Air New Zealand passengers flying to Honolulu, Tahiti or Perth will no longer have the option to purchase just a seat, as the airline is changing its fares to offer a full service on these longer routes.
Currently, passengers flying to one of these three destinations have the choice of seat-only, seat and bag, or “The Works” – which includes seat select, checked baggage, an in-flight meal and drinks, and entertainment. Premium economy and business premier seats are also available to book.
But from October 20, economy customers making the five-hour flight from Auckland to Tahiti or the seven-and-a-half hour flight to Perth will only be able to book a seat that includes The Works.
From October 30, the eight-and-a-half hour flight between Auckland and Honolulu will then become a full-service offering, in line with the airline’s other long-haul international flights. This means customers will only be able to choose from economy, premium economy or business premier.
O’Brien said the changes had come out of a review of the offering across the short-haul network, which had traditionally included the three destinations, despite their length. “They’re more like a long-haul flight as opposed to a short-haul flight,” he said.“Having that full-service offering does make quite a difference to your comfort and enjoyment of the flight.”
The airline had found the majority of customers across the three destinations were already purchasing The Works, with around 5% opting for the seat-only fare, and 11% opting for seat and bag.
O’Brien said he had been on flights and witnessed customers who hadn’t opted for the extras regretting their decision by the time the meal service came around.
“Even those who were buying that seat-only product were saying if they did the flight again, they’d want to have a meal and a better substantial offering on the flight.”
From the end of October, the airline would also be bringing in a “totally new” food and beverage offering on long-haul flights, before similarly making changes to the menus on trans-Tasman and Pacific Islands routes, O’Brien said.
“We’re really looking to improve the overarching food and beverage offering across the cabin.”
However, for shorter-haul trans-Tasman and Pacific flights, they didn’t have any plans to get rid of the seat-only option.
“Understandably for those shorter flights there’s a greater willingness for some customers to go seat-only,” he said.
“Therefore from a customer perspective we’ll still continue to deliver that wider range of options, because demand is there for it.”
Source Stuff.co.nz