V-Flyer

Finally on our way to our first visit to New Zealand, we travelled south the Heathrow in good time, parked the car and took the shuttle bus into T1 in plenty of time to check in. We had the anticipation of the new B777 aircraft, with it's mixed reviews so far to look forward too, and after a wander around T1, we took a very long walk to the gate, right at then end of the furthest pier in T1 (can't remember the number).

We had seats near the back of the plane (row 58) the first of the pairs after the rows of 3 seats, which I'd picked on the basis that we prefer to sit alone - good choice though. There was definitely more room here and despite the tv screens being slightly off-set from your line of vision, it wasn't too much of a hinderence. The aisles are narrower than most of us are used to, but were walkable without too much trouble. The leg room was actually quite good on these seats, even when the seat in front was reclined, I was still able to get out to the aisle without too much trouble. The IFE was excellent, light touch screen and also easily accessible controller in the seat back. We used the on screen self ordering service for drinks and snacks mid-flight, and the service was very prompt, so thumbs up for that. There are no amenity packs in economy now, but you can order ear plugs, masks and socks on the touch screens.

One area for improvement though would be the service at meal times, with only one person actually serving both the meals and drinks in each section/aisle, it took a long time for them to reach the back of the plane. I think it works much better with one person serving meals followed by another serving drinks. The food was quite nice, but if you are vegetarian, ensure you pre-order a meal as all the options on the trolley contained meat. There was a salad, bread, crackers, cheese and ice cream desert to go with the main meal, so no cut backs there.

The flight itself was pretty calm, only a few bumps on the journey, and seemed to go pretty quickly, enjoyed seeing the icebergs, snow and glaciers over Greenland and then realising just how big Los Angeles is when coming in to land.

We were transferring to the NZ5 flight in LA, so had to go through immigration and customs, rather than the transit lounge. Queues were not too bad at immigration, but the customs queue was long and slow with only a couple of staff working. We dropped the bags at the transfer belt and headed upstairs to clear security, which was pretty quick considering it was LAX. Then we headed to the gate to pick up our next flight - or not as it happens!

Thank you for the great TR.