Anyway after waking feeling a little rough, we headed over to the Terminal and the reverse long walk / transit to Terminal 2E. Grabbed some diet coke (well coke light and spent a fortune) and went over to the gate. They have seat plans for both the Upper and Main deck hanging up so you know where to wait to board etc. Boarding was very late and everyone seemed to be doing nothing and there was no reason given.
Eventually we started boarding and all the passengers were on very quickly. The return flight was not full, unlike the outbound. Whilst we were on the ground, I went from our seat in the Upper Deck exit row, down the back semi-circular stairs, through the main deck economy cabin then First, up the front stairs and through business back to the Upper Deck economy section. Downstairs seemed mucher darker than upstairs in economy and I really didn't think that First looked very impressive at all. The is a nice little meeting area near the front of business.
Anyway we were on the ground for ages, and again no reason given. Eventually it was time to leave with another bumpy take-off. Entertainment on during take-off with the tail view and then the full system after take-off. Unfortunately my handset was non-functioning (not very good on a flight less than 3 months old!). Luckily the touch screen was still working. We had the exit row on the way back - I wouldn't advise this as although you get more leg room, you don't have a window and there is no window luggage storage either.
During the flight there was the drinks round - soft drinks this time only! Flight was smoother than the outbound and we didn't seem to circle prior to landing at LHR. The landing was no better than the one on the outbound and again seemed like we had "hit the runway". We landed from the East on the runway nearest T4 and would have thought that we would have turned off to the left and straight to the Terminal. However, we turned off to the right and then taxied back East for quite a bit before crossing the runway. Maybe it is something to do with the size of the plane?
Similar to the outbound flight experience, I didn't think that flying on the A380 was very smooth and the landings were awful both ways. Not sure if that is usual for the A380 or just that AF hasn't finished training their A380 pilots yet!!
Last edited by gingerflyer on 04 Aug 2010, 22:28, edited 1 time in total.
