Is it worth booking seats to fly economy on the upper deck of a British airways a380?

[Overthemoun]

It’s from London to Florida. Afternoon outbound and nighttime on the way home.

it’s £400 each way to book 2 pairs of seats in the 2/4/2 configuration. I’m looking at the exit row and the one behind.

id welcome any reviews or thoughts, please.

If you are a 4 and want to sit in two pairs without being in a 3 with a stranger, then it's absolutely worth booking the upper deck. I really like travelling as a pair with a window and an aisle seat.

And it's loads better than sitting as a 4 in the middle of the plane

Thank you

@Overthemoun This is seat guru for BA top deck economy. The red seats are not good and yellow has some issues. So check what rows you are getting by the exits. Other seats look better.

Oh they were the seats I was looking at! Does it say why they’re bad? They have the extra leg room

I was thinking either 80&81 or 70&71

The overhead lockers were tiny when I flew on the upper deck. Worth bearing in mind if you take hand luggage.

Definitely worth it - best economy seats there are. It is much more comfortable being able to sit as a 2 without a stranger next to you. There are also storage bins along the wall of the plane to the side of your seat which is a nice bonus.

Last year when we went to Florida we didn’t reserve seats and as a could we travelled in the 2 in front of the loos and in the middle seats of the 4 in front of the loo. The smell was pretty grim but on the way back I think it was my neighbor.

I’m pretty sure the red ones are because it’s the only clear space and where people go and stand on long haul or do their yoga/exercises. You are doing medium haul so less likely to experience that too much but I’d find it VERY irritating. Depends if you are willing to overlook that for the benefit of the extra leg room but expect people to stand in your leg room space.

Yellow seats at the back will be proximity to the toilets (people queuing) next to you chatting and bumping into you with their bums. Or proximity to the galley (lights and noise when the cabin is in darkness) and/or proximity to the bassinets. Back seats might not recline as much as they are too far back to the bulkhead but I’ve never seen an A380 that doesn’t allow for back seats to recline

Have you checked to see how much it would be to bump up to the cabin in front? World traveller plus (or premium economy). Not as expensive as you might think and 100000 times better. It’s 232 formation.

You don’t want to be near the loos. Noise from the door opening and the flush going all night long. Plus the flash of light every time the door opens.

Right 80 and 81 have extra leg room
But you’ll get people standing right in front of you waiting for the loo and the door opening and closing all the time and some aroma…
Also bassinets pretty close to you too so noise and parents up and down to the overhead bins.

Quietest and calmest location for sleeping is mid cabin

@Overthemoun The red is bad on seat guru. Look up the airline and plane configuration. Top floor on that plane has green seats but red is usually red for a reason that they will list. Usually it’s proximity of loos and people queuing near you. They are annoying seats. I’d move a few rows back!

I called to ask and it was £1600 one way!! We only paid £1500 return for the 4 of us so that felt steep

Thanks all, this is all helpful. None of us are tall so it sounds like the middle of the cabin is probably better than the leg room.

We’re not bringing much by way of hand luggage so that’s not a concern. Away from babies, toilet queues and smells hopefully! I’m hoping to use the galley on the outbound flight to have a drink and then hopefully a nap.

My boss, who is a seasoned traveller, has always said "no seats by the toilets or near the flight attendants area". Toilets are noisy, people coming in and out all night, light bothering you "and the flight attendants yap all night". I am very careful not to select those seats for him.

I might wait a bit to see how full it gets and gamble. We are going for UK school holidays though so probably busy

@Overthemoun PE still has loo seats!

To be honest, we usually wait for the 24 hour slot and then book. On these big planes you rarely get a crap seat as most of them aren’t! Even a business has a couple of red seats - no window by the seat!

Upper deck will book out in a flash. You’ll definitely be left with lower deck if you don’t book ahead. Worse case scenario is the false sense of security that an empty looking plane gives pre check in time. Loads of people are ready to pounce within seconds of free seat selection opening and the plane goes from open availability to the only seats being spread around the cabin. I recently took 4 ultra long haul flights. Cabin pretty open in the lead up but 2 minutes after free seat selection started there were around 20 seats left in random middle seat locations. On boarding the plane was full in every instance (and that wasn’t school hols… should have been quiet time of year)

Note as well that on an A380 any window ‘view’ is non existent given the curvature of the fuselage and the massive wing. Upper deck is nice as you have the window bins but also no ‘leaning’ against the wall capability.

I guess we get lucky then! They also pre allocate seats. Often we don’t move seats at all as we don’t need too. This is why seats are taken plus Executive Club members have early booking on BA. In many years of flying, we’ve only ever once had an issue with getting a seat - coming back from Tokyo. Otherwise, if you look at the seats, there’s very few bad seats!

Florida in the school holidays will be rammed, and as pp said everyone will be waiting for the free seating window to open, then it will be a bunfight. There will then be another bunfight on boarding, when all the split up families expect the cabin crew to move people around so they can sit together.

As former cabin crew (albeit a long time ago now), I can tell you that Florida flights were the ones I most dreaded.

@VenusClapTrap But you are allocated seats. It’s not like there’s no seat when checking in.

Not necessarily. Full flights will usually be overbooked so it’s entirely possible there won’t be a seat for some people. Plus all it takes is for a seat to be broken and not able to be fixed within the turnaround window so it gets taken out of service and chaos ensues.

Years ago we flew to Florida return on an A380. Outbound we booked seats in the ‘bubble’ ie upper deck and took any allocated seats on the return. (2 adults, 2 kids who were then 5 &10)

Top deck was amazing for economy, very few seats compared to ‘downstairs’ and felt like a premium experience. On the return, very much cattle class
, 4 middle seats at the back but as it was a night flight didn’t really seem that bad as lights off and relatively quiet.

I think £800 on top of such well priced flights is a lot of money that could be spent in Florida. So maybe a compromise if budget is tight to do the top deck outbound by paying & on the return chance it….

have an amazing holiday when you go, it really is a fantastic place🤩