deno86

Currently onboard BA109, in 53JK. Both 52JK seats aren’t working so a manual recline is needed. I was sat all smug as my seat is fully functional, only to be informed by the cabin crew that I best not go to sleep until after 52JK have eaten and are ready for bed as they need to put my footstool up in order to do the manual recline 🤣🤦‍♂️ At least 3 seats in forward mini cabin not working, which is pretty poor! They just woke someone in order to put their stool up whilst attempting to fix the seat in front of them! They weren’t pleased and cabin crew clearly embarrassed!

alancostello

I was on BA106/G-XLEC two weeks ago and we were in 52A/C but got moved to 53A/C at check-in, I noticed once we got on board and asked only to be told they were inop! Thankfully it was a very quiet flight and half the cabin was empty, didn't have to step over anyone to get out. Also on both the way out AND back the cabinets to the side got stuck closed and had to be crowbarred open, club suite refresh can't come soon enough!

rolandrat

So do they try and fix these broken seats between flights and if its more of a major issue do they then leave them broken until next scheduled maintenance?

Schwann

Don't think the fleet has the downtime? I believe its bad enough trying to run a normal operation.

smiles in the aisles

has it been confirmed that these aircraft will at some point receive the CS?

TheJayHatch

Tried to start a thread yesterday - no posts 😂 - on this issue as my concern is these repairs aren’t being done, and so a ‘name and shame’ resource for FTers seems a helpful resource to me…

crazy8534

I find it interesting that I don't ever remember these issues either being reported on the A380 pre-storage or being reported to such a wide extent on any BA planes, with whole sections of CW seats in the cabin becoming inoperable? My wife and 1 kid had the issue in CW on an A380 this summer. Is there an electrical gremlin that has been caused/exacerbated by them being out of action for so long?

Is there any talk of the A380s being kitted-out with CS? That would be a great move I think although not sure about upper-deck layout (assuming the lower deck would just go from 2-4-2 to 1-2-1, same as the 777 fleet), but then the 787-8 and -9 is 2-3-2 CW and they managed to go 1-2-1 CS for the 78X so I assume that would be possible too on the UD of the A380?

tinkicker

While Madrid (where many were stored) in the pandemic is almost a desert it turns out it's not quite desert enough. With roughly 43 cm of rain (17 ") a year its way wetter than the popular US storage sites like Victorville (10cm / 4") or even Alice Springs where Cathay's fleet hid out (27cm / 10").
The current 380 club seats seem particularly prone to electrical glitches on the tiny switches used for selecting up or down and / or the position sensors inside the seats. I'd guess (and it's a guess) there aren't a lot of spares for this seat design as it is both a unique and pretty much end of life product.

Edit to add it would be interesting to know if there is a difference in reliability based on where they were stored.

Yellowbelly

This article from three years ago suggested the A380 retrofit would start in 2023 and not finish until 2025: https://www.executivetraveller.com/n...80-club-suites
But this was written before the pandemic and we now know the 777 retrofit programme is running late plus I believe the 788 and 789 fleet were next. So the poor A380s will have to continue for some time which is a shame as they should be the flagship of BA and customers love them but they will soon get a bad reputation if matters deteriorate further.

Paren

There seems to be a lot of A380 seat issues for some reason.

I was in CW a few weeks ago on BA106 (originally in WT+ but got my first ever upgrade on BA after 10 years, yay!). My footstool collapsed and this led to the passenger in front not being able to recline their seat. CC soon came along and managed to fix it.

I can kind of understand, especially with travel increasing post-pandemic so many of these A380 services are full and therefore not easy to take out of service.

TheJayHatch

Just had tomorrow’s flight to ORD swappeed out from XLED to XLEC (the former now en route to DXB). XLEC not moved for 3 days according to flight radar…perhaps the seats are being sorted?!

JAXBA

Quote:

Originally Posted by tinkicker

While Madrid (where many were stored) in the pandemic is almost a desert it turns out it's not quite desert enough. With roughly 43 cm of rain (17 ") a year its way wetter than the popular US storage sites…

So you're saying that "the rain in Spain falls mainly on the 'plane?"

SHT88T

On BA107 a few weeks back at seat 53B the ground level USB port was hanging out of the socket and wasn’t functioning. Operated by G-XLEF.

On return (BA106) we had our seats re-assigned at T-24 from 52/53A to 52 A/B because there was a broken seat divider somewhere else in CW. This was G-XLEG.

carrotjuice

No wonder the “how much compensation” thread is increasingly active!

RandomNobody

I thought it fell mostly on the Spaniards.