We were flying standby from Auckland to Adelaide early in the morning on standby. It is a longish flight for the A320 and apart from the passenger load (which can be high being Easter weekend), there are sometimes weight restrictions which could see us not get on despite seats being available. Fortunately, we got our boarding passes for the 0800 flight to Adelaide.
Today, there was the extra consideration of industrial action and we were lucky not to be rescheduled or cancelled. The action was by the cabin crew working for this part of Air New Zealand who are on cheaper contracts than their colleagues who have been around for longer. Part of the industrial action included not complying with uniform standards which meant some of them wore sneakers instead of dress shoes.
Once on board, we realised they were one crew member short. I believe that meant passenger numbers had to be restricted to 150 and we were very lucky to be onboard. We got our space-available upgrade in Business Class for the five hour flight. The Business seats on the A320 were wider than that of the B767 but the legroom was a shorthaul spec.
Once we got our meal, the crew member in our area apologised and explained that they now had to work in Economy because they were one member short. They returned later in the flight to do a cake and sandwich service before we landed in Adelaide. The Business Class service was quite impressive for the 4h55 flight time.