I was looking at going on the two A380 launch flights from Dubai to JFK and back to Dubai.

I looked again yesterday and realized there has been a substantial fare hyke over the last weekend.

Why have they done this?

From a dummy booking I did at the end of last week, more than half the Economy seats are empty on the two flights, EK 3801 and 3802.

There is about 3 weeks to go before the aircraft launch. Why are the flights so empty? Is it because of the Middle-East crisis? Wrong time of the year? Does EKmirates prefer to have a rather empty flight launching the service?

As to the best seats, I would say not the ones on the wing, the wings are huge and so are the engines, your parents would not see anything. A window seat and an aisle seat with an empty seat in the middle seems like the best choice.