This from faithful FOP (that's "Friend of Pow!" for all you newbies) Tyler Wordsworth, who raves about the "next step" in the all-important Surprise Continuum from--pardon the pun--ballsy Air New Zealand:
Tyler has reason to be excited (aside from the obvious). In a most moribund industry, this relatively tiny Kiwi airline has out-Virgined Virgin Air in (sorry!) cheekiness and has (sorry again) showed more staff spirit than Southwest.
The tease factor is incredible; you can almost hear yourself yell "Lower!" or "Zoom out!" to the obviously well-disciplined camera operator (who seems to have cut his or her chops shooting final scenes in Austin Powers flicks). Perhaps travel writer Mike Barish put it best when he said:
"Lately, many airlines have replaced the flight attendant demos with clever videos, and Air New Zealand may have just raised the bar for the rest of the industry. And so long as that bar is covering the complimentary bag of nuts..."
Anyway, without any further ado: