One of the advantages in booking an economy class ticket on one of SIA’s A380 super jumbos is that you get to sit on the upper deck. But take advantage of this facility while you can.
As regular travellers will testify this is the choicest location for economy passengers. The small upper deck cabin (located behind business class) has a club-like atmosphere and a quieter ambience than in the economy cabin’s main location on the A380’s lower deck. Passengers are accommodated eight-across (2-4-2) upstairs compared with ten-across (3-4-3) downstairs.
As the word has got around the upper cabin has become ever popular. A reader, recently returned from Sydney in economy class, reports that upstairs can be fully booked while choicer seats (with window or aisle locations) remain empty downstairs.
But all good things must come to an end. Although SIA has not announced the news officially, Business Traveller has learnt that the carrier’s 13th and subsequent A380s (scheduled for delivery in May 2011 onwards) will have the upper economy removed in favour of extending business class all the way to the back.
It means that these later A380s (SIA has a total of 25 on order) will accommodate more business passengers to meet demand. But this will be at the expense of those in economy class.
At the time of writing, it seems that SIA’s existing 12 A380s will retain their same configuration.
The reconfigured A380s are likely to appear on prime business routes such as Singapore to London Heathrow, Paris CDG and Zurich as well as the forthcoming Singapore-Tokyo-Los Angeles route (see Online news December 3).
The existing A380s (with the upper deck economy) would be rostered on sectors where business demand is not so high, such as Singapore to Melbourne and Sydney, or regional routes like Singapore to Hong Kong.
The good news is that readers have months or years to sample the upper deck economy class. It will be some considerable time before the new batch of A380s takes over.
In the meantime, passengers travelling from May onwards must check their seat assignments carefully. They must also note that airlines can, and do, make last minute plane changes.
For more information go to singaporeair.com.
Report by Alex McWhirter
