AIR NZ,, Syd-Auck - Business Premier, different aircraft used.

[NSWP]

G'day my friends, thought I would put this scenario up for comment and advice. On 12 Nov, am travelling Sydney - LAX via Auckland (enroute to a Panama Canal Cruise), booked business premier (J) x 2 pax and reserved seats 1K and 2K for all legs. Now the Auckland-LAX leg looks ok, as they use Boeing 777-300, decent J capacity. I note from Flight Tracker that Air NZ sometimes use the 789 and sometimes the 767 as well as 777-300 and 777-200 on the Syd-Auckland leg.

So, what if business class is fully booked from Sydney to Auckland and Auckland-Syd using the 777-300 configuration for seat reservations/bookings? If Air NZ uses the 789 or 767 on that leg, they have much reduced business class capacity, so who gets off loaded if business class is fully booked out?

What a scenario eh? Hope you interpret what I am getting at.

 

[trooper]

Why would NZ sell X seats if the operating aircraft had X minus whatever?

 

[Aussie_flyer]

What if they go bankrupt? What if theres fog that day?

Seems pretty far fetched... why worry?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

G'day my friends, thought I would put this scenario up for comment and advice. On 12 Nov, am travelling Sydney - LAX via Auckland (enroute to a Panama Canal Cruise), booked business premier (J) x 2 pax and reserved seats 1K and 2K for all legs. Now the Auckland-LAX leg looks ok, as they use Boeing 777-300, decent J capacity. I note from Flight Tracker that Air NZ sometimes use the 789 and sometimes the 767 as well as 777-300 and 777-200 on the Syd-Auckland leg.

So, what if business class is fully booked from Sydney to Auckland and Auckland-Syd using the 777-300 configuration for seat reservations/bookings? If Air NZ uses the 789 or 767 on that leg, they have much reduced business class capacity, so who gets off loaded if business class is fully booked out?

What a scenario eh? Hope you interpret what I am getting at.

NZ will have an internal policy to determine who gets downgraded. This will depend on a range of things such as status and fare paid. You can try and limit your chances of being downgraded by checking in early and/or getting to the airport super early (although you should have a few hour's notice if there's been a plane swap because the aircraft will have to come from NZ).

 

[Mattg]

While Air NZ do use different aircraft configurations for their trans-Tasman flights, I think that A/C substitutions are fairly rare. So, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

If it concerns you, perhaps book a 787 flight from SYD to AKL? That way, a replacement widebody A/C would almost certainly have more seats in business class.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

What has put this scenario into your head?

Carriers sell tickets to the capacity of the aircraft they will be using for each sector not the capacity of whatever aircraft they might be using on some connecting flight on which you happen to be booked.
So they won't sell the number of J seats on both sectors to fill the B773 they are using AKL-LAX then suddenly discover you won't all fit on the B772, B789 or B763 they are using SYD-AKL.
In any event AKL will be the final destination for some PAX, while others will be catching other connecting flights. They won't all be flying through to LAX with you.
And a large number of PAX will board the AKL-LAX flight in AKL. The two flights are only connected in your booking (and a few others).

However to address your concerns I've looked at the history of aircraft for Air NZ SYD-AKL for the past 180 days on FlightRadar24 and checked the current assigments for 12/11/2016 on the Air NZ website.

09:45 NZ102 is always a B763 and Air NZ confirm this will be the case on 12/11/2016.
11:50 NZ104 used to be a B77W or occasionally a B772 but since 29 March 2016 it has usually been a B789, but occasionally a B77W or B772 and on three occasions a B763. On 12/11/2016 Air NZ say it will be a B773.
15:50 NZ118 was usually a B772 until 31 January 2016 and has since been a mix of B789, B772 and B763. Recently it seems to roughly alternate between the B789 and B772. On 12/11/2016 Air NZ say it will be a B789.
18:50 NZ108 is always a B763 and Air NZ confirm this will be the case on 12/11/2016.

[TABLE="width: 500"]
[TR]
[TD]Aircraft[/TD]
[TD]B763
[/TD]
[TD]B772
[/TD]
[TD]B773
[/TD]
[TD]B789
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Business class capacity
[/TD]
[TD]24
[/TD]
[TD]26
[/TD]
[TD]44
[/TD]
[TD]18
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

So you can follow Mattg's advice and book on NZ118 because any other aircraft will have more J seats than the 789.
Or at least avoid NZ104 because the 773 is the one which can only be replaced by an aircraft with far fewer J seats.

I suppose you're probably even more concerned now!