First trip on an Airbus A380

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

Last night my wife and I booked our flights for the upcoming Christmas vacation to Europe and ended up getting a round trip from JFK to  Paris on an A380. We picked seats on the upper level for both flights.

I’ve never been on one of these. Is their anything of interest in the upper deck or anything particularly interesting that I should look for?

Wish it was on a 747 as I still never flown on one of those either.

[waleed 26]

Window seats?

If so, it is going fast enough for takeoff so do not panic as it only looks like it is going really slow.

Try to see the lower cabin as it is ridiculously spacious.

Other than that, it is a lot more quiet than anything out there, but the AC is kind of loud.

Just have fun and enjoy your vacation.

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

2 hours ago, waleed said:

Window seats?

 

Oh yeah, of course. I never go anywhere without a window seat. The only issue with that on long hauls is getting out to use the restroom while the wife is sleeping or even worse, when it’s 3 seats, having to wake a stranger to use the bathroom. Fortunately the ones we got are onyl two seats so just the wife will have to let me out.

I saw a YouTube video of the upper deck and saw something that looked like a lounge are or something, but that could depend on the carrier and how they have it set up. My flight is on Air France and I’ve only flown that carrier from Barcelona to Paris a few times on the smaller busses which were pretty basic.

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

Just now, Rob_Ainscough said:

I’ve done the upper deck of 747, but never been on a A380, I would love to do a flight in A380 one day ... maybe a Trip to F1 race in Bahrain and  see how much it has changed since the 1970s.

I’m heading back to UK again on Monday, 787 ... which I think is a nice aircraft and much quieter than A340.

Do report back on your flight experience, very interested.

Cheers, Rob

 

Yeah I’ll let you know how it goes. I’d still love to get a ride on a 747 before they disappear from commercial service. I’ve been on pretty much everything but a 747 and A380. I do like the 787 though, it’s quite and smooth.

My best chance for a 747 might be next year as I’m considering flying to the UK for the British Open at St Andrews. It will probably be my best chance to see Tiger play an Open there since they rotate the course every 8 years or so and I know BA still use the 747 for transatlantic routes a bit.

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

2 minutes ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

Get a bulkhead row, no problem getting out from any seat in the row.

Cheers, Rob

I love those seats but for some reason my wife hates them so I’m out of luck. You know the saying, happy wife, happy life 😂😂 

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

2 minutes ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

I think it's in the marriage contract ... you need to read the fine print ... Section 42.2.1.c

Yes, British Airways is still running passenger 747s ... what I don't like about BA is they sur-charge for seat selection and the prices various based on the seat selected even within the same class?

Enjoy your holidays.

Cheers, Rob.

It’s in the Life.cfg

[Marriage]

Happy_wife_happy_life=1 😂😂😂

 

4 minutes ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

Yes, British Airways is still running passenger 747s ... what I don't like about BA is they sur-charge for seat selection and the prices various based on the seat selected even within the same class?

Enjoy your holidays.

Cheers, Rob.

Air France did the same for the upper deck seats. Had to pay $40 a seat for the selection all in the same class. It’s worth it though to make sure I sit where I want and have my wife next to me rather than a strange. Still, buying the tickets this far out from Dec 19th, I was able to fly round trip for $796 which isn’t bad. 

[FDEdev 955]

1 hour ago, cmpbellsjc said:

I’d still love to get a ride on a 747 before they disappear from commercial service. 

The same goes for the A380. Air France has just flown their first, only 10 years old A380, to the scrapyard.

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

Just now, FDEdev said:

The same goes for the A380. Air France has just flown their first, only 10 years old A380, to the scrapyard.

Is AF planning the same for the whole A380 fleet or just phasing some out? Hopefully they don’t change equipment between now and my flight in Dec.

[FDEdev 955]

They are planning to retire the complete A380 fleet by 2022.  Emirates started already to 'randomly' switch from the A380 to the 777 and back after a few weeks on a few routes.

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

4 minutes ago, FDEdev said:

They are planning to retire the complete A380 fleet by 2022.  Emirates started already to 'randomly' switch from the A380 to the 777 and back after a few weeks on a few routes.

Yep, after my reply I googled it saw the article. Hopefully they’ll still have that one for my flight. One thing I hate more than anything when traveling and booking way in advance and picking seats, is an equipment change a month prior to the flight and getting my seats reshuffled. Especially when I paid extra to pick seats so my wife and I can sit together.

“The aircraft are set to be operated by Air France, which is phasing out its A380s by the end of 2022. ... The additional A350s will also enable Air France to “accelerate” the withdrawal of its A340s during the first quarter of 2021, the carrier says. Sister operator KLM will have a long-haul fleet comprising 777s and 787”Dec 11, 2019

 

[vadriver 247]

top deck on the 747 = feels like business on a 737 !!

top deck on the 380 = feels like economy on a 330  !!

take your pick .... it's more interesting to walk down the back stairs & up the front stairs on the 380 when you need a "stretch".

[AviatorMan 253]

7 hours ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

what I don't like about BA is they sur-charge for seat selection and the prices various based on the seat selected even within the same class

I believe just about all of the main carriers charge per the desirability of the seats in the main cabin. I have recently flown on United, Virgin Atlantic and American and they all surcharge for any but the least desirable seats. But I pay it anyway, because the last thing I am want to do is to be stuck in the middle seats on a transatlantic flight of 10 hours or more.

[Adrian123 1,015]

I always use Delta "Premium select" A350 for Transatlantic flights.

Edited February 22, 2020 by Adrian123

[Chock 17,769]

14 hours ago, cmpbellsjc said:

anything particularly interesting that I should look for?

Yup. Because of their massive size and the fact that few airports have many stands which can handle them and often many taxiways which are a bit on the narrow side for accommodating them, a lot of the time the A380's wingtips will come over the red and white lines at the edge of the taxiways and start encroaching on the airport roadway system or other taxiways.

So lookout for a bunch of airfield ops cars and trucks blocking roads and taxiways when your A380 pushes out and taxies to the runway. Pretty much everything has to make way for the A380, so it kind of makes the passengers feel a bit special.

Another thing to look out for, is that on the lower deck, the windows are actually on a downward curved part of the fuselage, which is fairly unique among aeroplanes. That sloped angle isn't much, but it still means you can get a bit of a view of terrain more directly underneath you than is possible in most other airliners.

[RocketDuck 7]

Went on a business trip in November. I flew with a 747 out and an A380 on the way back (also had a short hop in a 777), so that was kind of fun for an aviation geek like myself 🙂

What i noticed is that the 747 really feels old now and not so big as I would have expected. The A380 on the other hand was just massive. I had a window seat just over the wing.... Those wings are enourmous.

It was very stable and comfortable in the air... Probably the best flight I've had for a long time