It was with some anticipation that I took my maiden A380 flight on Sunday, for those yet to take wings on one I thought I'd post a quick trip report to let you know what I thought. I'll start out by saying that having spent so many hours cooped up in a 747 you get quite familiar and comfortable with the jet, so any differences stand out. I'll try and be as objective as possible.

Arriving in SYD from BNE to board QF11, I have about 90 minutes and 15 seconds to make the connection so things were tight to start with. Scooting across in the bus, I get to the gate around 10 minutes before boarding is due to start, so no major dramas there. They've opened part of the terminal that was under construction, and since I've gotten over my resentment of being made to traipse through duty free shops to get to the gates the newly extended trip through miles of grog wasn't a bother. Shortly after arriving at the gate, the agent announces that there is a small technical issue with the plane, and that boarding will commence in 30 minutes. I get that horrible anticipation of rolling 20 minute delays that airlines are so good at, but to my relief we boarded almost spot-on 30 minutes later. Gate agents direct passengers down the appropriate jetway, you don't even get a sense that business class seats are upstairs since the jetway delivers you to the upstairs door.

Despite appearances to the contrary on the pdf seatmap on the Qantas website, there are acres of room around each Skybed seat. I was assigned 24A, which was next to the entry door, but every other seat also had a good half-metre of space so that you don't have to clamber over your seat-mate when they're lying stretched out asleep. 24A is not so glamorous since you need to crane your neck to see out the window. A little while later the Captain comes on and says that they are still having technical issues with the electrical system, and since repairs are underway they couldn't do any pre-flight checks. He was pretty upbeat about getting away fairly promptly though, and sure enough an hour or so later we push back. The engines run up, and then we sit on the tarmac some more. About ten minutes later the Captain makes another announcement that they had issues connecting the generators in the engine through to the on-board power distribution system, so more checks were required. Some time later it is decided we need to return to the gate so that the engineers can do their thing. The flight attendant sitting near me makes a helpful observation that when the 747s were introduced they had teething problems also, which while probably true wasn't delivered all that convincingly, and sounded like this was a phrase from the A380 guidebook of placating tetchy customers. The other flight attendant reassured us that there was another A380 parked on the hardstand and that worst case they would transfer us onto it - this would have been ok except he caveated this with the comment that by then the crew would have run out of crew hours and we'd be in Syd overnight until another crew was rustled up. While refreshingly honest I suppose it wasn't what we wanted to hear. A little while later the captain announces that some engine run-ups were required, after which we pushed back and departed. Sum total of delays was about 3 hours sitting on the tarmac.

The takeoff roll was pretty smooth, but noisy. Now the 747 makes a few rattles and clatters when it takes off, but the door next to me sounded like my 7-year old had put a few pebbles in an icecream container and was shaking it for all she was worth. The flight attendant soothingly said it would be all ok once the aircraft pressurised, and the reason for the noise was that most of the interiors were made out of plastic. Hmmm, that's comforting to think about. A few minutes later the aircraft did settle down and we climbed out over the Pacific. I may have been just a tad jaded by then, but it seems that the flight attendant had been trained to ask leading questions like 'so do you think the 380 is quieter?'. On that particular question (plastic rattling aside) I don't really think so - 24A was behind the wings, so there was still the same amount of engine noise that I was familiar with from the 747. From a fair and honest disclosure point of view, I haven't sat that far back in a 747 since I was around 18 so it could be that my comparison of engine noise sitting near the engines isn't quite fair compared to the upperdeck of a 747. So be it.

While I'm talking about plastic, the interior of the A380 looks pretty plain and unappealing. Some of the plastic panelling was so thin it had cracked where someone had leaned on it. It may be the latest trend in gucci design agencies (or whoever does these interiors) but to me it was several shades of grey in a minimalist industrial appearance, my spade's-a-spade father would say something like 'b@tt ugly'. I suppose the day I buy my own jet I can have some say on colour and trim. The SkyBeds were the new design with trendy brushed aluminium trim around the buttons and the privacy screen, but apart from the 'save settings' button were largely the same. I got the impression that they extended a little longer when in sleeper mode but I could be wrong.

The IFE rocked. During our 3 hour tech-stop on the ground the IFE was running despite the aircraft's electrical problems, my only complaint was that the crew didn't tell anyone except in general conversation. I'm sure a few frazzled parents would have been glad to hear a PA saying "Nick Jr is on the telly" so the kids in the cabin had something to watch. The IFE screens were large, the touch panel a little unusual but once you got the hang of it navigation was a breeze. It certainly doesn't suffer from the same issues onboard the 747 where if you press too many buttons quickly you hang up the system. The entertainment options seemed to be roughly the same number of channels and programs, my entertainment guide was missing so I couldn't be sure. My only grizzle was that halfway through a tv show my IFE and my seatmate's IFE randomly soft rebooted, but it only took 10 seconds or so to get back online to the main menu so overall not the end of the world.

In business class there aren't many toilets. 24A is almost at the back of the business class section, behind it are a few rows of PE and a toilet, however the main suite of toilets is up the front of the cabin. Throughout the flight there wasn't any queuing for the loos, however in the last hour there was quite a wait while everyone changed out of their jammies into their clothes. The toilets are a little bit smaller than in a 747, and they have that minimalist plastic feel about them. Still you don't spend $8k in business class to lounge in the dunny so let's not dwell on it. There is however a lounge up the front of the cabin, which featured a larger telly and a big magazine rack. It was comfy and rarely used in the night flight.

Service was pretty much the same as on a 747, except that for the dinner service since the business class cabin is so long the crew used trolleys rather than cart individual trays up and down the aisle. They tried their best to hide them discretely when they were serving you. Breakfast was hand carried, which I guess they did because people woke up at different times. It was the same menu as my previous 747 trip, down to the same dodgy breakfast sausages, but overall a reasonable feed.

Nothing dramatic to report on descent into LA, in a previous post I had pre-emptively grizzled about the prospect of having to go through immigration with around half a thousand other passengers. I'm not sure if our 3 hour delay helped at all, but when we filed into the immigration hall there were vacant desks as far as the eye could see. A few passengers commented that the immigration officers were unusually chirpier and friendly - maybe since the majority of my previous flights arrived at 7am, compared to this one around 10am, contributed but I'd like to think that LA airport has cleaned up its act as well as its appearance.

Standing at the luggage carousel I got that sinking feeling that since my luggage hadn't popped out on the priority carousel within 10 minutes (how spoiled have I become?) it wasn't ever going to appear. Sure enough the carousels switched off with no bag making an appearance. I approached a baggage assistant to ask where baggage service was, and they asked "is your name Mr HW, oh yeah they told us your bag is coming tomorrow". Well that's all ok except they could have made a special page when the majority of passengers were milling around the carousels instead of making me wait an hour for the last of the bags to be offloaded.

Discounting that the lost luggage was related to my sporty connection time rather than being something associated with the A380, and with the exception of the maintenance issues, overall the A380 flight was pleasant enough but nothing exciting to write home about, especially since I spent the vast majority of it pushing out zzz's after a few single-malt sleeping tablets. However since my overall memories of the trip rank it up with some of my worst trans-Pacifics, the enduring memory will be that the A380 experience has got a way to go to match my old-blanket-familiar 747 experiences.

Well hopefully this has been interesting for some of you, and hopefully there are a few nuggets for improved service that the Qantas lurkers can feed into the system.