Flying Blue (Air France & KLM) - FB special offer for A380

The first A380 has now been delivered to AFKL.

It looks like initially they will be sending it down to JNB, beside the daily JFK.

I still have a couple of FB miles to burn (from a canceled award), and so I was wondering: will these A380 flights be available for award bookings?

Actually, I just saw some pictures of the newly designed interior of the new A380 cabin, and apart from "the museum" there seems to be nothing special at all about AFKL's new flagship.

Especially J-class looks really dull and really tight. Wasn't their whole philosophy behind the April Fool's changes to get rid of Y-pax and to focus on their J- and F- class passengers? Well, apparently not !!

http://www.myaviation.net/search/photo_search.php?id=01681527&size=medium

I have to say: I am really underwhelmed. But then again, isn't that exactly what we've all come to expect from AFKL??

Anyway, what are the chances of any upcoming special A380 award-promos directed towards the Flying Blue community, or whatever is left of it??

And is the A380 that much of a special plane, to go out of my way and spend my remaining miles on??

JNB, never heard about.
A380, NYC from CDG is AF 006. easy to check if you book online an award ticket.
Business class is now divided in 2/2/2 unstead 2/3/2. I didn't check it, but it looks like the sizes of the seats are the same, and still not a real flat bed.

JNB was indeed forecasted to be the next destination of AF A380 in addition to DXB.

However, this was the initial plans based on the assumption AF would receive 3 A380 by year end which will not happen because of extra delivery delays from the manufacturer. I think they already announced it likely officially.

JNB will surely come ... later.

Sc

Especially J-class looks really dull and really tight.Yikes!

And is the A380 that much of a special plane, to go out of my way and spend my remaining miles on??The smaller the plane, the better. Fewer pax means fewer people to screw things up. Less chance of pax delaying the flight by boarding late or not at all; less chance of somebody having a heart attack on board; less crowding and waiting at the gate, at immigrations, at the luggage belt, at customs.

The fewer the merrier.

Only go for it if you are looking for a state-of-the-art premium class experience. Now that would not be on AF.

Johan

JFK is the 1st route, starting 23/11 (AF006/AF007).
DXB is no more planned
JNB will be the 2nd route, starting early 2010
NRT will follow after

Yes A380 flights will be bookable for award tickets. But why would you want them to make some promo awards for this. There are so much people who want to fly it. No need for promo awards

JFK is the 1st route, starting 23/11 (AF006/AF007)...According to this very short article (in French) (http://www.lechotouristique.com/air-france-recoit-son-a380-aujourd-hui.171401), those flights will start on the 20th and 21st. You can get a Google translation of the article here. (http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lechotouristique.com% 2Fair-france-recoit-son-a380-aujourd-hui.171401&sl=fr&tl=en&hl=en&ie=UTF-8)

According to this very short article (in French) (http://www.lechotouristique.com/air-france-recoit-son-a380-aujourd-hui.171401), those flights will start on the 20th and 21st. You can get a Google translation of the article here. (http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lechotouristique.com% 2Fair-france-recoit-son-a380-aujourd-hui.171401&sl=fr&tl=en&hl=en&ie=UTF-8)

20/11 and 21/11 are the two pre-commercial charity flights (CDG-JFK and JFK-CDG respectively) that were sold at auction. 23/11 is the first commercial flight.

My reservation for CDG-JNB leaving 5/27, returning 5/31 shows the aircraft as A380. However, given that Affaires isn't fully flat, I'm going to ditch it and take DL instead on the B777-200LR.

- Pat (I live in Washington, DC, USA)