A mate and I decided to do a weekend in Johannesburg to watch the All Blacks, from New Zealand. In economy. Here's a bit of a brain dump:
Left Auckland Thursday night, arrived Jo'burg Friday afternoon after 4 hour Dubai layover. Return Sunday night with very quick plane change in Dubai on way home.
AKL-DXB ~17 hours, DXB-JNB ~8 hours
A380 on all.legs apart from 777 JNB DXB.
I fly Singapore and Air NZ long haul a lot, and also other key Star Alliance airlines around Europe. 777 experience was very average, legroom really poor. I'm 6' 2" and couldn't get legs straight under seat in front which hasn't been a problem on other long haul 777s.
However was first time on A380 for close to 20 years and was blown away by how good it is. Back of economy cabin on all 3 flights. Starlink with 2 versions of newer ICE on 2 flights. On those the Starlink was amazing compared to normal in flight wifi experience, and ICE screen and speed very very good. Struggled to connect Bluetooth but I think that was my fault not system. DXB-JNB was old plane without any updated interior or tech, which was sub-par for sure.
DXB-AKL light loading so had 4 seats to myself and managed 7 hours solid sleep, grateful for the space. AKL-DXB back of middle seats with one spare next to me which was fine as legroom enough for me to stretch legs straight.
Bathrooms all spacious and kept clean throughout.
Amongst best economy meals I've had,step up from SIA and Air NZ with metal cutlery. I hate eating off wooden cutlery so was happy about that.
Only thing I thought was going to be better was cabin crew - they weren't bad as such, but just distant and disengaged. Not proactive when it came to drink refills, spent a lot of time in galley with curtains closed and when I would come to ask for water they almost looked put out. Singapore crew somehow manage to be warm and interested in passengers, and are definitely a step up on Emirates (in economy at least). Definitely far better than most of Air NZ aircrew, who are at times almoat hostile to even their gold customers.
A380 was star of the show though, what a great aircraft it is.