The Airbus A380 from LA to Melbourne
I was lucky enough to be on an Airbus A380 for my flight from LA to Melbourne in March 2009. These planes are pretty impressive, from an engineering standpoint; however they do fall short in a few stange ways. I'm very much a Boeing fanboy, and this journey did nothing to bring me over to the Airbus camp. The biggest thing that sort of let me down about this plane is that the cabin is mostly unchanged from a 747, and what is changed isn't necessarilly better. The worst is that the armrests are made of hard plastic, no padding at all.Even with all that engineering, and all that technology, several bathrooms were out of service by the end of the flight. It's stupid things too, like bad door-locks, and blocked sinks. These sorts of things shouldn't happen on a brand new plane!
Qantas is awesome though. The staff are great, and they really know how to do this long flight so well. Snacks, food, and drinks were always available. They even had hot chocolates (with marshmellows) for free. There was a constant stream of water bottles and apples, and every effort is made to keep the passengers comfortable. I have done this flight with Qantas and United, and the latter is just terrible. I honestly don't mind it that much with Qantas.
The fact that the 747 is still around and still so relevant and important after almost 40 years, shows how far ahead of the times Boeing was (and what an incredible accomplishment the design and engineering was). But with that said, I'm still thrilled to have ridden in an A380. With only 13 in service, I'm part of a pretty select group. Enjoy the pictures!
