Airplane Thread
 

I'm hoping that we can have a thread on the insides of airlines' plane,comfort level, seat types, food etc

I know thay yvr is not built to use both the airbus a380 and 787 dreamliner hence i haven't seen any come in here yet. I'm planning on a trip sometime next year to asia and i noticed that ANA has flights going drom seattle to narita with a 787....the price is comparable when leaving from yvr but i'd like to hear feedback if this will be worth it.

Thanks
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ANA is also starting YVR - Haneda service next spring. It's with a 767 but am sure they'll eventually bring over the 87.

I flew JAL on a 787 last September and wrote a blurb on it when I tried to keep a travel-log.

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It’s an understatement to say that I was excited when I found out that I’d be flying on the new 787 on this leg of my journey — the 7 year-old me who loved everything about airplanes was suddenly alive again.

Yes, I know not everyone is as thrilled by airplanes as I am but in the off-chance that anyone is even mildly interested in why this particular plane is a big deal, here’s some information about the Dreamliner:
Boeing website
Wikipedia article

In addition to the technological advances in aerodynamics, increased fuel-efficiency and noise-reduction, generous use of composites, and revamping of the electrical architecture to replace pneumatic and hydraulic components of some systems — to name a few things — the 787 is claimed to be leagues ahead of previous airliners in cabin comfort.

Much to my dismay, I was unable to get a window seat on this flight; hopefully I will on my return. I did however get a seat against the bulkhead which meant enough legroom for my 6'+ frame. What a relief. I can’t express how impressed I was by the cabin, even though I was seated in the economy class. The 2-4-2 configuration gave noticeable extra width in the seats and aisles in comparison to the 767 I flew on earlier that had a cabin width of 15’6” compared to the 787’s 18’.
Air quality was significantly superior, though that could also be because this particular airframe is only a couple months old. Although the specifications tell me that the cabin is pressurized to 6,000 feet instead of the standard 8,000 feet, I won’t claim to have been able to discern anything related to comfort in that respect.

Of all the new things hyped about in the cabin, the mood lighting and new windows did not disappoint. When on a long-haul flight, there’ll be the people who keep their window shade closed the entire flight and others who will keep it open until the flight attendant pesters them to close it for everyone else’s comfort. Fear no more, for Boeing solved that problem! The windows — which are significantly larger allowing a far nicer view outside — have variable tint (or auto-dimming, “smart-glass”, electrochromic, whatever you want to call it). Each passenger can adjust the darkness of their glass and the crew can control every single window themselves, too.
The mood lighting is quite something, too. In combination with the new windows, the entire atmosphere in the cabin is changed, unable to be disrupted by the sun at 40,000 feet glaring through a single unruly passenger’s window.

I'm not a huge fan of flying out of Seattle unless the deal is huge. You have to deal with border waits, traffic, airport parking fees, and driving back home after a long flight is the worst.
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JAL is bringing the 787 starting February at YVR.
YVR > Flight Information > Latest Information > Boeing 787 on Final Approach to YVR
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I know it's not airplane related but here's the new T2 in Mumbai, talk about a stunning airport and for those who've flown into Mumbai, the old terminal was worst than a bus depot. This is a massive upgrade, same with the Delhi airport.

YVR is built to accommodate both A380 and 787. There are simply no airlines using these aircraft on any YVR routes at the moment.

Starting next month JAL will be flying 787 from YVR - NRT. This is a huge upgrade from the current 767 (which funny enough just received an interior retrofit last month, so the 787 announcement was largely unexpected by most). They likely made the change in anticipation of ANA soon providing serious competition.

There will eventually be 787 service from YVR on AC, I'm guessing sometime this summer. However, thanks to reviews on the awful AC economy class found on AC's new 777, I don't imagine the 787 will be much different. When going across the Pacific I will most likely stay away from AC and stick with the Asian carriers.

Since the a380 is a double decker, do we have gates that will accomodate for that? Or will it be a single gate and passengers just go upstairs ? Too bad that i havent heard of any airline with the a380 coming here
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Why not try to fly out of Vancouver, and hop on a 787 and/or A380 when you're over in Asia? Which cities are you going to be transitting?

Flew my first A380 a few years back on KE from HKG-ICN. Completely worth the premium if you're a airplane geek. We likely won't see A380 service for many years here if at all ever. We just don't have the population base to make VLA's work economically anymore. Most airlines have cut all 747's out of YVR if anyones noticed.

Will be hopping on my first 787 experience this coming April enroute to NRT.

Ever since 2007, there's been 2 gates at YVR that can fully support widebodies like the 380. Just that no airline have decided to fly to YVR with one yet.

Withdrawal of the 747's is due to it's aging maintenance + gas guzzling bill. (Think of it as a Hummer)

Nothing to do with the # of passengers. The demand is still there, just look at how AC is trying to squeeze 10 a row in their 77W's. :heckno:

I much rather see airlines provide frequency > quantity.

And P.S: VLA stands for very light weight :suspicious:

Remember the a380 visited Vancouver when it was on it's testing/world tour and the gates were built in part due to Singapore airlines. Singapore airlines was supposedly going to start a a380 service to Vancouver once they took delivery of their 380's but they pulled the plug on Vancouver in 2008 so that was that. Only a380 service I see maybe coming to Vancouver might be BA.

And as for the 787, Calgary is getting a non stop to London via the BA 787 this summer. As for Vancouver, maybe ANA will use one of their 787's on their new Vancouver route but I think all their 787's are for domestic flights only. We'll probably end up with a few 787's servicing Vancouver once AC starts to get their planes. One thing I love about AC is you can fly big bodies like the 772LR domestically.

So any of you guys flying FSX or P3D?

BTW, check out this great NatGeo show on the Dubai airport. There's 10 ep's in total and all are in HD.

JL is coming in ~2 weeks, as posted above.

I see a [slight] potential for CZ.

Nevermind.

CZ will start using 787's to Vancouver starting 10 Feb 2014. A week after JL.

Will Calgary ever get a direct to Asia?

Yes. The issue in the past was the runways at YYC could not handle larger long haul aircraft because the runways weren't long enough (YYC sits at a higher elevation) for the planes to take off with all that added weight from fuel. The new runway is much longer so you'll more long haul flights from Asia start flying directly into YYC.

The CEO YYC has already visited Asia and talking to Asian airlines to fly directly into YYC and bypass YVR for both passenger and cargo traffic, he's also stated that more Asian flights will come into YYC than YVR once the runway/terminal is open.

Good to see other plane nerds (like me) on RS :)

Sick...

773ER made out of manila file folders;
Model 777 Project - Complete - a set on Flickr

Thanks for the info. Hopefully the new side of YYC will have a better MLL ....

Any ETA on completion? Where do you find your updates from?

I believe this summer.

And I watched a special on YYC last year, can't find it on Youtube but I believe it was a 2 part series on CTV or Global. It showed the construction of the new terminal, runway and the CEO's trip to China.

Interesting. Thanks for the heads up, I will try to find it.

ah yes.. planes planes planes.. got a ton of them in my diecast/plastic collection.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/128...0/542/20qw.jpg

^Dang.... Canadian Airline.. RIP

Blame AC for that
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Long live the 400

Sad that the 747-8 is probably the last passenger variant of the 747. Was hoping to see a replacement for the 747 but looks like that replacement will be the 777x.

Btw, has anyone flown on AC's new 773 with the new biz class and premium economy? The 3 config 773 has almost 400 eco seats because they added a extra seat in the middle aisle so it's now 3-4-3 compared to the 3-3-3.

Pod style business class seats, supposedly the seats are uncomfortable, controls suck and lack privacy from what I've read over on flyertalk.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n...46730717_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.n...04786154_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.n...59282568_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.n...38612875_n.jpg

Premium economy seats:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.n...43190055_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.n...60108094_n.jpg

Eco seats:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...52817169_n.jpg
https://scontent-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hpho...45533668_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.n...57268455_n.jpg


Source for pictures: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-c...300ers-59.html