My first time on an Airbus A380
You know the country boy who goes to the city for the first time? Here, same thing. Precise. Imagine Renato Pozzetto going [...]
Emirates
MXP
Recommended by TFC
Do you know The country boy going to the city for the first time? Here, same. Precise. Imagine Renato Pozzetto Wandering around the buildings in disbelief. Or the face of Bud Spencer / Banana Joe the first time he discovers that urban women "wear stockings." Or Guybrush Threepwood who, like in front of the monkey head in Monkey Island, exclaims, "That's the second largest plane I've ever seen!" My very first contact with an Airbus A380 was a little bit like this.
Hi, my name is Andrea and I am a "guest" on these pages: over the past few months, reading The Flight Club, I have become passionate about this world and so, at the first useful opportunity (a business trip), I contacted the editorial staff to "offer" a review of an economy flight on a Airbus A380 of Emirates, departing from Milan Malpensa and bound for Dubai. Find the review in another article, but here I want to tell you something different: the feelings of an ordinary traveler - the exact opposite of the typical "frequent flyer" who usually writes about TFC - In front of a building that flies, to the second largest aircraft in the world after the Antonov. In short, my first time on an Airbus A380.
A child's reaction
A friend warned me, "The fuselage of the biggest plane you've ever been on is the size of one of the four engines in that behemoth." For me, who had flown at best in small, low-cost airliners from Liguria to Sicily or Paris, the sight of that sort of jumbo with the Emirates logo - double-decker! - was something sensational.
Before I saw it live, however, I looked it up in pictures the night before so my son could see it. "Dad flies up here tomorrow." At first he doesn't realize: he recognizes the logo of Emirates as sponsor of Milan - is a fanatic of the Fantasy Football, so he sees hundreds of games and knows every shirt by heart - but that plane, all things considered, looks no different from any other. Then I point out the windows to him. Two rows, and they look tiny. I put a picture of any Easyjet A320 next to him, and then he understands. "But it's broken!!!!." His way of saying something is great.
The first contact
From the size of the windows you can "deduce" the size, true, but the feeling a photo can give is still "circumstantial." Seeing it in person is totally different. I peek at its tail from the windows of the Montale lounge., which I entered not because of the flight (I'm in Economy) but rather. With Priority Pass linked to my American Express Gold card.. I take advantage of the free buffet, I sit in the armchair (ah, lounges... I still have to get used to it - I have the Amex recently - but of course it's a whole other journey) and as I sip a juice I stare at the plane.
It's huge. And in my case it is even more evident because of the inevitable Comparison between the Airbus A380 and an A320 from Wizzair That is next door. But will it fly? I am reminded of the beetle joke, "He's too big to fly, but he doesn't know it and he flies anyway." I see him again in the corridor leading to the gates. I look around, and notice that I am not the only one staring at him. Keep in mind that it is already rare for ordinary people to take a plane, let alone one of this size. To some - like me - it has never happened, to others it will never happen again.
I look for a way to observe it whole, but unfortunately being pulled up to the gate is impossible. Small disappointment: I had already imagined the classic scene where the shuttle takes you all the way under the plane, you get out and admire its majesty. Whatever, I'll make up for it inside, I think.
Inside it is "almost" a normal plane, but more tech
Instead. Even inside the wonder remains choked in the throat. I look around: sure, there are three rows of seats instead of the two that Ryanair's "usual" Boeing 737 got me used to, but otherwise it doesn't seem that big at all. The rational part of me knows why: the plane has two floors, so I would have to "double up" everything. But clearly on board you don't feel it. My friend had told me, "My first flight on an A380 I still remember now." But he was in Business. Who knows, maybe it is different there or in First and the gap is felt more.
I take my seat, and to tell me that it is still not a "normal" flight is the on-board equipment: the back of the seat in front of me houses an evolved infotainment, a little technology powerhouse from which you can not only watch movies (even I expect that) but really do many things. I spend a few minutes playing with it; for a geek like me, the ICE (that's what it's called: Information, Communications, Entertainment) system is too much of a draw. And it doesn't disappoint: more than 1400 films (also in Italian!), a shopping section, music to listen to on headphones.
Through the touch screen or a kind of remote control that looks like a gamepad (and it is, indeed, since there are also video games) you can select anything: a three-dimensional map of the flight, data on altitude/temperature/etc, even the cameras. Yes, because the A380 has three of them: one on the tail, one on the nose, and one below. So you can at any time choose to see what the pilot sees, or the plane on the runway, or what you're flying over. Wow. If that's the case in my "poor" Economy, who knows what Business and First Class will be like.
It's just like the ones in the movies
As the flight continues I have time to look around and take pictures (after all, I am here to write a "serious" review: you can find it here). Several times I have the feeling that I have already been on board. This is not true, of course, but I know what it depends on: on Hollywood. That area reminds me so much of "Air Force One". And the stewardess, over there, is in the same place where she was Halle Berry in "Critical Decision". Whatever, in both cases they were Boeing 747s, but they really look alike. I mean, it's like they let me into one of those blockbusters. After all, isn't that the same feeling you get when you go to a place that has been a movie set?
Speaking of movies, I feel like "testing" the video library of the ICE system. It's really vast, organized into various sections: some enclose films made in a particular language (there is one only with Italian films), others deal with a specific genre, one consists only of Disney Classics, three are dedicated respectively to fans of Harry Potter, Marvel e Star Wars. At the end I choose the one with "the latest releases" and select Wonder Woman: I have been carrying around the desire to see it ever since I discovered it at the Gardaland 4D Cinema. I open the headphones: they are not the usual 2 euro earbuds you get in disposable settings, but on-ear ones. They may not be Beats, but they don't sound bad.
Lunch at 3:45 p.m.? Oh, yeah, it's the time difference
I am admiring how beautiful Gal Gadot is in the movie when I see, a few rows away, the stewardesses. They propose lunch. Lunch?!!! 3:45 p.m.!!! I had read "dinner" on the menu accessed via Wi-Fi, so I was expecting it much later, since it was leaving at 2:25 pm. Then I realize: it's lunch (late) for those "set" on the Italian time zone... for the other half of the passengers it's almost 7 p.m. In short, yes, Is a dinner at 3:45 p.m.
At first I think of rejecting it: I have already eaten at Malpensa, in the lounge. (Free ... long live American Express Oro and its Priority Pass!). But almost everyone around me takes the trays without a problem; the only ones who refuse are some Italians themselves. And then, I reflect, I have to eat: I have to review the meal as well, of course. How it went you can read about it here on TFC, in the review.
Time to get off
After 6 hours and change, spent in the company of the movie and a book, I arrive at my destination. Around me it is night, and the big behemoth of the air is illuminated by streetlights. I look at it for a moment longer. Yes, in the end it was a good trip.
I already know that I will be going up there to go back in a few days. My work usually keeps me at home, and I travel very rarely. But To trips like that-well, I might as well get used to it.
- 6,000 Mile Registration Bonus
- Collect miles WITH EACH PURCHASE
- Your miles with no expiration*
- No fees for ATM withdrawals and foreign purchases
- Without having to change banks
- Autonomous card activation
- Multi-function mobile application
- Free travel insurance
- Free credit for up to 7 weeks
- Contactless Payment
- Mastercard® SecureCode
- 20€ discount directly in your statement by spending €60 in one or more transactions with Carta on Italotreno.it
- Free fee the 1st year. From the 2nd €5.50 per month
- You can choose to pay in full or in installments
- Premium level of the Italo Più program
- 4 Vouchers per year for access to Italo Club Lounges
- Preferential Access to Italo's Fast Track at the station
- For every 5 purchases of Italo ticketing and/or onboard services made with Italo American Express Credit Card you will receive 1 voucher for room upgrade
- Welcome bonus of 100,000 Volare points upon reaching 6 thousand in spending in the first 3 months after card issuance
- Accumulate 1.5 qualifying Volare points for every euro spent, accumulate an additional 3 non-qualifying Volare points ( for a total of 4.5 Volare points) for every euro spent on ticketing purchases and other services offered by ITA Airways
- Access to the Premium Club of ITA Airways' Volare program.
- ITA Airways Lounge Access
- Free excess baggage
- Points Back