I love trying new aircraft. I’m not much of a mechanics fanatic, but I do like seeing the setup of airplane and how they configure seating, etc. When we were looking to fly to London I jumped at the chance to try the A380.
After its release in 2007, this 500+ seater didn’t fare well – it was stinking expensive at nearly $450 million, and costs more than $17,000/hour to simply keep in the air, so it’s really for hyper-popular long haul routes. Add to that only 140 airports worldwide can handle this behemoth, it can’t be converted to cargo only, and none of the American carriers went for it… Airbus halted production a few years ago.
Quantas, Lufthansa, Singapore, British Airways and a few others did buy in, though.
Not wanting to go the wrong way around the world, our Aussie friends as well as the Asian airlines were out.
I also had no desire to overshoot the British Isles, spend a few hours in Düsseldorf then cram onto a 737 for another 90 minutes.
However, the flagship of my birth doesn’t have the best rep. Poor customer service, bad layouts, and of course, the incomparable Limey cuisine don’t inspire anyone to feel like I gotta fly this airline!!
Ah, well. Still willing to give it a go for an A380. We were thinking about a long weekend in London anyway, and the flights were cheap enough in steerage… until you added the cost of baggage $70/each way, and seats $140/each way. Each person. Our $700 return tickets suddenly bloated up to a total of $2,100.
We forwent the bags to do carry on (six nights, we can manage) but reserved seats, to me, are non-negotiable. Not having assigned seats sends my anxiety-meter through the roof.
Wanting the full experience, we went for the upper deck, in the “twin” seats. Downstairs, the seats are 3 – 4 – 3 but upstairs, due to the curvature of the plane, the seats are 2 – 4 – 2. Of course, twins are more expensive than any other seats.
But how often am I gonna fly on this monster? Twins it is.
However, twins are not a happy thing when you have 30” seat pitch. There is NO shimmying over Beloved to get outta these seats, so if you wanna pee, she has to get up.
Part of the problem are the “clamshell” seats. Rather than simply tipping back when you recline, they also shove your butt forward so the top of the seat doesn’t encroach as much on the friendly traveler behind you.
This then results in even less of the miserable 30” seat pitch you’re allotted to begin with. Bowza. If you’re over 5’5”, you might wanna think about paying for bulkhead or economy premium, which has 39” of pitch and slightly larger seats.
Carry on was okay since we were (comparatively) early in the boarding process, and we got our bags overhead – and the aircraft was nowhere near full. If this Airbus is packed, there’s no WAY those overhead bins are sufficient. Regular carryons (21 – 22”) have to lie flat in the bin, rather than bookend, so only three fit per bin, rather than five.
Being upstairs in the twin seats, though, you get an extra storage bin next to you, which is a help. It’s pretty roomy, too.
Another plus: BA puts a tub of disposable cleaning wipes in the bathrooms (are you listening, American/United/Delta???) This results in much, muuuuuuch cleaner potties, a giant bonus on a 10+ hour flight. I certainly use them before availing myself, and it’s clear others do too.
The food was mostly decent, a surprise, to be honest. The chicken in gravy with mash was hot and good, but somehow, after putting my pudding (a raspberry mousse, I believe) on the side bin and then falling asleep, it disappeared.
I’ve an idea it slid back to the fellow sitting behind me and he, finding manna from heaven (or the seat in front, whichever), helped himself.
Or it landed on his toes and he didn’t say anything. Either way, so much for the puds.
The emergency instructions sure as hell weren’t done by IKEA. Check this out:
The other thing about this aircraft: the seat setup in business… not that I was in any danger of having to tolerate it. For a mere $3K each way, you too can be mauled as the stranger in the center or window seat in the row in front of you crawls over your snoring carcass in the middle of the flight.
Seriously. You cannot exit your seat without disturbing some rando because you have to physically climb over their legs. Holy crap, no.
We received an offer to upgrade to economy premium for $378 each on the way home. Given we can claim a refund of $140 each for our seat selections and we can check bags for free (I was going to check one on the way home because, English chocolate and Easter is around the corner… I loaded my backpack into a duffle for that purpose on the way out… clothes in the duffle, chocs in the suitcase…), that brings the expense down to less than $20/hour to be comfortable. I can handle that.
But, of course, when trying to accept the offer, the BA website showed its true colors and said we have to call instead because it couldn’t do it online.
Well, that’s great, except our phones are data only in this country, so I’m gonna have to wait until we see family later and I can borrow a fully functional cell phone. Gah.
Examining Misadventures 