matthandy

Taxiing past the ‘broken’ A380

On boarding I’d noticed that there was rather a large number of babies present. I was seated in the third row of economy which means there were 30 seats in the rows ahead of me including mine. I counted no less than 8 () babies in these first rows. I couldn’t believe it. They pretty much screamed most of the flight either comforted or not comforted by their respective parents. More on that later.

We took off around 13.15 which was again very quiet and smooth as it always is on an A380. The crew came round with the first drinks round about 20 minutes after take off. After this I decided to take a wander around and went upstairs to see some friends. I told them about the baby situation downstairs and found out that the lucky sods had no less than zero babies in the entire cabin. Grrrr. I couldn’t see the funny side.


Wandering down to the back


The middle economy cabin


The rear economy cabin


Heading upstairs – this gives you a great view of the cavernous main deck cabin


The rear upstairs galley

I returned to my seat to find my granddad tucking into a Singapore Sling, he’d developed a habit for these on the flight over from London. A second drinks round took place and ordered a vodka and lemonade, which was extremely strong, I think she’d made it a triple, that’s what it tasted like!

The dinner service started about one and a half hours after take off.
Here’s the menu:


Economy Menu – Singapore to London – March 2010

I chose the beef fillet.


The beef fillet

It was really good actually, full of flavour.
While it didn’t take me long to finish this, it took the crew over an hour and a half to clear the trays which resulted in a lot of careful tray stacking in order to get out of the seat.

The babies were still going at it, providing 4-8 way screaming from all directions. Here’s a question, what’s more annoying, a screaming baby or a parent making ‘goo goo’ noises to try and keep it quiet? Definitely the noises.

I went back upstairs to see my friends again and on the way back noticed two things:

1. There was a member of the staff from SQ on-board who was dressed incredibly smartly in a uniform that I had never seen before. She appeared to be wearing a very smart black suit and skirt with a white frilly blouse. She seemed to be ordering the crew about. Was she the crew supervisor? She looked like she might be a ‘checker’.
2. SQ provide a decent selection of magazines in economy and I was able to procure a copy of ‘Business Traveller’ on the way back to my seat. Many airlines that I’ve flown on only offer this in business class.


The trays had been collected and people had started to put their blinds down. Unfortunately, the lady directly behind me decided that she wanted to keep hers up. We were now well in to the flight and many people were starting to settle down.

I decided to watch ‘Law Abiding Citizen’ which was enjoyable if not surprisingly violent. After this I too wanted to get some sleep. As the women and her husband behind me went to the toilet the man sitting in the C seat in their row leaned over and stuck the blind down. As soon as she got back she raised it again. It’s important to point out that at this point she was the only person in the entire cabin (140 people) to have their blind up, and the sun was streaming in, directly on to the back of the seat in front of me so it was incredibly bright. The crew walked back and forth past her but no-one said anything.

After about an hour, and noticing that my granddad (who is 82) and my aunt were also trying to get some sleep and grabbed the attention of one of the stewardesses and asked if she would ask the lady behind to close the blind. The ladies response was a plain and simple ‘I prefer it up’. I turned round at this point and wasn’t very nice to her. I abruptly pointed out that her selfish actions were preventing 140 people sleeping including my 82 year old granddad. The guy in the C seat next to them also piped up that he was trying to sleep too. The lady just shrugged it off and her husband kept staring at the back of the seat in front of him through all of this. The stewardess apologised to me and I turned back round and shouted “selfish!” at the woman. No, I’m not proud of this. I can only reason that I was tired, irritated and a totally flustered by the utter selfishness of the woman behind me. I was literally seething.

The stewardess returned with eye masks which would have to do. I was pretty annoyed that she didn’t put more effort into convincing the woman to close the blind. I know for sure that BA or Qantas crew would have dealt with it more assertively.

All different situations ran through my mind as I evaluated alternative options. A big part of me wanted to stick my arm through the gap and close the window blind but I knew that this could only lead to childish ‘tit for tat’ and probably result in me being ordered to the galley for some stern words by one of the crew or worse. It could only have ended badly for me. What an utterly, stupid, selfish cow.

I’d just experienced full on travel rage and it totally spoiled my flight. My rage eventually turned to embarrassment, guilt and remorse for getting so angry.

The lights were turned on and the crew came around with hot towels and a snack service with about 6 hours flight time remaining.



I followed this by trying to get some sleep. This flight was all about trying to slog it out. In theory this is a day flight and it meant that I wasn’t tired enough to be able to sleep all the way through it, despite landing at my body’s equivalent of 3am. The flight really dragged, so much more than the night time flight from London to Singapore.

With about two hours left until landing the final meal service started.

I chose the pasta which turned out to be a dollop of wet pasta with some Bolognese sauce dumped on top. Not very appetising.


Fettuccine pasta – not very nice

After this I settled down for the remaining hour or so of the flight, enjoying the long sunset outside.


Sunset over Europe

We started our long descent into Heathrow and landed rather bumpily slightly ahead of schedule at 18.40 local time. We had a quite a long taxi to Terminal 3. The twin air bridges were quickly attached and we were soon in the bowels of the terminal and into the immigration hall, through here and into baggage reclaim. I got a call from my friend who was picking me up to say that he was waiting outside. I bid my family farewell and started on the final journey home.

Verdict

The flight was a bit of a mixed affair. I found the seat and surrounds of the cabin very comfortable. The first meal was great and the crew were friendly and efficient. It was great to be able to wander upstairs to chat with my friends too.

On the downside, sitting in the same position for 14 hours, not being able to sleep due to the stupid woman with the window blind behind me was rather trying. The way that the crew dealt with this was also quite poor and the second meal wasn’t great.

Despite being on an A380 this is not a flight that I would like to repeat. In future I think that I will try to stick with night flights too and from Singapore.

Verdict on flying with no status

Ok, so at the start of this trip report (some 12,000 words earlier) I stated that this trip would mark the first time that I’d flown long haul on a non-Oneworld carrier for a couple of years.

What I missed (in order of priority)

1. Priority boarding – this would have taken away the stress that is the gate area. Being able to board at one’s leisure is a real joy
2. Lounge access – I actually didn’t miss this as much as I thought I would, especially on the way to Singapore. Being able to have a proper meal before flying was excellent. Of course, given the choice, I’ll take the lounge every time but going without had less impact than I thought it would

What I didn’t miss

1. Priority check in – I suppose that this would have made only a slight difference to my overall experience since I didn’t experience very long queues on any of the flights

Thanks for reading – Look out for my next Trip Report – London to Singapore and Seoul via Dubai on the Emirates A380, 777-300ER and Asiana’s A330 all in business class.