Turbulence in PE A380

[Timtammi]

I recently had the privilege of flying MEL-LAX return on the QF A380 in PE.
3 of us managed to get points upgrades both ways and I was really happy with the seats we got (38DEF both ways) and the comfort and service provided.

An interesting thing I did note was the amount of general turbulence we were feeling in the cabin. I'm not talking about major turbulence, just general jigging about turbulence that is not enough to stop serving but enough to be annoying and enough that at one point I felt forced to take a big swig of the phenergan I had for my 4 year old who gets travel sickness.

We asked the flight attendant about it and she said that the PE cabin on the A380 feels it more than any other area on the plane (including downstairs in the rear) and that they had complained to the engineers about it and they were seeing if anything could be done. (? what could they do?). She said that flight crew assigned to that cabin would talk to the rest of the flight crew on the flight about how much turbulence there was and the rest would say they didnt know what they were talking about. Not once during the flight did the fasten seatbelt sign come on but there were times when I was expecting it would which would seem to reinforce what they were saying.

Anyone else noticed this?

Cheers

 

[MelUser]

Quick upgrade question (my favourite use of the QFF points!)-

Did you:

(1) Miss out on an upgrade to business (having ticked the box to be considered for a premium economy upgrade if the upgrade to business is unsuccessful)?

or

(2) Request only an upgrade to premium economy?

 

[Timtammi]

We only requested the upgrade to PE. With 3 of us travelling it was too many points to upgrade from our discount economy tix to business.
2 of us are SG and our daughter is a NB. I've noticed that since we went SG a year or so ago our upgrade requests have come through much more often. I also agree that this is the way to spend your points! I've just requalified for SG as well so hopefully I've got some more points upgrades in my future this year.

We travel quite a bit for business but as a small business cannot afford to pay for business class flights. Upgrading with points makes the whole experience so much more bearable, especially on long haul. In this case the flights were for a holiday but travelling with our 4 year old I think the upgrade was even more important!

Cheers

 

[serfty]

Aircraft vibrate; the further back you go from the centre of gravity/pivot point the more pronounced it can be.

In rough terms, a vibration at the back of the aircraft will be of 4 times greater amplitude than that at a position 25% of the way back from the COG .

If you ever sit down the back of a 744 (say in the 2 seaters from row 70) there is a similar jiggle.

I flew on the 388 last year and seated in row 66 and noticed very little; however right at the back near the self serve bar these vibrations were more pronounced.

 

[Chicken or Beef]

Sometimes I swear it's the way the pilots fly the plane.

When coming back from HNL in an airbus, I was near the wing and the whole way home, the plane felt like it was constantly changing speeds and altitude (to try and avoid turbulence perhaps?). My son threw up 5 times and I felt like doing the same (and I never normally do).

It felt like the longest flight. No jolting turbulence, but constant movement like we were on a boat. No seatbelt sign either - when I questioned this with a FA, she said that they don't do it because it disrupts the service schedule too much?!!

 

[_kab_]

We only requested the upgrade to PE. With 3 of us travelling it was too many points to upgrade from our discount economy tix to business.
2 of us are SG and our daughter is a NB. I've noticed that since we went SG a year or so ago our upgrade requests have come through much more often. I also agree that this is the way to spend your points! I've just requalified for SG as well so hopefully I've got some more points upgrades in my future this year

May I ask what booking class your original tix were i out of curiosity?

 

[Evan]

Sometimes I swear it's the way the pilots fly the plane.

When coming back from HNL in an airbus, I was near the wing and the whole way home, the plane felt like it was constantly changing speeds and altitude (to try and avoid turbulence perhaps?). My son threw up 5 times and I felt like doing the same (and I never normally do).

<..>

It may have been a bit bumpy but the computers try to smooth the ride (and may have made it feel worse for you) and keep the stress off the airframe. Airbus has all this built into software.
E

 

[Timtammi]

I'm not sure what our original booking class was, cant remember now sorry.
I do know they were a discount economy fare bucket (obviously an upgradeable type) and were not booked with QF but through a TA. We really shopped around to try and find a reasonable price to travel at that time of year (we left between xmas and new year) and this was the best price we found. I suspect it was some kind of nett fare only offered to this large travel agency group as I couldn't find the same deal anywhere else.

Interestingly both on the way over and on the way back when we checked in they were expecting us to have paper tickets!!! Which we did not and a couple of phone calls had to be made to sort it out.

 

[bnroz]

We only requested the upgrade to PE. With 3 of us travelling it was too many points to upgrade from our discount economy tix to business.
2 of us are SG and our daughter is a NB. I've noticed that since we went SG a year or so ago our upgrade requests have come through much more often. I also agree that this is the way to spend your points! I've just requalified for SG as well so hopefully I've got some more points upgrades in my future this year.

We travel quite a bit for business but as a small business cannot afford to pay for business class flights. Upgrading with points makes the whole experience so much more bearable, especially on long haul. In this case the flights were for a holiday but travelling with our 4 year old I think the upgrade was even more important!

Cheers

Hi, can i just ask, how many points did it cost you each to upgrade from Discount Economy to Premium Economy one way?

 

[Timtammi]

135,000 for the 3 of us. Each way.

 

[og]

Aircraft vibrate; the further back you go from the centre of gravity/pivot point the more pronounced it can be...

Same in 1A on the 744

 

[straitman]

Same in 1A on the 744

og,

I trust that comment was tonge in cheek...

The front of a 74X is always much smoother than the tail. ...that's where the pilot's sit :!:

Boeing sucessfully all but eliminated the fish tail with the 777.

 

[hba]

I recently had the privilege of flying MEL-LAX return on the QF A380 in PE.
3 of us managed to get points upgrades both ways and I was really happy with the seats we got (38DEF both ways) and the comfort and service provided.

An interesting thing I did note was the amount of general turbulence we were feeling in the cabin. I'm not talking about major turbulence, just general jigging about turbulence that is not enough to stop serving but enough to be annoying and enough that at one point I felt forced to take a big swig of the phenergan I had for my 4 year old who gets travel sickness.

We asked the flight attendant about it and she said that the PE cabin on the A380 feels it more than any other area on the plane (including downstairs in the rear) and that they had complained to the engineers about it and they were seeing if anything could be done. (? what could they do?). She said that flight crew assigned to that cabin would talk to the rest of the flight crew on the flight about how much turbulence there was and the rest would say they didnt know what they were talking about. Not once during the flight did the fasten seatbelt sign come on but there were times when I was expecting it would which would seem to reinforce what they were saying.

Anyone else noticed this?

Cheers

We have just completed return trip trip SYD/SIN/LHR on Qantas A380 in PE. It was bumpy most of the way from SYD to SIN which got quite annoying when we were trying to sleep. The captain announced what a lovely smooth flight we'd had when we arrived so I think there is definitely something in the fact PE is upstairs at the back. The first part of SIN to LHR was even worse, particularly when we were over India. Cabin crew were giving out cloths with coffee and warning 'it will be everywhere once we get over India' although the seat belt signs were actually only turned on for about 5 mins the bumps went on for several hours. We got off feeling as if we had bounced the whole way home. Not sure the extra room is worth the constant bumping around so I doubt we will fly PE in A380 again - it really was the Kangaroo route

 

[Flashback]

We have just completed return trip trip SYD/SIN/LHR on Qantas A380 in PE. It was bumpy most of the way from SYD to SIN which got quite annoying when we were trying to sleep. The captain announced what a lovely smooth flight we'd had when we arrived so I think there is definitely something in the fact PE is upstairs at the back. The first part of SIN to LHR was even worse, particularly when we were over India. Cabin crew were giving out cloths with coffee and warning 'it will be everywhere once we get over India' although the seat belt signs were actually only turned on for about 5 mins the bumps went on for several hours. We got off feeling as if we had bounced the whole way home. Not sure the extra room is worth the constant bumping around so I doubt we will fly PE in A380 again - it really was the Kangaroo route

Great analogy at the end! Welcome to AFF hba

 

[Oneworldplus2]

Alot of the time when l fly to europe, it's always bumpy over/around India. I thought that the air around that area would be a little bit ruff because of the The Himalayan Mountain Range.

 

[777]

Alot of the time when l fly to europe, it's always bumpy over/around India. I thought that the air around that area would be a little bit ruff because of the The Himalayan Mountain Range.

Just did it this week in an MH 747. Unfortunately stuck second or third row from the back and that thing certainly bounced as we hit India.