Was offered an upgrade for £65, but didn't see the point on such a short flights. They had only sold the A319 capacity, so the plane was much less than half full, even using just the downstairs cabin.
Delayed for 40 minutes getting off stand; they had connected the upper jetway (even though not using it) and they couldn't get it back off the plane...
Slow trundle to the runway, and a bit of a wait to take off, so we were an hour late. Flight time was 1h 5m (schedule is 1h 45m) so we landed only 30 minutes late. No IFE turned on for this flight.
The A380 economy cabin & seat are "standard economy"; it seemed much quieter than mormal, but the flaps movement was very loud indeed!
I was in window seat 27K - which loses half the foot space to the large IFE box. All the K seats are like this, so be prepared to sit "slanted" if you want to put your feet forward, and share your neighbour's foot space. There is no way you can put any rasonable size hand luggage under there; it is made worse by the "angle" of the fuselage.
One interesting(!) thing I noticed; in the toilets they have drinking cup dispenser, with lots of little paper cups. Very nice touch - however they are right next to an icon showing "not drinking water" so I don't understand that one...
Landing was pretty rough - I guess the pilot was still practising firm landings!
I think this will make for a pleasant long haul economy flight - it might impact VS on the LAX run - providing you don't sit in the K!
