TR: Qantas A380 Inaugural Flight from SIN to LHR 16 January 2009

[Benny Zheng]

Just a brief Trip report or rather story on my first Qantas A380 flight. I copied this TR from the Singapore forum so it might not be relevant in some way over here.

16th of January 2009 has been a day to look forward since i made a booking to Toronto, Canada in late 2008. I have done a lot of research on which is the shortest route as well as the least amount of time required to reach the destination. It was a tough choice to choose. SQ to HKG on 77W then AC to YYZ on 77L. Both are triple sevens and the excitement is probably the 77L as not many airlines have them. The other choice is QF to LHR and BA to YYZ. The latter is A380 and B772ER. So i thought, since it is the inaugural flight to LHR, i might as well take that. It's much cheaper ($2k) for the whole journey (SQ charge $3k). I made the booking with my sister on the BA website (BA7371 and BA 93). But in this report i will talk about the Qantas flight. The others will come later.

The day has finally come. There was a long queue at the Qantas/BA checkin counter at Terminal 1. Not because of the A380 flight but because of the 4 flights that are going out to Europe at roughly the same time. When it was our turn, i was pretty disappointed that my sister and i are getting the middle seats of the four seater. So i got no view and i'm stuck in the middle for the 12 hour flight to London. But it was alright i thought since it was a night flight all the way, i got no use for the window. Start your online checkin service Qantas !!



After collecting the boarding pass, we proceeded to the customs where we are greeting by a long queue of departing passengers. Gosh i thought, no more terminal 1 for night flights next time. We used the thumbprint machines which are much faster than the counters. (Good thing we are locals).



We proceeded to the gate C23 and realised the plane have not arrived yet as is delayed slightly. The exit of the gate has the welcome signboard put up to welcome the arriving passengers from Sydney on the A380 first leg of the flight.



After some burgers from Burger King, we went back to the gate again and this time the plane has just arrived. They have put up another big poster size of the A380 at the exit gate.



Passengers were delighted at the welcome as well as the free luggage tag given out to all alighting passengers. I would have thought Qantas would give out something but in the end it's Changi Airport.



We queue up into the boarding area and were given the luggage tag as well. But before entering, someone has dump it on top of the dustbins. I quickly grab it and kept it. :lol: Free extra souvenirs!



The plane look good in the night sky and you can see how long the wings are. A majestic plane indeed.



Testing of those bright xenon landing lights.



This flight is full house to London as you can see. There are just so many passengers. And the weirdest thing is most are Europeans or Australians. There is hardly Asians onboard. We are outnumbered!



Finally boarding has commenced at pass midnight. We got onto our seat and i must say the seats do look nice. The black carbon fiber look makes it look very modern. As well as easy maintenance i guess. One thing i would have prefer they done is to put the remote below the screen. They have placed it on the arm rest and this makes it difficult to remove and use as well as disturbing your neighbor.

The new Qantas entertainment system is the same as those on SQ but the only difference is the touch screen monitor!



We were told by the pilots that we are late for departure but it was fine. As the wind is favorable in our direction of travel, we will arrive in London in approximately 12 hours plus. And they do not want to arrive during the curfew hours. That's probably a reduction of nearly 2 hours. This is indeed a good news to me as you can see later.

We took off from 02L with no fuss and no vibration at around 1am. The plane just quietly took off or maybe tip toe? After the seat belt sign has been turned off, we were eager to get some movies or cds playing on the entertainment system. We touch and touch on the screen and nothing happens. We thought oh maybe they have not started the system yet so we waited. An hour has passed and still nothing happen. I'm beginning to see other people using the system on the 3 seater to the left and right. We called the stewardess and ask them is something wrong. They got back to us and say they will reset the system and see if it works. Half an hour later it still did not work. They called the panasonic technician onboard and he connect his laptop to the system in the galley and tries to fix the problem. And i realize this glitch not only affect our row but the first six row of the 4 seater.

An hour has passed and the glitch is not resolved. So i guess my iphone has been my entertainment for my journey to London. Luckily the usb charging still works. 3 hours into the journey we were feeling very cold. The crew said the air conditioner is set at 24 degree Celsius. But i can say it does not feel like. Probably like 21. After lots of complains by the passengers they finally raise it to 26. I can still remember the passenger next to my sister asking for 3 blankets. That's a lot haha.

[Benny Zheng]

And here are the meals onboard.

Chilled Cucumber Salad (Sour :s)
Beef Rendang with Steamed Rice and Vegetables in Coconut (Nice)
Passionfruit Mousse (Nice)
Solo Lemon Squash (Nice)
Cadbury Hot Chocolate (Nice)
Organic Peppermint Tea (Weird initially but nice)



The snacks given were a bottle of water, packed pineapple, mentos sweets and a chocolate bar in a plastic string bag. No photos taken as i was probably sleepy at that point in time.

My sister's low fat meal for breakfast. Guess what the white stuff is.



And for breakfast, the offer a Continental breakfast or a Hot breakfast. I chose the Hot. Never like cereal.

Orange Juice
Fresh Fruit Salad
Spinach and Mushroom Frittata with Bacon and Slow Roasted Tomato
Hazelnut Danish



I must say SATS provided some good food.

And here's the cabin shot. You can see from the red arrow onwards to the front, there is no entertainment system working. The cabin lights on this Qantas A380 is white and not yellow like SQ A380. It turns purple at night.



We were circling around London before we are able to touch down on runway 27R in the dark. A very smooth touch down by the A380 given that there are strong cross winds. My previous experience with SQ was a grand slam. The plane taxied to Terminal 4.

A new airport for Britain slogan appear after we got out of the gate. And i'm pretty sure they need to revamp both T1 2 3 and 4. Terminal 4 is like going to Jakarta terminal. The only nice thing they had is probably the renovated toilets.



So after this whole journey to London, I can conclude that Qantas still have problems with their entertainment system just like their Rockwell collins system on their 744. But if i were to take away the entertainment problems, i can say that the service is better than most western airlines.

Food 8/10
Service 7/10
Seats 7/10
Overall 7/10

That's all for my trip report on this leg of the journey. Thanks for reading.

[Raymond Rowe]

Nice trip report Benny

[Sarah C]

Great report as always Benny!

The luggage tags commemorating the flight were a great idea- it is shame QF marketing didn't think about it. Very practical too as well - full credit to Changi for marking the occasion.

[Benny Zheng]

Thanks Raymond and Sarah.

I would have thought Qantas would be giving out special souvenir for the inaugural flight but in the end it's the transit airport that does it. Even London gives out nothing. No water salute too.

[Owen H]

Nice trip report Benny

As for the water salute -

Its not the first A380 into any of the ports, and its not Qantas' first A380 flight. Its also very early in the morning, and I'm sure the firey's didn't want to get out of bed for the arrival The Qantas A380 has also been into Singapore before, albeit not as a scheduled passenger service.

I agree its shame Qantas didn't do something in terms of a souvenir. Very disapointing.