Qatar A380 Economy Class Trip Report
Dec 17, 2014, 6:17 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: UK (EMA/LHR), NL (GRQ/AMS), SE Asia (TAC/BKK)
Programs: Eurostar Carte Blanche, QR Silver, Accor, BA
Posts: 653
Qatar A380 Economy Class Trip Report
Howdy Folks.
I just thought that I'd post a little trip report before my memory of the flight details disappeared. Flight was QR004 on Nov 14th from LHR.
This was my first ever time flying on an A380, so I was extremely excited (I even went as far as pointing out the aircraft sitting on the apron to my fellow coach passenger as we drove around the airport's ring road to Terminal 4!)
I'll start off by saying that the trip did not really start off too well. I had booked a bus from my University's bus interchange (University of Southampton) to Heathrow, and it turned up 30 minutes or so late. Things then deteriorated when we got stuck on the M3 motorway... at one point the bus driver shut off the engine for over 20 minutes, as it was like a parking lot. The cause turned out to be a Peugeot that was completely totaled, with the occupants having to be taken away in the medevac chopper. After about an hour of delay, we got past the crash, and I arrived about 70 or 80 minutes before the flight. It looked as though I wasn't the only one turning up late though... I suspect that the extreme delays on the M25 motorway due to the carriageway collapsing earlier that morning had something to do with it.
After check-in, I moved swiftly through security, and even managed to grab a rushed 5-minute snack break in the SkyTeam lounge, which QR uses for its status passengers. (FYI, the selection is a bit sparse around 1pm)
Anyway, about the aircraft. Being the transport nerd that I am, I had been keeping tabs on A380 deliveries to Qatar prior to my flight. Due to Qatar having delayed deliveries so much, a quick succession of finished A380s being delivered to Qatar was inevitable. About 3 days before my flight, Airbus delivered the second A380, A7-APB, to the airline. IIRC, the day after my flight, Nov 15th, the second A380 route (CDG) was meant to start full-time, so I knew the second A380 had to be in service by then. But secretly, I hoped that Qatar would be nice and let us have A7-APB for its first flight. Well, unusually, two days before, flightradar24.com predicted that APB would operate QR3/4 as its first flight... and upon checking again the morning of my flight, I saw that my wish had been granted! I've flown on some aircraft that are only a few weeks old before, but never on an aircraft on its first ever passenger run!
My first view of A7-APB:
On the outbound flight, I'd elected to try the upper-deck economy cabin, and managed to get a window seat. Interestingly, when I booked, the cabin was showing as quite full, but when on-board it became apparent that quite the opposite was true.
After walking past several downstairs economy cabins, I reached the rear stairs leading to the smaller, but more intimate economy cabin:
My initial impressions of the interior were that it was indeed finished to a very high standard, and the new crimson and grey colours on the seats with brown leather headrest covers looked very classy (pics below).
Here's the view from 26A (I was still gloating over the possibility that I might have been the first person to sit in 26A on A7-APB...). I quite like that upstairs it's 2-4-2 rather than 3-4-3. And yes, it really was that empty.
Just in-case you need confirmation of where you're sitting:
The window cubby:
Our aircraft's older cousin, A346 A7-AGB, was visible out of my stately port-hole:
In case you've ever wondered... yes, that's a lot of exit slides:
To celebrate the A380's launch, an amenity kit in a special-edition metal box was waiting at the seat:
So, how about the legroom? Well, it seemed just fine to me. Most excellently, the new IFE system features the smallest boxes I've ever seen, meaning no real intrusion into your legroom.
So, how about that IFE? Well, in a word, excellent. The screen was very large for economy class, and it was very sharp. It features the new Oryx UI, which seems like a big upgrade for the most-part. This new system is also on the 777 fleet. However, it features extra functionality on the A380, including certain games, and more moving map functions. The touch-screen works exceedingly well - it's as sensitive as an iPad, and on the moving map, you can change the view, zooming around the aircraft, as if you were using Google Earth. You no longer have to be subjected to all the map pages you don't want to see (it's no-longer a loop).
Fantastic sharpness and colours:
Also, takeoff/landing cam from the front gear (it seemed like it needed focusing better):
Talking of takeoff, here's a video. The aircraft is so quiet that talking and the background music easily drown out the engine noise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J74v80Ks-x0 (Don't forget the 720p!)
Here's a little plane-spotting for those that enjoy:
A fleeting glimpse of the F/J bar:
Finally, an um-ambiguous toilet direction indicator! (Talking of the toilet, the one upstairs was very nice, and hi-tech... you can even set the temp on the automatic tap!) (sorry, no pic)
So, how about the in-flight experience?
Well, it's improved since earlier this year, but not really up to its former quality.
First off, we have the snack, which was nice enough. I opted for the new "signature cocktail" (no idea if there's any alcohol, it tasted like sparkling lemonade with fresh mint). I hope they keep it, as it tastes a lot better than the "juice" served on-board. Talking of which, if you go for the juice, go for the pineapple, as it's a different brand than the terrible Lacnor stuff.
There were three dinner options. I went with the Catalan Chicken, which wasn't bad. The mango (or passionfruit?) cheescake was also nice. (The vegetarian option was a paneer curry IIRC which was tempting.) The real silverware was a welcome addition. Interestingly, the 777 flights to BKK only had plastic stuff. The food was also much worse on the BKK segments, which makes me think meal spend is higher on the LHR, or at least A380, flights. The one drawback to all the IFE seatback screens is the tiny tray-table, that doesn't come close enough to you.
Another "upgrade" to the A380 economy service was the FA bringing round potato chips / Twix bars sometime in the evening.
And before landing, another snack, again of decent quality, this time a pizza wrap and cherry chocolate muffin:
I hereby declare the FlyerTalk Qatar A380 Yahtzee competition open. Who can beat my score?
The cabin features Airbus' latest, greatest LED mood lighting; it seems to be able to do the entire rainbow.
The upper-deck window bins are very useful to place things on in-flight (just remember to remove them before landing so they don't slide forward!)
Ahh... someday
Upon landing, I got a few more shots to show the lovely new cabin colour combos. You can also see the attention to detail with the new headrest covers:
Overall, the flight experience was a really good one, other than the annoying seat-recliner in-front of me (re-reclining upon landing!). The cabin crew were one of the best I've had in a while, and they brought around drinks frequently.
Sadly, my first time at Hamad International Airport was not as good. I really don't like it much, even if it does have FAR more room than the old airport. The JumboTron screens really are obnoxious at night, making it hard to see and giving you a headache. Way to ruin a brand-new airport by prioritising advertising...
The A380 is a really comfortable aircraft to travel on it seems, and I shall continue to try and go out my way to fly on one given the option. It feels much quieter and more modern than the 777. Talking of which, here's my Qatar 777 Top Tip: if sitting on the high-density 777-300ER (24J/356Y), and you're in Y, try to get a seat in row 15 forward, as the engine noise seems to really drop off noticeably fore of this point on the aircraft, which could mean a better night's sleep (except for the screaming babies!)
As for the rest of my flights to BKK and return:
As mentioned before, the food DOH-BKK-DOH was still almost inedible. Even the pineapple coming FROM Bangkok was awful... and good pineapple is available cheaply year-round in Thailand! The new Oryx UI generally improves the IFE experience on the 777 as well.
The Al-Maha lounge currently serving Silver members was nice, but smelled of cigarette smoke "they're working on it", and had insufficient toilet facilities. There was an okay selection of good-quality food, and also fresh orange juice.
On QR3 back to London, I was really disappointed, as tech on the A380 had apparently over-run, and they made a last-minute substitution to the A340 (which normally I like to fly on). This caused a 2-hour plus delay, in addition to the 3 hours I'd already been at the airport. It also meant seat-chaos, with some people getting bumped off the flight, and the rest of the people kicking up the most ridiculous fuss imaginable about their seat allocations, with the usual sense of entitlement.
On the plus side, we still got the A380 food, and this meant a return of the delicious ricotta and [fruit] (in this case blueberry) pancakes
While I didn't get to try out the A380 downstairs cabin, at least the pancakes partly made up for the trouble...
Overall, an improvement from Qatar on their terrible standards that they had fallen to at the start of the year, but still some way to go to improve, especially on non-London flights. I would still rather fly with Cathay to Asia if/when I start making at least 4 trips there per year...
I just thought that I'd post a little trip report before my memory of the flight details disappeared. Flight was QR004 on Nov 14th from LHR.
This was my first ever time flying on an A380, so I was extremely excited (I even went as far as pointing out the aircraft sitting on the apron to my fellow coach passenger as we drove around the airport's ring road to Terminal 4!)
I'll start off by saying that the trip did not really start off too well. I had booked a bus from my University's bus interchange (University of Southampton) to Heathrow, and it turned up 30 minutes or so late. Things then deteriorated when we got stuck on the M3 motorway... at one point the bus driver shut off the engine for over 20 minutes, as it was like a parking lot. The cause turned out to be a Peugeot that was completely totaled, with the occupants having to be taken away in the medevac chopper. After about an hour of delay, we got past the crash, and I arrived about 70 or 80 minutes before the flight. It looked as though I wasn't the only one turning up late though... I suspect that the extreme delays on the M25 motorway due to the carriageway collapsing earlier that morning had something to do with it.
After check-in, I moved swiftly through security, and even managed to grab a rushed 5-minute snack break in the SkyTeam lounge, which QR uses for its status passengers. (FYI, the selection is a bit sparse around 1pm)
Anyway, about the aircraft. Being the transport nerd that I am, I had been keeping tabs on A380 deliveries to Qatar prior to my flight. Due to Qatar having delayed deliveries so much, a quick succession of finished A380s being delivered to Qatar was inevitable. About 3 days before my flight, Airbus delivered the second A380, A7-APB, to the airline. IIRC, the day after my flight, Nov 15th, the second A380 route (CDG) was meant to start full-time, so I knew the second A380 had to be in service by then. But secretly, I hoped that Qatar would be nice and let us have A7-APB for its first flight. Well, unusually, two days before, flightradar24.com predicted that APB would operate QR3/4 as its first flight... and upon checking again the morning of my flight, I saw that my wish had been granted! I've flown on some aircraft that are only a few weeks old before, but never on an aircraft on its first ever passenger run!
My first view of A7-APB:
On the outbound flight, I'd elected to try the upper-deck economy cabin, and managed to get a window seat. Interestingly, when I booked, the cabin was showing as quite full, but when on-board it became apparent that quite the opposite was true.
After walking past several downstairs economy cabins, I reached the rear stairs leading to the smaller, but more intimate economy cabin:
My initial impressions of the interior were that it was indeed finished to a very high standard, and the new crimson and grey colours on the seats with brown leather headrest covers looked very classy (pics below).
Here's the view from 26A (I was still gloating over the possibility that I might have been the first person to sit in 26A on A7-APB...). I quite like that upstairs it's 2-4-2 rather than 3-4-3. And yes, it really was that empty.
Just in-case you need confirmation of where you're sitting:
The window cubby:
Our aircraft's older cousin, A346 A7-AGB, was visible out of my stately port-hole:
In case you've ever wondered... yes, that's a lot of exit slides:
To celebrate the A380's launch, an amenity kit in a special-edition metal box was waiting at the seat:
So, how about the legroom? Well, it seemed just fine to me. Most excellently, the new IFE system features the smallest boxes I've ever seen, meaning no real intrusion into your legroom.
So, how about that IFE? Well, in a word, excellent. The screen was very large for economy class, and it was very sharp. It features the new Oryx UI, which seems like a big upgrade for the most-part. This new system is also on the 777 fleet. However, it features extra functionality on the A380, including certain games, and more moving map functions. The touch-screen works exceedingly well - it's as sensitive as an iPad, and on the moving map, you can change the view, zooming around the aircraft, as if you were using Google Earth. You no longer have to be subjected to all the map pages you don't want to see (it's no-longer a loop).
Fantastic sharpness and colours:
Also, takeoff/landing cam from the front gear (it seemed like it needed focusing better):
Talking of takeoff, here's a video. The aircraft is so quiet that talking and the background music easily drown out the engine noise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J74v80Ks-x0 (Don't forget the 720p!)
Here's a little plane-spotting for those that enjoy:
A fleeting glimpse of the F/J bar:
Finally, an um-ambiguous toilet direction indicator! (Talking of the toilet, the one upstairs was very nice, and hi-tech... you can even set the temp on the automatic tap!) (sorry, no pic)
So, how about the in-flight experience?
Well, it's improved since earlier this year, but not really up to its former quality.
First off, we have the snack, which was nice enough. I opted for the new "signature cocktail" (no idea if there's any alcohol, it tasted like sparkling lemonade with fresh mint). I hope they keep it, as it tastes a lot better than the "juice" served on-board. Talking of which, if you go for the juice, go for the pineapple, as it's a different brand than the terrible Lacnor stuff.
There were three dinner options. I went with the Catalan Chicken, which wasn't bad. The mango (or passionfruit?) cheescake was also nice. (The vegetarian option was a paneer curry IIRC which was tempting.) The real silverware was a welcome addition. Interestingly, the 777 flights to BKK only had plastic stuff. The food was also much worse on the BKK segments, which makes me think meal spend is higher on the LHR, or at least A380, flights. The one drawback to all the IFE seatback screens is the tiny tray-table, that doesn't come close enough to you.
Another "upgrade" to the A380 economy service was the FA bringing round potato chips / Twix bars sometime in the evening.
And before landing, another snack, again of decent quality, this time a pizza wrap and cherry chocolate muffin:
I hereby declare the FlyerTalk Qatar A380 Yahtzee competition open. Who can beat my score?
The cabin features Airbus' latest, greatest LED mood lighting; it seems to be able to do the entire rainbow.
The upper-deck window bins are very useful to place things on in-flight (just remember to remove them before landing so they don't slide forward!)
Ahh... someday
Upon landing, I got a few more shots to show the lovely new cabin colour combos. You can also see the attention to detail with the new headrest covers:
Overall, the flight experience was a really good one, other than the annoying seat-recliner in-front of me (re-reclining upon landing!). The cabin crew were one of the best I've had in a while, and they brought around drinks frequently.
Sadly, my first time at Hamad International Airport was not as good. I really don't like it much, even if it does have FAR more room than the old airport. The JumboTron screens really are obnoxious at night, making it hard to see and giving you a headache. Way to ruin a brand-new airport by prioritising advertising...
The A380 is a really comfortable aircraft to travel on it seems, and I shall continue to try and go out my way to fly on one given the option. It feels much quieter and more modern than the 777. Talking of which, here's my Qatar 777 Top Tip: if sitting on the high-density 777-300ER (24J/356Y), and you're in Y, try to get a seat in row 15 forward, as the engine noise seems to really drop off noticeably fore of this point on the aircraft, which could mean a better night's sleep (except for the screaming babies!)
As for the rest of my flights to BKK and return:
As mentioned before, the food DOH-BKK-DOH was still almost inedible. Even the pineapple coming FROM Bangkok was awful... and good pineapple is available cheaply year-round in Thailand! The new Oryx UI generally improves the IFE experience on the 777 as well.
The Al-Maha lounge currently serving Silver members was nice, but smelled of cigarette smoke "they're working on it", and had insufficient toilet facilities. There was an okay selection of good-quality food, and also fresh orange juice.
On QR3 back to London, I was really disappointed, as tech on the A380 had apparently over-run, and they made a last-minute substitution to the A340 (which normally I like to fly on). This caused a 2-hour plus delay, in addition to the 3 hours I'd already been at the airport. It also meant seat-chaos, with some people getting bumped off the flight, and the rest of the people kicking up the most ridiculous fuss imaginable about their seat allocations, with the usual sense of entitlement.
On the plus side, we still got the A380 food, and this meant a return of the delicious ricotta and [fruit] (in this case blueberry) pancakes
While I didn't get to try out the A380 downstairs cabin, at least the pancakes partly made up for the trouble...Overall, an improvement from Qatar on their terrible standards that they had fallen to at the start of the year, but still some way to go to improve, especially on non-London flights. I would still rather fly with Cathay to Asia if/when I start making at least 4 trips there per year...
Last edited by InternationalLiving; Dec 17, 2014 at 8:17 pm
Dec 18, 2014, 12:20 am
#2
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 1,727
Great trip review. Had my first flight on their B787 earlier today. The seat pitch was good enough for me and the space was good. However, regarding the catering, there is a sharp drop in quality. Similar experience with yours for the A380 flight but I feel the portion of food has dropped.
Dec 18, 2014, 6:46 am
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: UK (EMA/LHR), NL (GRQ/AMS), SE Asia (TAC/BKK)
Programs: Eurostar Carte Blanche, QR Silver, Accor, BA
Posts: 653
Great trip review. Had my first flight on their B787 earlier today. The seat pitch was good enough for me and the space was good. However, regarding the catering, there is a sharp drop in quality. Similar experience with yours for the A380 flight but I feel the portion of food has dropped.
Thank you
It took a little longer than I was planning, but as I was only reviewing the one flight, I didn't want to leave any details or pics out. 
Small world... you never know who'll you'll meet!
Dec 18, 2014, 8:29 am
#6
Suspended
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 2,685
Great report. Is the seat pitch better upstairs? Do they keep it for PC silver+ even if downstairs is full, or do they fill it up as well? And how full was downstairs on your flight?
Flying the A380 (in J.. or hopefully F if I can upgrade at DOH) in January, looking forward to it but as someone who normally flies Y I'm glad to see the product is good. Shame that most of my QR flights are 787 though :/
Flying the A380 (in J.. or hopefully F if I can upgrade at DOH) in January, looking forward to it but as someone who normally flies Y I'm glad to see the product is good. Shame that most of my QR flights are 787 though :/
Dec 18, 2014, 8:49 am
#8
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: UK (EMA/LHR), NL (GRQ/AMS), SE Asia (TAC/BKK)
Programs: Eurostar Carte Blanche, QR Silver, Accor, BA
Posts: 653
Great report. Is the seat pitch better upstairs? Do they keep it for PC silver+ even if downstairs is full, or do they fill it up as well? And how full was downstairs on your flight?
Flying the A380 (in J.. or hopefully F if I can upgrade at DOH) in January, looking forward to it but as someone who normally flies Y I'm glad to see the product is good. Shame that most of my QR flights are 787 though :/
Flying the A380 (in J.. or hopefully F if I can upgrade at DOH) in January, looking forward to it but as someone who normally flies Y I'm glad to see the product is good. Shame that most of my QR flights are 787 though :/
I have my doubts about whether the seat is really 18"+ wide, but I didn't have a tape measure on me. I would be more interested to know if the seat width is the same upstairs as down. (As mentioned in the report, sadly I didn't get to try downstairs on my return). The most annoying thing about the seat was the small tray table.
That flight was really empty... probably wouldn't have filled more than an A332. So yes, downstairs also seemed empty from when I was boarding. Upstairs de-planes last upon landing, so keep that in mind if you're in a rush.
I think that anyone can sit upstairs if there's room when checking-in at the airport. It's only when booking on-line that there seems to be the status restriction as far as I can tell. The people sitting behind me almost certainly were not status fliers.
I hope that you enjoy your flight in January!
I tried for an upgrade on this flight, but was denied... ridiculous considering how empty it was.Maybe... it wasn't the same lemon mint as is served in J onboard though...
Dec 18, 2014, 5:07 pm
#9
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Udon Thani, Thailand
Programs: TK E,*G, A-Club G
Posts: 869
Thank you, great report.
I will be flying the A380 in J BKK-DOH late March en back late April, on to BRU on the B787.
I do miss flying 4 engine planes like the B747, flew them TATL over a 100x.
I hope I won't want to fly the 777 any more after that A380 trip...
I will be flying the A380 in J BKK-DOH late March en back late April, on to BRU on the B787.
I do miss flying 4 engine planes like the B747, flew them TATL over a 100x.
I hope I won't want to fly the 777 any more after that A380 trip...
Dec 19, 2014, 5:12 am
#10
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 740
The only Y flights I've been on with Qatar have been on the A340. I thought the food was actually quite good, as was the IFE.
In fact, I thought the IFE on the A380 wasn't that great. The content's exactly the same as other planes and the touch screens are very sluggish. The interface is also not very intuitive to navigate. It's not as easy to find films as on other planes. And the touch screen handsets are annoying. You have to keep them out of their slot or you end up hitting them by mistake.
I was in J though when I flew the 380, so their location may be different. In fact, I was a few seats in front of you, albeit on a different flight. The food in J was rather disappointing compared to other QR flights I've been on (this was QR 3 btw). The seat is great and it's nice and quiet upstairs, although this was somewhat ruined by a guy a few rows in front of me whose snoring was louder than the average turbofan. They're the best J seat on the Qatar fleet (in my experience) though and probably better than the one and only LH F seat I've been in, on the A330.
In fact, I thought the IFE on the A380 wasn't that great. The content's exactly the same as other planes and the touch screens are very sluggish. The interface is also not very intuitive to navigate. It's not as easy to find films as on other planes. And the touch screen handsets are annoying. You have to keep them out of their slot or you end up hitting them by mistake.
I was in J though when I flew the 380, so their location may be different. In fact, I was a few seats in front of you, albeit on a different flight. The food in J was rather disappointing compared to other QR flights I've been on (this was QR 3 btw). The seat is great and it's nice and quiet upstairs, although this was somewhat ruined by a guy a few rows in front of me whose snoring was louder than the average turbofan. They're the best J seat on the Qatar fleet (in my experience) though and probably better than the one and only LH F seat I've been in, on the A330.
Dec 19, 2014, 4:59 pm
#11
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: LHR
Programs: QR Platinum, WY Gold, Shangri-la Diamond, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 1,151
Great report - really love the detail - thanks for taking the time to post!
Same thing happened to me on my last QR3 too, resulting in utter chaos. I wonder if we were on the same flight! Think mine was 28 Nov - felt so sorry for the poor cabin crew dealing with the fall-out from all the angry pax!!!
Same thing happened to me on my last QR3 too, resulting in utter chaos. I wonder if we were on the same flight! Think mine was 28 Nov - felt so sorry for the poor cabin crew dealing with the fall-out from all the angry pax!!!
Dec 20, 2014, 4:27 am
#12
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: UK (EMA/LHR), NL (GRQ/AMS), SE Asia (TAC/BKK)
Programs: Eurostar Carte Blanche, QR Silver, Accor, BA
Posts: 653
The only Y flights I've been on with Qatar have been on the A340. I thought the food was actually quite good, as was the IFE.
In fact, I thought the IFE on the A380 wasn't that great. The content's exactly the same as other planes and the touch screens are very sluggish. The interface is also not very intuitive to navigate. It's not as easy to find films as on other planes. And the touch screen handsets are annoying. You have to keep them out of their slot or you end up hitting them by mistake.
I was in J though when I flew the 380, so their location may be different. In fact, I was a few seats in front of you, albeit on a different flight. The food in J was rather disappointing compared to other QR flights I've been on (this was QR 3 btw). The seat is great and it's nice and quiet upstairs, although this was somewhat ruined by a guy a few rows in front of me whose snoring was louder than the average turbofan. They're the best J seat on the Qatar fleet (in my experience) though and probably better than the one and only LH F seat I've been in, on the A330.
In fact, I thought the IFE on the A380 wasn't that great. The content's exactly the same as other planes and the touch screens are very sluggish. The interface is also not very intuitive to navigate. It's not as easy to find films as on other planes. And the touch screen handsets are annoying. You have to keep them out of their slot or you end up hitting them by mistake.
I was in J though when I flew the 380, so their location may be different. In fact, I was a few seats in front of you, albeit on a different flight. The food in J was rather disappointing compared to other QR flights I've been on (this was QR 3 btw). The seat is great and it's nice and quiet upstairs, although this was somewhat ruined by a guy a few rows in front of me whose snoring was louder than the average turbofan. They're the best J seat on the Qatar fleet (in my experience) though and probably better than the one and only LH F seat I've been in, on the A330.
The touchscreen handsets seem a bit pointless in Y to be honest, and are part of the reason that the tray tables are now so small.
I like your snoring comparison
Great report - really love the detail - thanks for taking the time to post!
Same thing happened to me on my last QR3 too, resulting in utter chaos. I wonder if we were on the same flight! Think mine was 28 Nov - felt so sorry for the poor cabin crew dealing with the fall-out from all the angry pax!!!
Same thing happened to me on my last QR3 too, resulting in utter chaos. I wonder if we were on the same flight! Think mine was 28 Nov - felt so sorry for the poor cabin crew dealing with the fall-out from all the angry pax!!!
What seat were you in?And yes, I also felt sorry for the cabin crew. For some reason a large number of Chinese passengers tried to make their lives especially difficult. They did a very good job handling it though and trying to minimise further delays...
Last edited by InternationalLiving; Dec 20, 2014 at 4:40 am
Dec 20, 2014, 5:42 am
#13
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: LHR
Programs: QR Platinum, WY Gold, Shangri-la Diamond, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 1,151
Thanks! And yes, no way! It was the flight on the 28th! You should have posted in the "community" section your flights What seat were you in?
And yes, I also felt sorry for the cabin crew. For some reason a large number of Chinese passengers tried to make their lives especially difficult. They did a very good job handling it though and trying to minimise further delays...
What seat were you in?And yes, I also felt sorry for the cabin crew. For some reason a large number of Chinese passengers tried to make their lives especially difficult. They did a very good job handling it though and trying to minimise further delays...
Any idea what had happened to the A380? Had it gone tech? I saw online the same switch had been made the past two days as well (even though CDG retained an A380). It was supposed to be the first delivered A380 on all occasions that was switched as far as I could tell.
Dec 20, 2014, 6:00 am
#14
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: UK (EMA/LHR), NL (GRQ/AMS), SE Asia (TAC/BKK)
Programs: Eurostar Carte Blanche, QR Silver, Accor, BA
Posts: 653
Hah - didn't realise there was a community section where I could post my flights - will check it out. I think I was in row 32 (I'd chosen the last row of the upper deck on the previous seat plan and think I was one of the few pax whose seat number wasn't actually changed!).
Any idea what had happened to the A380? Had it gone tech? I saw online the same switch had been made the past two days as well (even though CDG retained an A380). It was supposed to be the first delivered A380 on all occasions that was switched as far as I could tell.
Any idea what had happened to the A380? Had it gone tech? I saw online the same switch had been made the past two days as well (even though CDG retained an A380). It was supposed to be the first delivered A380 on all occasions that was switched as far as I could tell.
Ahh... yea I was even more unlucky... I'd picked row 46 on the A380, which meant I retained my seat also, but almost at the back of the A346. I also gave up my aisle seat to a passenger who had a medical need (without a fuss!) but this meant I got stuck in the middle next to another guy who slept most of the time.
I think the tech had been scheduled (on A7-APA) beforehand for the two previous days. As far as I can tell, it just over-ran by a day... who knows if that's down to incompetence or some other reason though.
Dec 20, 2014, 8:45 pm
#15
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 216
Thanks for the report. Is it possible to adjust the ventilation above your seat in this one? Your photos seem to suggest so. I flew in an A380 with Lufthansa I think last year, and it was terrible as there was no way to adjust (turn off) the airflow. Thus for the whole flight Fra-Houston I had air blowing into my eyes. I flew in another new Airbus Phuket-DOH last month on QR and had the same issue. Just terrible if you're suffering from dry eyes.