QF A380 Premium Economy report on airliners.net

[QF009]

Premium Economy report by QFFlyer of airliners.net:
MEL-LAX QF A380 Inaugural Flight — Trip Reports Forum | Airliners.net

[MelUser]

I flew on Monday from MEL to LAX on the A380 (in J).

J was great except that service was slow due to crew getting learning the ropes. All beverage and food orders are taken via PDA and appear on a computer in the galley. None of passengers (nor I) were fussed about these delays as they will pass with time - it was this crew's first flight.

I had a quick look at Prem Y at back of upstairs and wasn't terribly impressed - it's hard to judge properly not sitting in the cabin. It seemed a little disjointed - ie some seats were almost on their own and others seemed jammed in at front. The baby bassinet seems illogically placed in the middle of the cabin - there should be 2 bassinets, 1 on either side of the cabin at bulkhead. Having said that, there should be more bassinets in J - there are only 3 and 2 were in use. The B747 on pacific route has 5 baby bassinets in J.

The main advantage of prem Y seemed that you avoid the hoards - 332 people downstairs - they are not allowed upstairs at all.

One other thing about the A380 is that as upstairs and downstairs exit separately, some Y passengers get off the plane before the J passengers do. This is unlike the B747 where Y are held back until all J passengers have exited. This doesn't bother me but I guess may annoy some.

[QF009]

One other thing about the A380 is that as upstairs and downstairs exit separately, some Y passengers get off the plane before the J passengers do. This is unlike the B747 where Y are held back until all J passengers have exited. This doesn't bother me but I guess may annoy some.

This is similar to the BA mid J config on the 744, where J has to get off after WTP when they only use the front door since WTP is in front of J. J is actually held back until the WTP cabin is emptied, and they then deplane together with whY. It is annoying since one of the reasons for the premium on a J ticket is the ability to deplane ahead of most of the aircraft and get to immigration first.

The crew don't like it either as they find it hard to explain to J pax why they're being held back. And there's additional policing involved to ensure WTP pax don't steal from the Club Kitchen. On my last flight they had ropes securing the WTP cabin front and back.

But the other solution would've been to force the WTP/whY pax to remain seated whilst the J cabin is emptied - and we all know how well that'd work.

[High Horse]

On this morning's A380 arrival into Melbourne, there was a delay in disembarking due to problems connecting the aerobridges, they announced a further delay as "disembarking is done in stages, so some passengers would be further delayed by up to 3 minutes."