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I've just seen, Jett Tyler posted an A380 report for Madrid flight - hope you'll enjoy this one as well!
Hello!
As you probably know, British Airways recently resumed flights on the A380, starting with short haul flights to FRA and MAD. I was one of the lucky people to find myself on two of these flights and, having booked straight after they went onto market, I got a very nice deal on them. This and next reports will cover my dream flights on the A380 (my first time!) - in Economy and Business, though I managed to check out all four travel classes. I hope you'll enjoy :)
Flight details:
Flight number BA902
Route London Heathrow T5 - Frankfurt T2
Flight date 19th November 2021, 0700 - 0945 (actual 0740 - 0950)
Scheduled flight time 1:45 (actual 1:10)
Aircraft model Airbus A380
Aircraft registration G-XLEG
Seating configuration F14C97W55Y303
Aircraft age (at the time of flight) 7.6 years
Seat number 38K
Departure gate 10 (bus gate)
Load factor (approx.) 17%
My journey started in the very early morning at Heathrow's terminal 5, to where I travelled from a nearby Premier Inn on a bus.
The terminal wasn't crazy busy, but not totally empty either. It was nice to see people around, all ready to travel again.
I went to one of the BA check in desks to get a paper boarding pass as a memory from my first A380 flight. And even though, as it turned out, it was a check-in desk dedicated to Amsterdam, a friendly agent said it's not a problem and he printed the boarding card for me.
Having done that, I quickly passed through security (no queue there), to soon find myself airside. I then went straight to the Club Aspire lounge for a little breakfast. I accessed the lounge with my Priority Pass membership. The lounge is located at the South end of the terminal.
I was lucky to be one of the first people in the lounge after it's opened, so it was not very busy. However there was some problem with the system and they had to put card details manually. I can now see that 20GBP have left my bank account for "Priority Pass" (I was charged for 2 people) which shouldn't have happened. I enquired about that and the money is already on the way back to me…
The lounge itself is quite small but cosy at the same time. And the best feature was a very relaxing music - a great idea for such an early time. Yet I believe it gets super busy at times. In fact, when I was leaving, there was already a queue in front of the entrance. The seating is decently comfortable and there are both relax, work and dining areas.
There were some warm pastries available at the buffet, as well as some cold options and drinks. Alcohols had to be ordered at the bar and warm dishes by scanning a QR code. Prosecco and champagne are for an additional fee.
Here's a breakfast menu for warm dishes. It wasn't too wide unfortunately. But I could still choose something for myself.
I must say, unfortunately, the taste of food was very basic. But still I was happy there was any hot food. Probably the most annoying thing about this lounge is that there is no toilet, and so you can't even wash your hands before/after meal, as you have to walk quite some distance through the terminal to reach the nearest toilet.
After my longish visit at Club Aspire, I proceeded to my gate which turned out to be… A10! What a surprise, bus boarding for the A380, and my first time from gate A10 at Heathrow, which at the ground level of the main terminal building.
As you can see, Heathrow is getting busier and busier with every time I fly from there.
Gate A10 has actually 5 "sub"gates, we were boarding at A10a. With a load of only 78pax, we had two busses - one for Club passengers and one for Traveller passengers.
While I was not initially happy about that bus boarding, it actually turned out to be a perfect opportunity to get to know the A380 closer. And Oh My God, when you stand next to it, it makes an immense impression! As everyone was taking pictures, the man from ground handling had to chase us to board the airplane!
Stepping on board, we were welcomed by a super warm and friendly crew, throughout the flight I could tell they were having as much fun as we did! But back to the aircraft… I don't even know what to say - only WOW - I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. We boarded through the lower deck Club cabin, which I will be reviewing in the next report.
I then passed through the middle Economy section to get to the very back where my seat was. That rear Economy cabin was super empty with maybe 6 or 7 pax. In general it was a very empty flight, ideal for an avgeek like me (or many other people on board who were avgeeks too!).
Economy cabin is quite elegant but not overly posh - just enough. Seats are comfortable with enough padding, The headrests are however not fully adjustable and don't stay in place.
Legroom was quite good, however not the best I've seen. Plus A-D-G-K seats feature annoying IFE boxes…
The back of the seat features a quite small (for modern standards) PTV, a remote control, a USB plug, a foldable and adjustable tray table and 2 seat pockets (which are however very hard and not flexible).
I found this quite an interesting feature of the IFE (photo below).
In the seat pockets, usual COVID content = safety card and air sickness bags only.
Finally, I want to show you the seat recline, which is OK but nothing extraordinary… well what am I even complaining about on a 1:10 flight to Frankfurt!
We were still at the gate, 30 mins after our scheduled departure time. The captain has however already made a few announcements about the flight, delay etc, including an introductory announcement for avgeeks about the A380 - "the most magnificent airliner ever made" as he said. There was also some hydraulic spillage just behind us so they had to clean that before our taxi. But needless to say, all of us on board were happy to spend that little while longer on board…
We then had quite a long taxi to RWY 27R an Heathrow, which actually wasn't too busy in terms of number of departures that morning. While you cannot see in the picture, there was an A380 of Singapore Airlines standing at T2B - first time at LHR after COVID had hit the world!
We departed 50 mins behind schedule from 27R. And whereas I heard that A380 is very quiet and comfortable, I couldn't believe how much this was true! Silent and smooth. Heaven on Earth… or in the sky!
After departure I checked out the IFE more thoroughly. I had 3 screens for myself, and not all of them were equally responsive. The window one was ok, but the aisle one… was terrible haha. So I played "Who wants to be a millionaire" on the window one.
I also checked out the Internet offering, which was quite pricey. And some pages like the High Life Magazine were supposed to be available for free but they couldn't load… so I would expect the speed for the chargeable package to be equally slow.
Meanwhile, the crew also passed through the cabin with complimentary, and later paid catering. The free one, on morning flights consists of a bottle of water and a breakfast bar - though I received 2 of each ;)
After the service I checked out the rearmost lavatory. It was pretty standard but very clean and tidy.
And after the crew finished service in Business class as well, they took us, as promised before departure, on a tour around the whole aircraft. There were around 4-5 "guides" = flight attendants, and each of them had around 6 pax :P
It didn't feel like a flight anymore haha more like a guided tour around the A380! I was on a tour with Monika, a Polish Inflight Manager. She was super nice, and informative and took us also a lot of great pictures.
To start with: This is "my" rear Economy section on the lower deck. Very empty as you can see.
We then went upstairs using the rear stairs. Illuminated by LEDs.
The upper deck has 2 Economy cabins, one really small one and one a bit bigger. In general, all cabins on the A380 are kept reasonably small which gives a feel of cosiness and privacy. I like that. The top deck is not in use on these short flights, so it was totally empty… well, full of tours!
As on all A380s, the top deck has much smaller overhead bins, but every window seat has a dedicated compartment by the wall.
In front of the 2 Economy sections, there is quite a big, actually, World Traveller Plus cabin (premium economy). The seats there are quite, comfy, maybe a bit narrow but have decent recline. The IFE screens are unfortunately quite small, but that's generally an issue throughout the aircraft - it's 8 years old after all!
In front of WT+, there are extra 2 sections of Club World (Business), on top of the one that's downstairs which was the only one available on this flight to FRA, to give a stunning total of 97 seats in Business class on this aircraft. I will review Club seats in the FRA-LHR report, as I was seated in Club on that flight. A thing to mention is that upper deck Business class has narrower aisles than the one downstairs, hence the one downstairs feels more spacious.
We then took the main stairs down to get back to main deck… and these stairs give a really great impression. We took ourselves some nice pictures there.
And of course, we were left with one cabin to explore, BA First, which is at the very front of the main deck and features 14, nearly fully closing suites. The seats are very comfortable, maybe again a bit narrow. And let's face it - it does feel luxurious but I don't think it is worth the money on a long haul… especially after BA has introduced the new Club Suites.
The seat area actually didn't look that fresh, there were a lot of scratches and other little imprecations… but really, what am I even complaining about XD
While we were still walking around and exploring the cabin, captain said the magical "10 minutes to landing". I chatted with Monika for a while more and then went back to my rear Economy. It took me quite a while to get there from the very front hahah.
Landing into FRA was very smooth, however we had very low clouds that morning. Indeed, we touched the ground and it was still cloudy around!
After a long taxi, we docked into our gate at the jet bridge. Disembarkation was done in groups, however there was a group of a good few people that remained to see the flight deck. The crew was super nice and actually encouraged us to do that. And all crew in the cockpit were super nice as well, they took me some pictures which I'm not posting for privacy reasons.
Thank you BA for this lovely flight, which didn't seem like a flight at all!!!
Immigration in FRA was easy: vaccine certificate, PLF and passport were required, but no queue. Then I took a shuttle bus to T1, and from there a (severely delayed) S9 train to Hauptbahnhof.
It was a long report of a very short flight, but a very special one. I hope you enjoyed.
The A380 craze is to be continued!
Mateusz
As a conclusion, to describe my first time on the A380, I will use 3 letters:
W O W
alternatively
O M G
Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 17 avis concernant 2 compagnies sur la ligne London (LHR) → Frankfurt (FRA).
La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est British Airways avec 7.3/10.
La durée moyenne des vols est de 1 heures et 28 minutes.
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10 Comments
Can't wait to get a chance to fly on her again!
Thanks so much for sharing!
Matthew
All the best,
Matthew.
Thanks for sharing this tour of the Beast. I hope BA keeps them around long enough for me to ride one.
I did, right? :P You're very welcome. Stay tuned for a more in-depth tour of the Club and First cabins in my next reports. I hope you'll be able to fly one of the A380s soon :)
High flying,
Mateusz
Best,
Mateusz :)
It's really cool to see the crew so enthusiastic about their aircraft, judging by the number of avgeeks onboard, there is a business case here for special flights :p
All the best,
Mateusz
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