How Does it Feel to Sit on an Airbus A-380 for 18 to 20 Hours?

It depends on where you are sitting.

I travel twice a year round trip from New York to Bangkok. That trip consists of a six hour leg and a fourteen hour leg. It’s a long ass flight, 12 time zones. If the plane kept going after reaching New York, we’d be on the way back.

I’ve traveled some in the past, mostly from New York to Honolulu. That HNL / JFK flight used to be a long flight to me. Now it’s about half-way. I’ve learned to tolerate long flights. I try my best to get an exit seat. I prefer aisle seats too. I’ve adapted and learned how to cope with long flights. Airbus makes pretty nice aircraft.

One time I chose to fly Qatar Airline from Singapore to New York. The night before I was to leave, Qatar sent me an email offering an upgrade to business class at a reasonable price for the first leg: Singapore to Doha. I took the offer. When I boarded the next day I discovered why they were offering discounts.

The whole top section of the double decker Airbus was reserved for business and first class. There were only a handful of people in the business class section, hence the promotion.

I had the most attentive service one can imagine. There was a full crew of attendants and about six passengers. There were about a dozen attendants. There’s a bar up there, a lounge where you can get snacks and drinks on demand. And they feed you a lot during regular service, decent food with several choices and three courses.

The wide seat was partially enclosed in a little pod with several compartments to store stuff you want to keep handy. The seat reclines to several positions, with a foot rest portion, all the way to a flat bed. The attendants provide a small mattress pad and a fresh sheet when you decide it’s time to sleep too. So all that makes the long flight pretty comfortable.

But in fairness to the lower class louts in steerage — sorry, coach — the new Airbus double deckers have a new and improved air circulation system that provides better oxygen than older aircraft. So even the coach seat is about as good as one can expect, albeit hard. I guess they need to design the high use seats in a sturdy fashion.

I don’t know wether to love Qatar or hate them for opening that first, business class experience for me. I now avoid coach travel on my long flights. At about five times the price of coach, business class is extravagant. But I usually save up for it these days.

At a price five times more than business class, what on earth can they give you in first class?