corporate-wage-slave

Welcome to Flyertalk and welcome to the BA forum nostrasifu, it's good to see you here, and I hope you will continue to participate. It's quite an old thread you are looking at here, so it's possible that your post and my reply may get moved to somewhere better.

I use A320s quite a lot, let's say multiple times a week. On BA there are now two types of A320s, CEO and NEO, the NEO being the more recent aircraft. A319 and A321 are also part of the A320 family, but I'm leaving them out of this answer. The CEO A320 is quite noisy and longer flights - say over 3 hours - can start to be unpleasant in terms of air pressure, noise and lack of humidity. For most people this would show up by making them more tired than sitting around would normally suggest. In some cases it will trigger headaches, so sometimes preventative a low dose of aspirin / paracetemol (acetaminophen) may be appropriate, subject to medical advice. NEOs are quieter, particularly forward of the wings, and slightly less dry, but I think you'd need to be a frequent flyer to notice that. NEO have more of a whoosh noise, whereas CEOs are more of a mechanical grind.

Over and above this, if there are bad sinus problems when going through the landing process, particularly, then that is usually just a temporary sinus issue. Colds, coughs, flu, hayfever and other conditions can cause this. Also mild sinus trouble may only be surfaced when landing - you may not know you are mildly ill unless you happen to be flying. The pain can be absolutely excruciating though short lived and goes away as pressure normalises.

However the thread suggests a pressure - sinus issue once at high altitude. This would be different to the previous paragraph, and indeed would best involve a discussion with a doctor (and I am not a medical doctor). As far as I know, A320s work on similar levels as 737s, 717s (if you are a USA based) and Embraers. In all my travels on A320s I haven't seen another passenger get in to trouble in the cruise, occasionally I see the sinus issue in other passengers on landing / takeover, and I feel really sorry for them, it's not nice at all.

LTN Phobia

I would recommend seeing a doctor and a dentist. It could be any sort of potential issues including 'air' cavity under a tooth filling which can result in what seems like intense sinus pains.

You need to have it looked at by a professional in any case.

golfmad

Arghh. I read all three pages before I realized it was mostly from 2009! Can't help wondering how @Fnate is?

All She Wrote

Cruising at around 35,000' in an A320 the cabin pressure will be around 6000ft. They don't fly any higher in normal operation than 39,000, and the cabin pressure should not exceed 8000ft. Rate of change in the cabin can go as high as 750ft/min in automatic operation during descent. Possibly worth seeing your doctor as it sounds like for some reason your eustachian tube is struggling to equalise the pressure.

PUCCI GALORE

When I was a little girl I had to learn to "pop" my ears on take off and landing and I will admit there are some flights to this day where for no good reason this affects me. I have to say it is more the 737 of any aircraft but it is not often, thank God. As I am practically the Old Aunt of this Forum both in terms of FT and in the real world, I'll share this. I am of the generation where having your tonsils removed was almost a rite of passage. Now they do not do this and treat anything with antibiotics, I used to suffer pain in my ears and it was hell. After that operation when I was about 7, it never happened again.I suspect that you have a sinus problem but as everyone here agrees, I think that it is rather you more than any particular aircraft.

Get thee to a Doctor and ask to have tests.

PlaneSpeaking

Fnate

Fnate is good, thank you for asking. I did struggle with this for a little while. I knew it was something "wrong" with me, and had that confirmed by the doctor. It was the sinuses and it passed by itself after a while.

the odd thing and why I raised it in this forum at all was that it was only related to the A320. My guess is that there are small variations of cabin pressure in different planes and that the particular one in the A320 was what set my sinuses off.

But all fine now and fly an average 300.000 km a year without issues.

The odd thing though… my girlfriend's feet swell on long flights. But only on 777-300ER. Go figure

I bet it is Trumps fault.

golfmad

Glad to hear it.