Upper deck

Louiseanne · 15 Jan 22, 08:31 PM

I’m looking at choosing seats for our summer flight home and there are main and upper deck options. I’ve never had a choice like that before are there any benefits/disadvantages of the different decks? Thanks

loldis · 15 Jan 22, 08:40 PM

I'm assuming you're flying via Miami so on the A380? If there's only 2 (or 4) of you, I would go with window seats on the upper deck. You get a bit more room as there is a cubby by the window since the wall is too curved to place the seat hard up against the window. Sometimes you can use these for storage, I usually stick the pillow and blanket in there when I'm not using them.

You can see what I mean on the seat map here: aerolopa/ba-type-38a

If there's 3 of you, I would stick with downstairs to have a row to yourself.

LLamb · 15 Jan 22, 09:31 PM

Definitely upper deck, BA are I think the only ones to have economy on the upper deck of an A380. Enjoy it while you can as it will probably go if they put the club suite in.
Economy cabin upstairs is quieter and a lot smaller than downstairs.

loldis · 15 Jan 22, 09:59 PM

Originally Posted by LLamb

Definitely upper deck, BA are I think the only ones to have economy on the upper deck of an A380. Enjoy it while you can as it will probably go if they put the club suite in.
Economy cabin upstairs is quieter and a lot smaller than downstairs.

I think most of them actually do. Off the top of my head, I know Qantas, Qatar and Singapore all have at least one config with upper deck economy. Air France did, but have retired their A380s. Emirates and Etihad are the main ones I know who restrict upper to premium cabins but even Emirates has a two class config with it. There's a handful of other airlines as well that I'd have to look up, but it's just too large of a space for most operators to fully utilise premium only cabins on.

I do agree it's worth doing if you've never flown on an upper deck before. It sadly won't be long before the A380 is retired from most fleets. I'm actually surprised BA brought it back at all.

Louiseanne · 15 Jan 22, 10:10 PM

Thanks all. There’s only 2 of us and yes flying Miami to London. I’ll book upper deck while I can.

lizzie145 · 15 Jan 22, 10:55 PM

Originally Posted by loldis

I think most of them actually do. Off the top of my head, I know Qantas, Qatar and Singapore all have at least one config with upper deck economy. Air France did, but have retired their A380s. Emirates and Etihad are the main ones I know who restrict upper to premium cabins but even Emirates has a two class config with it. There's a handful of other airlines as well that I'd have to look up, but it's just too large of a space for most operators to fully utilise premium only cabins on.

I do agree it's worth doing if you've never flown on an upper deck before. It sadly won't be long before the A380 is retired from most fleets. I'm actually surprised BA brought it back at all.

They will be around for another 5 years with BA as they are about to refurb them

There are 2 economy cabins upstairs, the very small one at back may be noisy as near the galley

loldis · 16 Jan 22, 12:07 AM

Originally Posted by lizzie145

They will be around for another 5 years with BA as they are about to refurb them

There are 2 economy cabins upstairs, the very small one at back may be noisy as near the galley

That's a surprise, I guess they're banking on a fairly quick recovery to need that capacity back.

Although I would suspect if they're going to install the CW suites, they may remove some of upper economy to make way for them since it's much lower density than the old layout. Unless they reduce the first cabin like they have in the 4 class 777 refits.

lizzie145 · 16 Jan 22, 12:30 AM

I think first class will move upstairs along with business then they will board separately to the riff raff

I think they could easily increase the PE seats as they may be used on the longer flights

Just_Pete · 17 Jan 22, 09:25 AM

I'm doing this route in three days, primarily because I travel solo and am a bit of an aeroplane geek, and the A380 will always trump a 777 for me.

I have upper deck booked because the side seats are twos rather than threes given the curve of the upper deck. This means if you are travelling as a two, you get your own little duo of seats with no risk of a random third. And you also on the upper deck get nice side bins between the windows seat and the bulkhead for a little extra handy storage.

Another option on the A380 (albeit perhaps only if you have a tall person in your group). Is to look at the Lower deck and "The Throne Seat" as it often called, or seat 25D. This is in the middle row, so no windows, but as it is designed to allow emergency exit/access through the floor hatch in front of it to the Crew Rest area below this means there is no 24D in front of it, so it allows a lot of leg space in front.

One one Miami flight when I took this option though, I did notice it would be used a lot by people to stop and chat which was annoying.

15 Jan 22, 08:40 PM	#2
	15 Jan 22, 08:40 PM loldis Imagineer
loldis Imagineer Join Date: May 17 Location: Sussex	I'm assuming you're flying via Miami so on the A380? If there's only 2 (or 4) of you, I would go with window seats on the upper deck. You get a bit more room as there is a cubby by the window since the wall is too curved to place the seat hard up against the window. Sometimes you can use these for storage, I usually stick the pillow and blanket in there when I'm not using them. You can see what I mean on the seat map here: aerolopa/ba-type-38a If there's 3 of you, I would stick with downstairs to have a row to yourself. Edited at 08:42 PM.