Premium Econ. to New Zealand
 

We're heading to NZ this coming Feb. we would like to do Prem Coach
to try to make the trip a little more bearable. Anyone have any advice on the best
airlines for Prem Econ? We would consider coming thru Austrailia if someone offered
a superior flight since we'll also will be traveling there. but we would actually prefer to
start with NZ first if possible.

Three carriers have premium economy - Air NZ, Qantas, and V Australia. Qantas and Air NZ have direct service in PE from LAX to AKL; V Australia goes via Oz (and not sure if PE is available across the Tasman - some of their connecting flights are on Emirates metal.)

Prices for Qantas and Air NZ are roughly comparable - couple of hundred USD difference depending on specific dates. V's prices are around USD $800 - $1000 cheaper for the same days.

You might find this chart of use - http://www.seatguru.com/charts/premium_economy.php

We took Prem Econ from AKL-LAX and I felt it was NOT worth it. One caveat - we are Star Gold on Star Alliance so we would have had the equivalent of Economy Plus, called SPACE PLUS on Air NZ without paying for the premium econ bells and whistles. We have flown regular Econon ANZ from LAX to RAR and it was fine - decent food and great service.

Service was OK, not great. Seat pitch was a little better than regular coach but no better from what I could tell than space plus. All seats have Inflight in seat movies etc so that wasn't a difference. The "business class" meals were no great shakes, certainly not appreciably better than ANZ coach meals. And it was MUCH pricierfo our dates than regular economy, so I wish we'd psnet the $$ IN NZ instead.

it depends how tall you are. My brother who is 6 feet 3" flew back to New Zealand on Premium Economy from LA just a few weeks ago. MY SIL who is about 6 feet tall flew in economy, as they could only get one upgrade. This was on Air New Zealand. They had both flown Premuim Economy on the way to the US.

My SIL says there is definitely more leg room in Premium Economy, it is a lot more pleasant and comfortable than economy.

again it depends on whether you are Star Alliance gold on another carrier or not - since we are Star Gold based on our United status, we could have gotten "space plus" for free with the extra leg room which for us would have been sufficient. My DH is 6"5" so we need the extra room!