I've just flown from London to Hong Kong and back on Air New Zealand, and thought I would record my experiences.

The first shock was that I couldn't check-in on-line! How many airlines today do not offer this?

Check-in at Heathrow Terminal 1 was a bit of a scrum, because so many people were travelling with a lot of heavy luggage. Several people were unpacking and re-packing to try to get individual bag-weights right - at Terminal 4, there's a dedicated area with scales and tables where you can do this.

It was a hot day, so some people had come lightly dressed - and to reduce the weight in their bags, were putting extra clothes on!

I just had one hold bag, so I was hooked out of the economy class queue and taken to the business class check-in. Thanks for that!

My flight was due to leave Heathrow at 21:05. On my boarding pass and on the flight information displays (FIDS), it said boarding time was 19:35, which I though a bit early. At 19:38, the FIDS changed to "Please wait" and at 19:50, the gate number was displayed. I actually boarded at 20:42!

I felt the crew were a bit authoritarian in style.

BA style is for the pilot to ask cabin crew to, "Switch doors to automatic and cross-check": the ANZ crew were instructed to, "Arm your doors".

I was whinged at twice by the crew for opening the blind to look at the spectacular scenery. Hey, guys, that's why I book a window seat! And before you respond, the people beside me were awake.

The in-flight entertainment required numerous re-sets: this even affected the cabin reading lights.

The moving map showed Lithuania and Latvia as fixed points rather than real countries, so at one stage a compass on the map showed Latvia to the north-west and Riga, its capital, to the north!

The display was complex and in both English and Cantonese, so I found it quite difficult to follow. By the time the English version of the local map came round, the place I'd seen and wanted to identify was far behind!

The use on the moving map of just metric measurements for speed and height (10882 metres instead of 36,000 feet), and mach numbers for speed, seemed slightly odd. I thought aviation standard was Imperial? And who knows what a mach number is anyway?

The pilot announced the distance to Hong Kong in nautical miles at one point, just to add to the confusion!

Having announcements repeated on the in-flight entertainment (as a note at the top of the screens) was, I thought, a good idea - especially the "Fasten seat belts" message.

We flew through a thunderstorm over the Netherlands and Germany - quite spectacular!

My evening meal had no pasta starter but two helpings of dessert! No menus were supplied, but the cabin crew announced the choices over the public address system.

On the flight back, I was annoyed to find that the in-town check-in at Central Station closed at 17:00: I was told that it was the same at Kowloon at the airport. A pain, for an early morning flight.

And as we arrived at Heathrow, we were asked to fold blankets and put them in the overhead bins, ensure that the bins were left open after we'd taken our belongings out, put the window blinds down to keep the plane cool while it was awaiting its return flight, and watch that we didn't mark the business-class seats - the ottomans - with our rolling cases as we went past!

I expect that the last person out was also asked to switch off the lights and lock the doors!

One was invited to give feedback by email (and New Zealand residents who were members of their frequent flier club would be entered into a quarterly prize draw for 500 points if they did so): the survey is on www.airnzmyvoice.co.nz.

You may deduce that my feedback is not particularly complimentary!