V-Flyer

Friendly and efficient check in staff, boarding passes for all three legs of the flight were presented to me and I was advised that I could use the Air NZ Koru Lounge (not sure why I was ineligible to use the one in SYD on the way out).
I was also advised that boarding would begin at 0715 for an 0800 departure.

I was in the Koru by 0600 sticking to Coffee, OJ and toasted currant bread for breakfast, logging on to the WiFi for a quick check on V-Flyer and my emails.
I do like the Koru lounges but somehow feel awkward helping myself to Beer or Wine at 0600 yet seem to have no problem at all in ordering a Mojito at any time in the LHR CH.
I left the Koru at 0700 knowing that the VA gates are a long walk at AKL, upon arrival at gate 15 there were no VA staff on hand and the info screens stated a rescheduled departure of 0900, the was no other info about the delay and no explanation was offered at the gate when staff arrived.

Boarding finally began at 0825. I was first on board and was told that I was the only one in PE so the first two rows were all mine, economy looks pretty full.
The PE cabin consists of the first two rows of the plane (737-800) the seats are a standard row of three seats either side of the aisle with the middle seats (B&D) having a drop down table on them and the arm rests are spread further apart than in economy and both rows having extra legroom, there is no dividing curtain between PE and economy.
There is no IFE fitted to this aircraft but tablets are available to hire in economy or free in PE.
We pushed back at 0855 and were airborne by 0905, a nice bit of air turbulence about half an hour into the flight just for fun. Pretty cloudy down below so far so not much to see, hoping to find out if Team NZ have won the Americas Cup this morning either during the flight or where land.

The CC were all very good "J" who seemed to be looking after me was very nice calling me by name throughout discussing travel and sharing her recent trip to Europe.

For breakfast I had Scrambled eggs with Potato Wedges and a Pork ball along with fruit salad and a muffin, all of which were good.

We landed at 1022 half an hour late, on the way in I managed to spot a couple of whales breaching which was awesome to see.

A great flight apart from the lack of information regarding the delay.

Was the Koru lounge full on the way out? If so then the priority goes to business pax as opposed to partner status ones unfortunately.

All sounds good from VA, ground staff aside that is.

Cheers for posting Dom, it is fun following your various trips around the world.. not making me envious at all

Hull wrote:We landed at 1022 half an hour late, on the way in I managed to spot a couple of whales breaching which was awesome to see.

That would have made my day too!

Thanks so much for posting - really enjoyed reading this.