I thought I'd write my experiences flying in with Qantas on the A380 from Syd to LAX return.
I was travelling with a friend for a 2 week holiday in the USA. I looked up the flight ahead of time, and quickly realized 80A or 80K would be the best seats for only 25 bucks. My friend is really tall, like 6 foot 7 or something. I'm average height but overweight. Anyway, I told him if he wanted a good seat like me (I chose 80k) that he should book 80A. But he wanted to sit together, which was so stupid. I told him it's his own choice.
Anyway skip forward a few months, I kept checking the flight information, and the rear section of the plane there were heaps of spare seats. I knew that the spare seat in our 3 chair row would be empty. When we boarded, I said my friend could have the extra legroom because Id rather have the wider seat, especially because there would be no one next to me. How horribly wrong I was.
The plane kept filling up. Suddenly "vegetable lasagna" sat next to me. I was now trapped like Elaine in Seinfeld. The guy even looked like vegetable lasagna and kept on going on about eating brown rice. Anyway so there I was, my friend sitting in my luxury 80K which I booked, me stuck in the middle. All that wouldn't be so bad if the two exit row passengers in front of us hadn't been arrogant annoying Americans. But they were. As soon as we hit cruising altitude, less than half an hour into a 13 hour flight, the cough put his seat right back with a nasally "Excuse me" like only Americans can.
Now for those that have flown on the A380 in economy, you know how bad the recline is in those seats. The rear of the seat goes from being ten inches in front of your face, to 1 inch. Their balding sweaty head is right in your face/lap. It also effectively locks you into your seat like some nightmarish torture device, or amusement park ride.
And so went the rest of my sleepless, torturous flight. Stuck behind these loud mouth reclining Americans. Although I can't say I minded asking him to put his seat up just so I could get out of the seats. I spent literally half the flight standing up the back in the galley, talking to vegetable lasagna who also couldn't stand the nightmare that was the A380 seats. Actually it seemed as if half the plane was down in the galley for most of the flight. Even one of the pilots, who went on whinging about Qantas and the CEO Joyce, although I whole heatedly agreed with everything he had to say on the matter.
Perhaps the thing that annoyed more more than any ridiculously designed seating arrangement, or loud mouthed las vegas gambler, was the fact that there wasn't even supposed to be anyone next to me.
Remember how I said the plane was mostly empty at the rear? Yeah well it was, until Qantas decided to "Co chair" a united airlines flight. In other words, they hadn't filled their 747 with enough Americans to make it worth their while, so they decided to do a little deal with Qantas, filling our A380 to maximum. Not only that, but these freeloaders also caused a half hour delay to our take off because we had to wait for their extra food service items to be loaded onto the plane.
I can honestly say, it was the worst flight of my life. The A380 is a death trap, from cracks in wings to exploding engines, it's only a matter of time until one of these horrible contraptions goes down. In the future I will stick to 747-400's and I WONT be flying Qantas.
On the ride back a slightly longer flight, I decided there would be no way in Hell I'd forfeit my 80K to my friend who lacked the foresight and aforementioned advice to take 80A. He sulked the entire time. I didn't care. Even though I was even more cramped than normal, due to the built in seat tray and screen, the legroom and ability to get up when I chose to was worth it. I still got up every hour or so to avoid a DVT.
So the moral of the story is, don't be nice to your friends and give them the good seat especially if they chose to ignore your advice in the first place! Also the A380 sucks.
I was travelling with a friend for a 2 week holiday in the USA. I looked up the flight ahead of time, and quickly realized 80A or 80K would be the best seats for only 25 bucks. My friend is really tall, like 6 foot 7 or something. I'm average height but overweight. Anyway, I told him if he wanted a good seat like me (I chose 80k) that he should book 80A. But he wanted to sit together, which was so stupid. I told him it's his own choice.
Anyway skip forward a few months, I kept checking the flight information, and the rear section of the plane there were heaps of spare seats. I knew that the spare seat in our 3 chair row would be empty. When we boarded, I said my friend could have the extra legroom because Id rather have the wider seat, especially because there would be no one next to me. How horribly wrong I was.
The plane kept filling up. Suddenly "vegetable lasagna" sat next to me. I was now trapped like Elaine in Seinfeld. The guy even looked like vegetable lasagna and kept on going on about eating brown rice. Anyway so there I was, my friend sitting in my luxury 80K which I booked, me stuck in the middle. All that wouldn't be so bad if the two exit row passengers in front of us hadn't been arrogant annoying Americans. But they were. As soon as we hit cruising altitude, less than half an hour into a 13 hour flight, the cough put his seat right back with a nasally "Excuse me" like only Americans can.
Now for those that have flown on the A380 in economy, you know how bad the recline is in those seats. The rear of the seat goes from being ten inches in front of your face, to 1 inch. Their balding sweaty head is right in your face/lap. It also effectively locks you into your seat like some nightmarish torture device, or amusement park ride.
And so went the rest of my sleepless, torturous flight. Stuck behind these loud mouth reclining Americans. Although I can't say I minded asking him to put his seat up just so I could get out of the seats. I spent literally half the flight standing up the back in the galley, talking to vegetable lasagna who also couldn't stand the nightmare that was the A380 seats. Actually it seemed as if half the plane was down in the galley for most of the flight. Even one of the pilots, who went on whinging about Qantas and the CEO Joyce, although I whole heatedly agreed with everything he had to say on the matter.
Perhaps the thing that annoyed more more than any ridiculously designed seating arrangement, or loud mouthed las vegas gambler, was the fact that there wasn't even supposed to be anyone next to me.
Remember how I said the plane was mostly empty at the rear? Yeah well it was, until Qantas decided to "Co chair" a united airlines flight. In other words, they hadn't filled their 747 with enough Americans to make it worth their while, so they decided to do a little deal with Qantas, filling our A380 to maximum. Not only that, but these freeloaders also caused a half hour delay to our take off because we had to wait for their extra food service items to be loaded onto the plane.
I can honestly say, it was the worst flight of my life. The A380 is a death trap, from cracks in wings to exploding engines, it's only a matter of time until one of these horrible contraptions goes down. In the future I will stick to 747-400's and I WONT be flying Qantas.
On the ride back a slightly longer flight, I decided there would be no way in Hell I'd forfeit my 80K to my friend who lacked the foresight and aforementioned advice to take 80A. He sulked the entire time. I didn't care. Even though I was even more cramped than normal, due to the built in seat tray and screen, the legroom and ability to get up when I chose to was worth it. I still got up every hour or so to avoid a DVT.
So the moral of the story is, don't be nice to your friends and give them the good seat especially if they chose to ignore your advice in the first place! Also the A380 sucks.
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they were both 747's so by that factor, the 747's have to be a death-trap too 
