I don't think it will be long before we see 3x5x3 downstairs unfortunately :(

Or perhaps EK want to take a leaf out of the US military playbook:
http://www.examiner.com/article/have...-airstream-fly

Note the 5 central seats and seats down the side!

However, there is premium seating: instead of EY's residence, you get a trailer strapped in as cargo :D

I wonder how many 2-class A380 birds they ordered?
Chances of one of them either needing maintenance or for other reasons being able to fly must be substantial and then they'd have to substitute with regular (3-class) A380 Aircraft. Might be possible to snag a F seat with a C-ticket then? Or would they keep F cabin closed off (they would need every seat in the house it would seem to reacoomodate the 615 pax).

your op up chances as gold/plat would be good!

"I wonder how many 2-class A380 birds they ordered?"

At least 6 birds have been ordered; will be registred as:

A6-EOP, Q, R, S, X and Y.

But I think more will follow.

I don't know the answer to your interesting..... 'how many 2-class will be (initially) ordered ?" question. But I'm inclined to think they would NOT bother opening up F class if a 3 class ever had to be substituted.

I say that because if the 2 class had been fully booked (so, 615 total), then something like 100 pax would need to be left behind anyway, given that even the larger capacity of the two versions of the 3-class holds around 520, I think.

If you're going to have to deny boarding to as many as 100, then there seems little merit in denying 14 fewer. I think the main concern would be to get all the J pax onboard ; for whom there would be (more than) enough space, simply because the J capacity would actually increase from 58 to 76.

With all the meticulous planning involved in new equipment deployments, one can only assume there is a clear pre-determined contingency plan !

Good points you make. Should such a contingency arise it might make more sense to substitute with Two 777s rather than a A380 with too few seats. Anyway given the scale of the number of pax the whole contingency planning seems it will need VERY carefull planning - I gather they wont receive 6 birds all at once either (or has Toulouse substantially increased production capability?).

I've seen 3-class 777s substituted for a 2-class flight maybe 5-6 times.

All but once first class was closed and empty. FA even freaked out when I went to use the forward lav. The one time they opened up the F seats, it was a 773 with sky-cruiser seats where the flight was heavily oversold. I got moved to F but the service was standard J.

They used to sub a 773 3 class on the MAN route quite regularly. You could generally choose the F cabin - which was nice :) As you say though, it was SkyCruisers back then.

They still swap a 3 class for a 2 on the early morning flight.

Won't be long until thats and A380 either though :)

Used to be mentioned on here a lot on the BHX flight, and F seats were selectable with a J service provided.

You could tell in advance with the seat numbering.

I've never had that happen - yet.

No chance of A380 to HAM?