En ole Helsingissa mutta Lontoossa...

[khiemtran]

So, contrary to expectations, I find myself in London instead of Helsinki.

I had my first ride on an A380 on the way out from Sydney, which was quite pleasant except for the part where it left an hour and a half late and so got in an hour and a half late to Singapore. This meant I had then missed my Finnair connection to Helsinki, so I hopped back on said A380 and followed it up to London where I'm now booked on a noon flight to Helsinki.

Compared to the 747s I've been riding lately, the A380 was really nice. The economy seats are much more comfortable than the last set Qantas used and the food service seemed to be better too. The self serve galleys also made the trip quite pleasant. Looks like they've got a new entertainment system too, but it died after one movie for me on the way out, so I guess they're trying to avoid making the customer experience too different from the old one.

Ah well. At this rate I should make Helsinki by the late afternoon, whereupon will follow various adventures with buses, trains and possibly even automobiles.

Comments

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

Hope you can depart for sunnier climes (everywhere is sunnier than Britain, it seems) soon.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Things to avoid on A380s:

a) If there's seating in your class on the upper deck at the back, avoid it. The ceiling lowers under the (gigantic) tail fin, and the luggage bins are half-height.

b) Avoid emergency exit rows and the row in front of/behind the exit aisle. The doors are so big they had to reinforce the fuselage to support the hinges, so there are no windows. Or overhead luggage bins. Yes, you can have four metres of leg room -- but your luggage will be a long way away and there's no view.

I caught an A380 from JFK to CDG. It took off in a thunderstorm. I was in economy, upper deck, at the back, exit row ... no view, no luggage for distractions, just shaken about like spam in a can because every gust caught that giant rudder side-on and a fully laden A380 wallows in bad weather at low speed.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip! AFAIK, Qantas only has premium seating on the upper deck, since there didn't seem to be anyway to select a seat there on the website.