I am also booked on EK001 in January, as it happens, and had similar thoughts.

The good news is that this plane - EK001 is either the 2nd or 3rd one that Emirates will get, as JFK gets No 1 - is already built and test flying for Airbus, albeit not yet delivered. If look at the A380 pages in Wikipedia you can see who is getting each plane and what stage it is at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...and_deliveries Here is what I think is the JFK plane in full livery: http://www.planepictures.net/netshow.php?id=737340

There is obviously a chance that the plane could throw a wobbly on the day, which is a risk you take. (Its a big risk for us because we're in J and the A380 J product will be fully flat, unlike the current one.) However, the London route plane itself should be in service pretty much on the expected day (October).