycouch (is there a special class for booking that, BTW?) up before the weekend, but ran out of time! Next week, once I'm back from Hawke's Bay, I promise!
Best I can do next month would be a report between AKL and MEL on one of those Saturday morning flights scheduled with the new birds. But will have just connected off an old version from PVG so will have a good fresh memory for comparisons. Not to mention with AC's version of the same pods and 777 from the day before flying YYZ-PVG.
Anyone got an opinion yet on best seat locations? Debating moving my wife and myself from 1A/2A to 6A/7A on an upcoming trip.
1A 2A are likely to be noisy given the galley ahead of them, though perhaps not as far back as 6A 7A given the bassinet possition at 9A 9K and the bar area at doors 2. I also tend to recommend sitting opposite in the BP seats rather than behind, unless one or both of you is a good contortionist!
I've done opposite and same side and prefer same side, so does my wife. We're married, we see each other every day, we travel together. We don't need to be able to converse on all of our 8 to 14 hour long flights, especially when a good chunk of that time ends up spent sleeping or reading. Personally, I think galley noise is blown out of proportion. Bassinets are always a risk in cabin with them, unfortunately.
Aside from the operations of the IFE system, really couldn't notice much difference between the old and new versions. Seats were equally comfortable and converted into flat beds in the same fashion. Though I did find the lumbar support adjustments were less effective in the new seat, albeit I might have had a non-functioning seat. New cabin is brighter, of course, and the loos seem a bit bigger. Load on the new 777ER was light, so all nine of us in J were in the front cabin. The second J cabin was empty. (Peaked behind the curtain to get a glimpse of the E+ which looked nice but with a full cabin seemed a bit crowded. A FA expressed the view that the pitch was indeed tight for such a product and thought NZ would do well to remove a row to add more space to the remaining rows...a rather costly exercise that would either raise the price of the product or reduce NZ's profit margin considerably.)
My two (Very Different) reviews of NZ and the LHR-LAX-LHR on the 773 are here: NZ1 - http://boardingarea.com/blogs/milesfromblighty/wp-admin/post.php?post=1722&action=edit NZ2 - http://boardingarea.com/blogs/miles...and-at-lax-check-in-lounge-and-nz2-to-london/
This is an nice bird it's too bad ANZ is keen on ruining their Asian markets by running that ratty datty 767 to PVG, NRT, & KIX leaving good ole HKG with the 777s.
