How to Fly On the A380 Upper Deck Flying Economy Class

Did you know that even traveling in the much more cost effective Economy Class on an A380 you might have the chance to travel on the upper deck of the plane? In this post we'll take a closer look at which airlines have located Economy Class seats on the upper deck of their mighty Airbus A380 planes.

Which Airlines Have Economy Class On the A380 Upper Deck?

Out of 10 active Airbus A380 operators at the moment 6 offer Economy Class seats on the upper deck of the mighty jet. However some of these airlines only do so on some of the aircraft configurations and not an all available in the fleet. So which are the airlines that have economy class on the upper deck of the Airbus A380?

• Emirates
• Lufthansa
• British Airways
• Qantas
• Qatar Airways
• Asiana

As mentioned though some of these airlines only offer this seat location on some of their A380s. Let's look at them case by case.

Which Emirates A380 Has Upper Deck Economy Seats?

Emirates is the world's largest Airbus A380 operator. Therefore it isn't surprising that the Dubai based airline also has the most vast assortment of cabin layouts.

However out of the 4 cabin layouts only 1 has seats located on the upper deck. In order to travel economy while seated on an Emirates A380 upper deck you'd need to fly on the most densely configured option, the 2 class layout. This configuration offers:

• 58 Business Class Seats
• 557 Economy Class Seats

EK doesn't have many planes of the type setup in this configuration and deploys these aircraft only to super high demand mid-range destinations. You are very likely to fly on this particular type when flying from Dubai to Bali on flight EK368.

What About Qantas?

Qantas also has more than one cabin configuration for its Airbus A380 fleet. Specifically the Australian flag carrier has 2 and only one has economy seats on the upper deck.

Just as in Emirates' case there aren't that many planes configured in such a way. You'd have to be lucky enough to travel to get a seat between rows 32 and 36 on these registration numbers:

• VH-OQA
• VH-OQC
• VH-OQL

So to maximise your chances, as you won't know in advance the aircraft registration number, you should try and get a seat from row 32 to row 36.

Asiana Does Upper Deck Economy a Little Different

Asiana, the Korean carrier, does things a little different. Keep in mind though that the Asiana A380s will be pretty short lived as the airline is set to merge with Korean Air probably by the end of the year.

Nonetheless Asiana offers economy class seats on its upper deck, however it classifies them differently, depending if they are the 2 next to the window or part of the 4 central block. The central 4 are pure economy seats, while the two window side seats are classified as duo and sold at a different price.

On Asiana you'd need to be seated between rows 70 and 83 to get a ride on the upper deck.

Flying Economy on The Qatar Airways' A380 Upper Deck

Qatar Airways relationship with the giant airbus plane is a bumpy one and doesn't emphasise the product all that much. However the Qatari airline offers Economy class seats on all of its A380s albeit with a very limited number of rows.

To travel Economy class on the upper deck with Qatar Airways you'll need to be seated between rows 25 and 32.

British Airways With The Largest Upper Deck Economy Class

British Airways offers the largest Airbus A380 upper deck Economy class cabin. The British flag carrier offers 13 rows of Y class seats in a 2-4-2 layout on its A380 upper deck. So chances are very good you could get to fly in this section. But to be sure to do so make sure to select a seat between rows 70 and 83 when flying the A380.

Lufthansa's Way For Economy on The A380

To wrap things up let's take a look at how the German flag carrier offers seats on its A380s' upper deck. Opposite to BA Lufthansa has one of the smallest economy class cabins on the plane's upper deck, only 5 rows. To be in the lucky 36 seated on the upper deck you'll need to make sure that you ave a seat in rows 95 to 99.

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