Things to note:
- The old domestic 737s Air New Zealand operate from Wellington to Auckland still have more leg room than many airlines’ Economy Plus or whatever they call it. I can stow my pack and have inches of knee room and space for my feet. And I am not a small man.
- The Air New Zealand 777-300s are very nicely appointed. USB, a refular hotpoint for my laptop, good range of movies, all the mod cons. The only downside is that the middle row only has 3 underseat luggage areas across 4 passengers, but that didn’t matter because…
- NZ2 was more than half-empty. My only seat buddy, who was travelling with his partner and their two kids, was allowed to move to a window set of seats (so their family got 6 seats that fold out to beds), and I got all four central seats to myself. I lay down, stretched out to full length and reflected on the fact I probably wouldn’t have this much room flying at the front of the plane.
- Alas I will probably never be that comfortable during air travel again.
- The Virgin “foodcourt” in LAX is a Burger King and a Starbucks. Fuck you.
- Virgin America appears to be a step back to the 70s. Not so much in terms of the plane itself, which was perfectly nice and modern and had adequate legroom. No, it was the spectacle of one of the other passengers doing such a good job of chatting up one of the air hostesses she spent the flight sitting next to him. By the end of the flight another one had joined him and they had to be chased back to their jobs by the senior stewardess.