They're so quiet, and relatively comfortable. For years I've gone out of my way to take the A380 between JFK and CDG, because it's the only way to fly transatlantic in economy without it being a complete misery.
I sort of understand the economics of why they don't work for shorter routes, but those long flights are still extremely necessary, and everything else is godawful.
Emirates A380 every sector from UK to Oz and back in 2015 was a huge highlight of travel for me. They hadn’t done any obvious cost cutting and we got proper menus and silverware in economy. It was such a smooth flight and all the space on board to walk and stretch was fantastic.
ANA flies them exclusively between Hawaii and Japan with a fleet of 4 A380s. If you want to fly the A380 – Emirates is your friend, with over 80% of the fleet under operation (100+ planes).
If you want to fly 747 - Lufthansa is your friend as the sole operator of the passenger version 747-8. Business on the upper deck is a delight in that plane, especially the window seat.
We flew to Heathrow to Dubai on our first leg to Thailand last week and I was again struck by just how little like flying the experience is. Even the acceleration down the runway doesn't feel dramatic in the same way (I imagine it's a bit slower than a A320 for a start). You don't even feel the expansion joints in the runway.
We flew our second leg in a 777 and it was noticeably louder and more airplane like.
The very first one was on one of their newest A380s which even let you pair my Bose Quiet Comforts with the in flight entertainment system over Bluetooth. That really was the dream.
