Our Last Flights on an Airline from Hell!

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Comet
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Our Last Flights on an Airline from Hell!

Post by Comet »

In 1998 we had our last trip to the USA, flying from LHR to LAX. This also meant our last trip on Air New Zealand :mexwave: The only good thing about Air New Zealand was the type of aircraft they used on the route - the magnificent 747-400!

London Heathrow to Los Angeles

We checked in around about noon, once the check in staff decided amongst themselves that we could check in, after being continually told different times whoever we had asked. Checking in early for an Air New Zealand flight offered absolutely no advantage at all, as all seats were pre-allocated by the airline, including the emergency exit row seats. We were first to check in for flight NZ001 on 27th April 1998, and we had been given two of the worsts eats on the aircraft - 52D and 52E in a 60-row configuration! These seats were in the middle section, left side next to the aisle and the one next to it. :censored:!!

We ate in Burger King - a fish burger and chips. Not exactly gourmet but even so it would be better than the muck served to us on the flight. We went up to Queen's Building for some spotting, before going through security into the departure area.

Image
Our transport to LA. Great aircraft, shame about the owner :lol:

The flight was boarded in sections, first, business and then 10 economy rows at a time. We were greeted upon boarding and made our way towards the back of the aircraft to our seats.

After push back, the safety video was shown and we had a good commentary about the route from Captain Ewan Fenwick, who told us the flight would last 10 hours and 6 minutes. Other pilots were Second Officer Sean Nixon and co pilot Barry Murray. It was always great to reach the runway in the 747 and hear that superb roar as the four engines are powered up for take off. The immense jet lumbered along before lifting off and climbing slowly to altitude. The Airshow display was playing just after take off, and that always made things interesting.

It was very boring and tedious in the middle section, and as usual the inflight "entertainment" was rubbish. After an hour or so, the meal was served. This consisted of fish in white sauce - looked and tasted and smelt unappetising :pukey: The cabin crew on that flight seemed to be on some kind of go-slow when it came to doing their jobs. They routinely ignored passenger call buttons, and seemed more intent on heading up to the crew rest area on mass! It says in flight health magazines that you should drink alot on long haul flights - that is if there are crew available to actually provide drinks, becasue there sure as hell wasn't on this long flight :evil:

I decided to see if I could go up to the flightdeck, like I had done the previous year. When my call button was eventually answered I was told that the Captain was on his break and no one could go up the the front unless he was there, fair enough. I was told to give it another try in an hour. When I did try in another hour, the crews were again refusing to answer call buttons.

It was very difficult to adjust to time differences on this flight. Normally the Airshow shows the local time at your destination, allowing you to psych up and mentally adjust, but this time it was showing local time in London, very bad idea. At around 02:30 London time, something stinking to high heaven (supposedly a toasted cheese sandwich) was inflicted upon the poor passengers in economy. I remember thinking "if they don't take that bloody thing away soon I'll be sick on it".

As ever, it was dark when we approached and touched down in Los Angeles. It was a superb landing, very smooth, and I was very pleased to be able to leave the aircraft at last as we headed to the US Immigration area and then into the LA night.

Los Angeles to London Heathrow

This was 6th May 1998, and a sunny day after heavy rain the previous day. We caught a shuttle bus to LAX and proceeded to the check in area in terminal 2. When we reached the desk, we discovered that the aircraft was delayed by (then) four hours due to an engine cowl sensor fault in Auckland (where the flight originated). The check in staff at LAX were as arrogant and ill mannered as we had come to expect from Air New Zealand employees. We had been given the same awful seats as we had the previous week, so that was something to look forward to! The staff at check in told us to present our boarding card in the restaurant and we would get a meal worth $12, so off we went to Tom Bradley terminal to eat a Japanese snack.

After queuing for ages in the restaurant, we were told that we were only entitled to a meal in terminal 2, but we wanted a Japanese meal, so we had it anyway. Later on we returned to terminal 2 to have something to eat. We went to Burger King and presented our boarding pass. They then told us that we needed a voucher as well from the airline to prove our flight was delayed (what kind of imbeciles do Air New Zealand employ, their customer service skills are appalling!) We went and played hell with the check in assistant, who insisted that we do not need a voucher, so we told her to phone bloody Burger King and ask them! She then told us to "ask for Joe" (whoever "Joe" was!) so back we went and asked for Joe, and they didn't know who we meant but we played hell some more and got some free chips. Flying with Air New Zealand is not good for stress!

The aircraft from Auckland arrived over five hours late, and then the aircraft which we were to fly on, which had been stabled in LAX, was brought to the terminal now that its connecting service had landed. It was a 747-400 again! :mrgreen:

There was some wind and turbulence on this flight, and unusually we routed south of Iceland instead of overflying like we had done normally. maybe owing to the lateness of the flight, I don't know but on time ones we had flown on invariably flew over Canada, Hudson Bay, Baffin, Greenland, Iceland and down over Scotland. It was an overnighter, this flight, as we left LA in the mid afternoon, and landed in London around 9am normally, but the delay had messed things up. After a very unsteady crosswind landing at Heathrow we went to spend the night in Britain's worst airport hotel (see this link for report https://www.aviation24.be/postt3290.html).

Our next flights were in 2000. Family asked if we were going to America again, to which we replied no, we were going to Brussels - two of the most anti-EU people in Britain having a holiday in Brussels! It surprised some people but I looked forward to my next flights, which would be with Sabena (what a difference from Air New Zealand) and waited to see what Brussels would have to offer. And the rest is history because we have never looked back from there!
Sabena and Sobelair - gone but never forgotten.
Louise

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sab319
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Post by sab319 »

Why did you fly Air New Zealand a second time if you hated them so much???

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Comet
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Post by Comet »

sab - largely costs really. Air New Zealand were alot less expensive than other carriers serving that route - American, United, British Airways and Virgin all cost alot more, but with a carrier which supposedly has such a good name for customer service, you would expect more from Air New Zealand than being treated like sh*t. All the best long haul carriers from the UK are on eastbound flights - Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, Qantas, Emirates - those are what you call seriously good quality carriers. At that time bmi did not fly to the States. I would be more than happy to give bmi a try if I flew to the US again.
Sabena and Sobelair - gone but never forgotten.
Louise

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sn26567
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Post by sn26567 »

The report was exactly what I expected it to be.
Thanks, Louise. What date was your first flight in the report?
André
ex Sabena #26567

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Comet
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Post by Comet »

Andre - it says in the report the first date - 27th April 1998.
Sabena and Sobelair - gone but never forgotten.
Louise

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Post by chunk »

Comet wrote:sab - largely costs really. Air New Zealand were alot less expensive than other carriers serving that route - American, United, British Airways and Virgin all cost alot more, but with a carrier which supposedly has such a good name for customer service, you would expect more from Air New Zealand than being treated like sh*t. All the best long haul carriers from the UK are on eastbound flights - Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, Qantas, Emirates - those are what you call seriously good quality carriers. At that time bmi did not fly to the States. I would be more than happy to give bmi a try if I flew to the US again.
True - most of the best ones are heading east (add Qatar to your list - top drawer) but there is always Virgin to the US. Never been on 'em but the reputation is good.....

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speedbird1
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5 Years Ago....

Post by speedbird1 »

@Comet
This attitude towards Air New Zealand is very unfortunate. Not to mention that this flight was taken the best part of 5 years ago! I flew with Air New Zealand this winter whilst down under and they were great, nothing like the airline that you go on about, so believe it or not they have changed!
I'm sure that your seat allocation was a little unfortunate, but I have being on many long haul, flights, turned up early and being given seats down the back! It's the law of long haul economy travel!
The attitude of the American Air New Zealand staff, was probably because they were annoyed that they didn't know where New Zealand was, or even if it existed!
The bottom line is that if anybody is thinking of flying down to NZ Air New Zealand are ok, not the worst airline I've flown with for certian!
@Comet Surly you don't want to be flying to Brussels all your life!

Emirates

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Post by Comet »

Chunk - I too have heard good reports of Qatar but I know very little of their route network apart from Doha. Virgin were a little outside my budget when we were having holidays in the USA, we did get one of their brochures and they sounded good. We even considered Air Canada via Vancouver or Toronto. At a push we could always go via the Continent with Lufthansa or KLM but back then we never considered that option.

Emirates - we kept flying on Air New Zealand expecting the bad experiences to be a one-off, but they never were. We had been apalled at the standard of service on an airline which is supposedly one of the world's best, that sort of treatment is something we would expect on a cheapo carrier. I just could not fly them again. I have no problems with flying to Belgium - as I said in another thread - how else would I get my favourite beers? There are other places I would like to visit too.
Sabena and Sobelair - gone but never forgotten.
Louise

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speedbird1
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Post by speedbird1 »

@Comet
You should have tried Malaysia Airlines they're cheaper than Air NZ and by your accounts from Air NZ flights better. I can certainly recommend their business class.

Emirates

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Post by chunk »

Comet wrote:Chunk - I too have heard good reports of Qatar but I know very little of their route network apart from Doha. Virgin were a little outside my budget when we were having holidays in the USA, we did get one of their brochures and they sounded good. We even considered Air Canada via Vancouver or Toronto. At a push we could always go via the Continent with Lufthansa or KLM but back then we never considered that option.

Qatar's route network appears to be growing daily - not to the US though. I have only done short haul from DXB - DOH and from DOH - BAH on them but my folks travelled DXB - DOH - Maldives last year and said they were outstanding, great food and IFE etc. Its wierd - I never flew on KL until I went to Uni in ABerdeen in '91 and realised that I didn;t have to go through London! We always travelled to INV so options were limited...once i went through Schiphol and its space etc. I had avoid London airports like the plague if possible. To ben honest - total flight times from ABZ are barely different if you go through LON,AMS or CDG...and you don;t have to go on BA as well!

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Post by Starvmg »

Well maybe Air NZ wont be as hellish with the New seats...but i guess will have to see.

PS...New Zealand is definetly not hell evn if you felt their airline is from hell :)

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Comet
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Post by Comet »

PS...New Zealand is definetly not hell evn if you felt their airline is from hell
I agree with you, New Zealand is a beautiful country and I would love to see more of it some day.
Sabena and Sobelair - gone but never forgotten.
Louise

bigjulie

Post by bigjulie »

Starvmg wrote: .New Zealand is definetly not hell evn if you felt their airline is from hell
:wink: :wink:
It is sure not hell, I can attest to that; it sounds as if where Comet comes from is hell :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: ; even she hates it & she lives there! :pang: :pang: :shoot: :shoot:

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Post by Comet »

The title of the topic is a take on a TV series over here, "...from Hell". There have been "Holidays from Hell", "Neighbours from Hell", "Teenagers from Hell", "Weddings from Hell", "Flights from Hell" and so on. They are about bad things which happen on holidays, horrid neighbours, weddings which have gone wrong, there have also been restaurants (always worth seeing) and hotels from hell. If anyone is in the UK when they happen to be on (they are shown on ITV) then they are well worth watching.

It's not meant to imply anything bad about New Zealand, as I have said, it is a beautiful country.

(Yes bigjulie - Scarborough could be a town from hell, especially as it was in the local newspaper last night that landlords are being encouraged to provide accommodation for criminals on their release from prison. Will improve the quality of life in this dump no end, add a few more criminals to the already large population of them we have here :evil: )
Sabena and Sobelair - gone but never forgotten.
Louise

bigjulie

Post by bigjulie »

We have had all those series over here & I have to say : WOW! Is it that bad over there?

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Comet
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Post by Comet »

Yes bigjulie, that's exactly what it's like over here. One big reason I would love to leave this place.
Sabena and Sobelair - gone but never forgotten.
Louise

bigjulie

Post by bigjulie »

Comet, you could allways come to NZ & live, we don't eat people anymore; we are civilised. :lol: :lol: :wink:

flightsimboy
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My version

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