13-hours on a plane :: A diary of an OCD travel editor
EDGE Senior Editor Jason Salzenstein recently headed down under to explore New Zealand’s wine country before spending a few days in Sydney. Fortunate enough to be traveling in Air New Zealand’s Business Premier cabin, he decided to keep a travel diary of his journey trip, in order to torture those of us stuck at home. Check out his fabulous experience- and keep an eye out for his New Zealand and Sydney coverage in coming weeks...
When my publisher brought up New Zealand and Australia as possible destinations for summer travel features, I can’t say that I immediately jumped at the idea. Although they were both high on my list of places to see before I’m 35 (which is not too far off, no matter how many times I still claim to be 29), I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea of being squished into an uncomfortable seat in a tube of metal hurling across the sky at 500 miles an hour for 13-hours.
Yes; the trip from Los Angeles to Auckland, New Zealand takes thirteen hours, and similar routes (San Fran to Sydney, etc.) are about the same. Add in the six hour flight from Boston (my home base) to LA and you’ve got one doozey of a trip, which this (admittedly pampered and slightly spoiled) travel editor was not overly eager to embark on.
Until I found out that I could travel in Air New Zealand’s Business Premier cabin- their first class equivalent, at the very front of the plane. Upon hearing this, my hesitation quickly turned to excited enthusiasm and impatience; some would say excessively so.
When my partner, my family, and all of my friends got sick of me talking about how excited I was to be taking this trip- mainly because I was looking forward to flying on an airline I’d never been on, in a fabulous cabin- I decided to spare them the pain of listening to me rant about the fully-flat beds, gourmet food, well-appointed lounges, and fabulous amenities, and start a travel diary instead. Now not only do I get to share my experience with friends and family, but with EDGE readers too!
(And just for the record, I’m looking forward to my actual time in New Zealand and Sydney as well; it’s just that right now all I can focus on is the trip over. Hopefully it lives up to my expectations!)
What follows is a real-time travel diary. My journey started almost a month before I left for New Zealand, and continued until I landed in Auckland. If you’ve ever boarded a plane and wondered what happens at the front end- especially during a long overseas flight on one of the premier international carriers- now’s your chance to be a fly on the wall...
T-minus 21 days
I just got confirmation that not only am I going to New Zealand and Sydney, Australia, but I’m going to be flying over on Air New Zealand (the airline famous for their "Pink Flight" for Sydney Mardi Gras), in their award winning Business Premier cabin- their first class equivalent. (Why nearly all airlines today have gotten rid of- or renamed- their first class cabins on international flights, I don’t understand. Replacing the business class cabin with "premium economy" and calling what’s clearly first class "business-something-or-other" seems a bit silly to me, but whatever. Maybe the airlines realized that most companies will pay for their execs to fly in ’business’ but not ’first?’ Who knows...)
Regardless of what it’s called, I’m completely stoked to be flying in Business Premier and have already spent at least six hours on the Air New Zealand website, checking out the planes, the seats, the food, the service, the airport lounges, and every other detail that I could find. I’ve also gone to one of my favorite travel sites, SeatGuru.com, to find out which seats are the best. What I discovered is that other than a couple of them being closer to the galley or bathrooms- sorry, lavatories- or lacking overhead storage directly over the seat (the first two seats in the nose of the plane), they’re all fabulous. This was confirmed by multiple websites that rate premium class cabin airline seats based on customer feedback and independent measurements.
T-minus 18 days
I just received confirmation of my seats, I’ve requested vegetarian meals (selected from the nearly two-dozen special meals available!), I know which pajamas I’m going to wear onboard, and I’m pretty sure that this is going to be a wonderful flight. (And yes, I do realize how much of a dork I am...)
T-minus 14 days
It’s still two weeks until I head Down Under and I’m completely fixated on (and over-excited for) the trip- mostly the flight, which I’m looking forward to as much as the actual time on the ground.
I spend at least an hour every day on various websites checking out the fabulous cabin, lounge, and amenities of Business Premier, to the point that I could probably be Air New Zealand’s Gay Ambassador (which is a great idea btw), giving presentations to homo travelers everywhere, sharing the fabulous features of their premium class product, which of course I’ve only yet to experience through the internet, articles, and pictures.
Aside from my fascination with ANZ’s Business Premier, this trip has also rekindled my passion for (some might say obsession with) giant commercial airplanes- which is never very far from the surface. (Seeing a Boeing 747 in a film or on TV often leads to me looking up videos on YouTube and Wikipedia articles for hours on end...) The fact that I get to both fly in the very front of the largest plane ever built and choose whether I want to sit in the upper or lower deck has made me giddy- it’s like I’m a trampy little cheerleader who gets to pick between the star quarterback and the captain of the wrestling team. (I say go with both girl!)
Air New Zealand operate Boeing 747s and 777s between the U.S. and New Zealand. And while I love the triple-seven, I’ve been fascinated with the double-decker since I was a kid, and have opted to take the 747 flights for both my flight over and back.
