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Airbus 380
| February 24th, 2015 at 3:56:49 PM permalink | |
| Nareed Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 346 Posts: 12545 |
Not in the XIX century ;) Donald Trump is a one-term LOSER |
| February 24th, 2015 at 4:05:56 PM permalink | |
| TheCesspit Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 23 Posts: 1929 |
You'd have to prove that by experience. It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die.... it's called Life |
| February 24th, 2015 at 4:11:17 PM permalink | |
| Nareed Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 346 Posts: 12545 |
Did they even have showers in the XIX century? Donald Trump is a one-term LOSER |
| February 24th, 2015 at 4:12:07 PM permalink | |
| Pacomartin Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 1068 Posts: 12569 |
I checked JFK to Dubai next week on Emirates, and it was USD $25,595 for first class, and an extra $4K for first class FLEX PLUS (which saves you $400 for changes or cancellations). Now why that would be worth $4K makes little sense. Business class was USD $13,079 and Economy was USD $990 round trip. So even if business class seat uses two or even three times as much space, and they throw in a few hundred dollars worth of booze, and food, the profit margin is staggering. So it is all about the feeling of exclusivity. If having the entire deck of the plane as high class makes people willing to spend 13X or 25X as much money for the trip you could see why Emirates is so worried about losing the jet. Lufthansa is putting 32 business class seats in the upper deck of the new 747-8i and 8 first class seats in the nose in the lower deck. It isn't close to the same as the A380. The A380 has an 85,472 gallon tank. If there are routes over 8000 miles, I have to believe one tank will cover a round trip from JFK to Dubai. Jet fuel is $1.50 per gallon or $128K to fill the tank. So that is far less than half of the 400 economy seats at $1K apiece. I have to believe fuel economy is a far bigger consideration for the narrow body world than it is for the intercontinental wide body world. It's more about making the 1% feeling good about themselves. |
| February 24th, 2015 at 4:28:20 PM permalink | |
| Fleastiff Member since: Oct 27, 2012 Threads: 62 Posts: 7831 | Sheiks, subsheiks, BILs of Sheiks, .... as they grow more numerous and as wealth trickles down there will be more and more demand for travel in a manner that the poor do not have their shadows fall on the shadows of "real people" ie, wealthy people. Its cultural, its endemic to the area. We all like to be well treated. I liked it when a computer screwup left a flag next to my name, the same code that would indicate a movie star on board or a Senator on board... but the descriptive field was blank. So when I arrived it was really funny. They had the whole darn executive heirarchy there to greet me, they had this super good looking woman with a bunch of flowers in case I had a traveling companion, the had someone else standing by with a wheel chair and they someone there with a luxury quiet golf cart to transport me to whatever I'd be going to. They didn't know what it was: Major share holder, Senator, Movie Star, Rock Star, ... but they sure were prepared for anything. In the Middle East and the Far East you will always have incidents similar to the plastic bag of macadamia nuts versus a plate of them. In Turkey you will always have things like the Pilot who wanted his FO and Flight Engineer to walk behind him like little ducks (okay on the ground perhaps, but not good for Cockpit Resource Management). The Middle East airlines consider it normal, the Koreans consider the plate versus plastic bag to be proper, the French consider their four different types of Captains to be normal, The French also consider it fine to have the lowest training level of any major carrier, the Turks consider duck walking to be just fine (or should I say Just Fine, Effendi). Airbus and Boeing salesmen have to get used to those ideas. |
| February 24th, 2015 at 4:34:23 PM permalink | |
| Pacomartin Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 1068 Posts: 12569 |
Good story. I did ride in the executive jet with the General Counsel (in the back of course). But even peon class in an executive jet is about the same as Business class in a commercial jet. I also rode in a P-3 in the hammocks. It had it's own special charm. |
| February 24th, 2015 at 4:49:00 PM permalink | |
| Nareed Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 346 Posts: 12545 |
A seat or a suite? it's way too much money for a trip, no matter how comfortable.
I see three possibilities: there are other benefits, it's an airline scam, people like to overpay and brag about how much money they spent. On the other hand, if you have the money and don't mind spending it, well... Would it be cheaper than owning a private business jet? I've a feeling it might not be. Donald Trump is a one-term LOSER |
| February 24th, 2015 at 4:49:45 PM permalink | |
| Pacomartin Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 1068 Posts: 12569 |
I think Nareed has raised this questions about all business and first class flights. If the upper deck of an A380 can theoretically handle 315 people and Emirates puts in 90 seats, that is comparable to a Dreamliner which can theoretically handle 381 seats being filled with roughly 110 seats. The longest Dreamliner-800 flight scheduled 6870 miles (about distance from Dubai to JFK). The smallest Dreamliner doesn't have the range of A380, but it should be able to reach the east coast of the USA. Instead of flying a double deck plane with the lower deck paying the fuel, the mortgage, and the crew salaries, why not simply outfit a smaller Dreamliner with all business and first class seats. The smallest Dreamliner has a fuel tank 40% of the size of the A380. |
| February 24th, 2015 at 5:10:16 PM permalink | |
| terapined Member since: Aug 6, 2014 Threads: 73 Posts: 11803 |
All airlines have these penalty business class tickets and no penalty business class tickets. The no penalty tickets are ridiculously priced. You have to make a ton of changes on a penalty ticket to make it worth it. Yet I sell those expensive tickets sometimes when cheaper penalty fare tickets can be had. Dumb people at companies that are not familiar with airline pricing and don't know how penalties work. They make the decision to tell somebody to make sure they buy a complexly refundable no penalty ticket. In reality if they buy a penalty ticket and change it a bunch of times, still saving money. Even on nonrefundable tickets, we can do a name change exchange. This is actually one of my favorite parts of my job. A company makes me aware that they have say 6k nonrefundable business class ticket on UA. Passenger bought the ticket, canceled the reservation , never reused the ticket and its 11 months old with 1 month validity left. I generally look for somebody that just bought a say 7k business class ticket. I call him up and tell him I am giving him a 6k discount. He can now fly business class to China for 1k instead of 7k. Some clients ask, whats the scam. LOL. Most I talk them into it, get a waiver from the airline, void the 7k ticket and process a name change exchange charging 1 k instead. Sometimes we live no particular way but our own - Grateful Dead "Eyes of the World" |
| February 24th, 2015 at 5:25:54 PM permalink | |
| Pacomartin Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 1068 Posts: 12569 |
First Class Emirates  Business Class Emirates  The Residence Etihad (three room suite)  Only Etihad has the suite. Yes it is way to much money to spend in an hour what a night in the Manhattan Ritz Carlton, drinks and dinner would cost.
Private jets that can go over 7000 miles are uber expensive, even if you are just chartering one. For example pulling some real costs from British royal family. The Prince of Wales chartered a jet on 14-15 Dec, 2013 to fly to South Africa for Nelson Mandela's funeral. Cost was £246,160 = 5.4 million pesos = US372,500 which is only 5650 miles one way. First Class flexible on British Airways is £10,110 so that charter was over 24X the price of a first class domestic ticket. His son, Prince Henry of Wales, took a scheduled flight from London to Washington to Denver to New York city and back to London from 9-16 May 2013 which cost £10,888 = 0.24 million pesos = US$16,500. They don't specify the size of the entourage, but I am guessing that is 2-4 people economy class, and British airways upgrades him to at least business class. This trip had to be cheap since it was an apology tour for his naked cavorting 9 months earlier in Las Vegas. The Duke of York 1 - 4 May 2012 did a Jubilee visit on behalf of Her Majesty The Queen to India. To save costs they spend £31,966 on a scheduled commercial flight to get to India and back, then they can charter a smaller jet for £89,394 to fly around local cities in India. So that is about half what his brother spent to fly to Nelson Mandela's funeral the entire way in a private jet. |