Before this week, the longest flight I had ever taken lasted eight hours.  After a layover in Houston, Texas, my long haul flight to Auckland was a whopping fifteen hours in length.  When I was deciding which airline to choose, I was between Air Fiji and Air New Zealand.  Though, I have yet to try Air Fiji, I am extremely happy with my decision to fly to Auckland with Air New Zealand.

Rewinding back to my booking process, for the first time in my several years of traveling, I was offered the option to choose between seven or eight different meal options.   After reading a few opinions over the years that vegetarian meals are better on flights than the regular meals, I thought I would give it a try.  I wasn’t disappointed with my food and since I  had chosen a “special meal,” I had my food delivered to me earlier than everyone else.  Did I mention the complimentary wine?

The airline is proud to announce to its patrons that it has been named Airline of the Year three years in a row by AirlineRatings.com and it’s not difficult to see why.  The interactive touch screens on the back of each seat look very sleek.  They provid a lot of information about many things such as driving in New Zealand and what to do in various cities.  Now for the movie selection… there were SO many options! I had a hard time deciding between a full on Lord of the Rings marathon or new blockbuster releases like The Martian.

In the past, I have personally noticed a look of boredom or annoyance on the faces of flight attendants while traveling and dealing with patrons of an airline.  However, this is not the case with any of the Air New Zealand attendants.  Everyone was very helpful, smiling, and kind.

Clearly, I am extremely satisfied with my choice to book my long haul flight with Air New Zealand.  Though part of that may be attributed to the fact that I was lucky enough not to have anyone sitting next to me, allowing me to sleep for a majority of the flight.  I already booked another flight with them in May to Hawaii and an eight hour flight seems like nothing now.

Have you flown with Air New Zealand?