Mystery test reveals best airline flying to New Zealand

Brook Sabin is a Stuff Travel reporter.

REVIEW: Three of the best airlines in the world fly to New Zealand: Singapore Airlines, Emirates and our home airline Air New Zealand.

So, which does long haul flying best? Some would argue Singapore Airlines, so we put their product to the test in a mystery flight. We paid our own way, and staff had no idea we were reviewing the flight.

The route

Singapore to Auckland

The plane

A 14.5-year-old 777-300ER

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The Lounge

Being Star Alliance Gold, I get access to the Krisflyer Gold Lounge in Changi Airport before take-off. It had a delicious food selection, but disappointingly, no barista-made coffee. Singapore Airlines does have a SilverKris Lounge (for its Business Class customers), which has better food and facilities, including barista-made coffee.

This is a win for Air New Zealand; its main lounges offer all Gold members services like barista-made coffee regardless of whether you’re flying Economy or Business.

Time in the air

Thanks to a whopping tailwind, our scheduled flight time of nine hours and fifty-five minutes was slashed to just over eight and a half hours. We pushed back seven minutes late, and landed 45 minutes ahead of schedule.

The seat

44D in Economy Class; the aisle in the middle row. It’s located in the ‘Forward Zone’ of economy, which “enables you to be among the first in Economy Class to disembark the plane.” If you’ve booked a Flexi fare, you get a seat here for free. I’m Star Alliance Gold, so I assume I got put here because of my status, but otherwise, you need to pay a small fee.

My seat had a generous 32 inches of pitch (the distance from any point on my seat to the one in front of it) and an impressive recline that allowed me to sleep – something I’m not very good at on planes. My watch said I got two hours and forty-one minutes of sleep; usually I’m lucky if it’s 30 minutes.

The entertainment:

We had modern, large touchscreens with an impressive selection of movies, tv, audiobooks, music and games. There is everything you need to keep yourself entertained for several long-haul flights.

Wi-fi sadly isn’t free; you can get a two-hour ‘chat session’ if you sign up as a KrisFlyer member during the flight, but the connection was so slow I gave up trying to use it. This makes you really appreciate Air New Zealand’s free wi-fi.

The amenities

We were handed earphones for our screen and that’s it. The hot towel service remains suspended because of Covid-19, which seems a bit over-the-top because almost nobody was wearing a mask. Amenity kits weren’t offered (perhaps you could request them, but nobody explained) – I’m unsure if that’s because of Covid, but seems a bit lacking for a premium full-service carrier.

We were given pillows and blankets.

The food

This was a strong point of the flight. After takeoff, we were served dinner with two options: noodles and chicken or fish with potatoes. I took the noodles, and it’s one of the best economy meals I’ve had – the noodles were tasty, with lots of chicken.

However, the bread roll in a plastic bag was a bit underwhelming. Dinner was finished with “Udders” dark chocolate ice cream, made in Singapore from New Zealand milk. It was great.

Breakfast was chicken with coconut rice. It didn’t look that appealing, but it all tasted good.

The service

As you expect with Singapore Airlines, the service was world-class. All flight attendants in economy treat passengers like they could be sitting in First Class of another airline. They are immaculately presented and exceptionally polite. Interestingly, all staff were wearing masks.

The frequency

Singapore Airlines flies daily from Auckland and Christchurch to Singapore.

The essentials

Flights from Auckland to Singapore from around $1671 return.

The verdict

Singapore Airlines deserves its place among the world’s best airlines, especially for its First Class service in Economy.

My preference for long haul when I’m paying is Air New Zealand (mostly because I hold Gold status and as such get free upgrades, which I can’t use on other airlines.) My close second is Singapore Airlines, because of their place in the Star Alliance, which allows me to collect Airpoints. Also, their crew is the best in the sky.

The A380 Emirates service, which returns later this year, is my all-time favourite way to travel – except I’m not a member of a loyalty scheme with the airline, and for that reason, it places third.

So, for me, the best long-haul carrier is Air New Zealand, followed closely by Singapore and Emirates in third.

If I had no loyalty scheme or status with any of the airlines, my list would be reversed.

What do you think? What is the best airline flying into New Zealand, let us know in the comments below.

The writer paid his own way.