Safety Videos.... and Air New Zealand

Hi there.    Air New Zealand are so innovative when it comes to their safety videos that they show on all their flights.  They've ditched the Hobbit one which I thought was spectacular.  Prior to the Hobbit video they had a rugby world cup one that focussed on rugby teams, and before that Richard Simmons did a fantastic aerobic video.    I have to admit Air New Zealand are very creative.

Now, they're doing a safety video featuring Bear Grylls from "Man vs Wild".  The link between being lost in the New Zealand bush and flying Air New Zealand is a bit tenuous but, hey, who cares when the video is fun to watch.  You can find it on www.airnzsafety.com. 

And this brings me to habits I find absolutely impossible to break.  Once I get a dud brand product, be it a tin of beans or a plane trip to the States, I will never ever ever eat one of those branded beans or travel on that airline again.

I saw an advert for Subway once.  It showed a veritable feast of chicken piled upon lettuce in a long bun.  I ordered the bun, looked inside and found two tiny slivers of chicken.  I've never been back to Subway.

Some ten years ago another tv advert assured me that there would be a loud crunching noise equivalent to one car bumper crashing into another when I bit down on my piece of KFC chicken.  What I got instead was surely the soggiest piece of fowl on the planet.  Never returned to KFC.

The year before last I flew Air New Zealand to Los Angeles.  The plane was old and infirm.  The seat controls, screen, seat, cushion size, seemed ancient, worn, thin, hard, small, and tired.  I think - though I'm not really sure about this - that maybe there was an emergency and one of the Air New Zealand planes that usually travel the New Zealand-Australia route was substituted (if this isnt true, it means that they have a tired old plane on the NZ-US route all the time!).  As every NZ traveller knows when travelling to and from Australia from, say, Wellington, the flight is true 'cattle-class' practically whichever airline you travel on.  So many of us go to Australia - often just for a long weekend - that this sort of flying is almost like being on a bus.  We don't expect to be pampered for just a few hours, and we're not.  But on a flight that's about 15 hours long?  Heck, I want comfort.

When Air New Zealand sent me a survey, I told the truth.  Back came a reply saying I should take Business Class next time.  Yeah, right, like I can afford that.

I vowed I would never travel Air New Zealand again, even though it's rated as one of the top airlines in the world.  Last year I went Virgin Australia to Los Angeles, even though this meant I was several hours longer flying.  I have insisted on doing the same thing this year when I go to Los Angeles yet again.    This will be three times Virgin Australia, and once-was-too-much on Air New Zealand.  This has also carried through to my New Zealand-wide travel.  It's now Jetstar, thank you very much.