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I recently booked travel which includes JFK-CDG-JFK in Y on Air France's A380-800 and haven't seen much discussion on seat selection. I've never been on this aircraft but heard a lot of good things.

Delta.com shows me all the lower deck in economy with rows 10-26 being shown as preferred while airfrance.us shows these seats being blocked (I have no status on FB). Both sites show the upper deck available seating being rows 88-94. According to seatguru (and seatexpert), the upper deck seating is 81-94, behind Affaires.

I have a few questions that can hopefully be answered here:

Are rows 81-87 only available to passengers with status on FB? If so then is the only reason airfrance.us showing me the front of the plane because I have an assigned seat there from delta.com? I initially selected 11A for both flights.

I have read that the upper deck feels less cramped (8 across rather than 10)and is quieter - is that true even towards the back of the plane (say row 88 or 93)? Are there other reasons to be upstairs?

After JFK-CDG I'll have a connection with a 1:40 layover. Do I need to be as close to the front as possible or will I have enough time to deplane from the upper deck?

Thanks!