Today I had the best flight ever!It was like flying on a G6 except that my 'G6' is bigger, better and faster.
My crew and I had the A380 to ourselves, just the 27 of us (including the pilots). Of course, since the cabin crew didn't need to work, we popped champagne and practically enjoyed ourselves in the 12 hours that it took to fly back to Singapore.
What happened was I was suppose to fly back on Monday evening. When I was checking out we were told to go back to our rooms - the plane did not arrive in London. It had diverted to Dubai due to a medical case.
I remember my own experience of a flight diversion en route to London. It was tricky, especially on the A380. Flight attendants and cockpit crew are bound by regulations, that we are not allowed to be on duty above a certain number of hours. Cockpit crew are however allowed to operate just a little bit longer than cabin crew. When crew exceed the hours they are required to step down and that is when the plane is not allowed to fly on.
Hence you probably have heard of incidences whereby planes cannot land in Melbourne or Sydney and have to divert to Brisbane because of fog and then the plane is further delayed because they need to pick up a new set of crew for the flight time limitation of the first set had been exceeded. Something to that effect. Actually it's not so often that you hear about that if the plane originates from Asia en route to Australia since the flight time to Aussie isn't that long and it would take a lot of circling and trying to land before the crew's flight time limitation can be exceeded.
London is just about on the brink if we delay the plane, especially for the A380. The A380 has a turnaround time of at least 2 hours (normally the other planes take only about an hour, depending on how fast the station can clean the aircraft and refuel and board passengers) because the brakes need to be cooled. If it is not properly cooled, it is not allowed to take off, for safety reasons. Imagine if after take-off something happens (e.g. engine fire) and it is required to turn back and yet the brakes are not cooled, it won't be able to land. So any diversion en route to London on a A380 means there is a very high chance of the crew exceeding the flight time limitation.
My own experience happened also with a diversion to Dubai. We were all very worried that we had to step down in Dubai if we exceeded the flight time limitation. We would roughly know whether we will exceed or not by just seeing how many more hours we'd need to proceed on.
At Dubai, the caterers rushed in to stock up more snacks and we offloaded the passenger with a medical incident as soon as we could. The plane refueled too. We were lucky we could land in Dubai because in that region, there weren't even a handful of airports that could receive the A380. We got the aircraft and paperwork ready and pushed the aircraft back under 2 hours. That flight made a record - we had a turnaround time of less than 2 hours - the fastest turnaround time for an A380. Of course the pilots took a risk but it was the call of the pilots to strand the passengers in Dubai or take the full load minus one to their destination, London. Many passengers were already anxious to go back to London because we were carrying the last of the passengers who were stranded in Singapore because of the volcanic ash. Some had been due home for a month and were even more bummed out that because of the delay, they'll miss their connecting flights from London to Manchester and other cities.
So anyway, what happened on Monday was a similar case. The plane diverted and I guess the plane did not get clearance to push back fast enough. As a result the crew had to step down and the plane could not continue all the way to London.
We were initially told that our pick-up from the hotel would be in 22 hours. I then headed out to look for my cousins and we went for a drink at a casino.
When I got back close to midnight, the hotel had news for me - the pick up was in 7 hours. Meaning I only had about 4 hours to sleep!! And a 12-hour flight ahead of me. Not very pleased.
When I came down in the morning, we were told that we were ferrying the aircraft back to SIngapore, without passengers.
The aircraft managed to go as far as Zurich or Paris before the crew's flight time limitation was exceeded. I'm guessing our ground-staff then made arrangements for the passengers to go on other airlines to finish the rest of the journey. As for my original passengers that were due to depart the night before, I'm also guessing they were all put on other airlines as well.
That piece of news made made me happy. I was tired, and not having to work meant I could slack on board.
Once onboard, we changed into loungewear and took our seats in Suites and Business Class. I decided to go for the Business Class seats since I am more familiar with the Business Class galley and can get food and drinks at my convenience.
After take-off, we popped champagne. Dom Perignon, no less. After two glasses of champagne, the meals were ready. I slid comfortably under the duvet as I had my lunch in bed.
All the crew moved about freely, from upper deck (business class) to main deck (suites). It was like we were on a private jet. Even the cockpit door was not closed, so we walked in and out of the cockpit freely. One seat in the cockpit was up for grabs for take-off and landing so the two most junior crew took turns to go in for that - something that will probably never happen to them, or to me, again since on regular flights we have to be at our door for take-off and landing.
Suites.
This is how Posh, Becks and Ronan travel. The divider between the two beds can be removed so that it beecomes a double-bed. Under normal circumstances, there is a wall that separates the two cabins/beds.
The moon was full last night and at 41,000 ft (when i went into the cockpit it was 41,000 ft) it was so much brighter since all the clouds were below us. I remember the pilots showing me on their radar where we were and what seemed like very high terrain ahead of us (the mountains in Afghan). We were also flying at 41,000 ft (higher than the usual 38,000) because we were radio-ed to fly higher due to traffic at 38,000 ft. I also heard the ATC communicating with one of our planes (from Paris). Then the pilots told us that the aircraft from Paris was behind us and ahead of us was a plane of ours too from Moscow.
So damn cool….
I must have had 2 glasses of champagne, a glass of sav blanc, and chips and chocolates and an apple and several cans of 7-up and Perrier. I don't normally drink Perrier but since I'm already traveling in style I might as well go all out!
Ahhh, life was really good. We could have brought down all the window shades and turned off the lights and played hide-and-seek for 12 hours and we probably still wouldn't be able to find everybody. The aircraft is huge and when there is just the 27 of us (although 4 were hard at work) it really felt like we were flying in our own private jet. Again, I think that was better than a G6 any day. And we were so comfortable with our environment since we know where things are kept and could help ourselves freely to it.
The only downside was that even with a flat bed, I could not sleep. I probably slept for an hour and that was it. I really salute the business travelers who have to work the moment they touch down. I don't know how they can sleep! Even better are those who come on board and tell you they do not wish to eat both meals and would like to be woken up just before landing. Again, I wonder how they do it. They must be pretty exhausted souls.
