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Comment by kortilla | Hacker News Reader

Is the comfort really any difference in an A380 vs a 777 vs an A350? Cabin configuration is really the only differentiation between modern wide bodies and that’s mostly on the airline.

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You listed the 777 which is an older plane. The newer 787 Dreamliner has been in service for almost 10 years. It is more comfortable because it's composite structure allows for higher humidity and higher air pressure. A normal flight has an air pressure equivalent to being at 8,000 feet altitude. The 787 is equivalent to 6,000. The humidity levels are also higher at 15% vs 4% for other planee. Both of these make you feel less tired and more comfortable.

A really informative concise post, shame it can't rise to the top.

In terms of seats, it’s roughly the same (and some airlines have awful A380 configurations), but amenities like showers and bars are much easier on the A380 given the space constraints of other widebodies.

Also IME engine noise is reduced given how far you can be from them versus a normal widebody.

"showers" - for real? Surely not, that's beyond absurd.

'Emirates A380 Shower Spa': https://www.emirates.com/english/experience/our-fleet/a380/

First class passengers get 30 minutes, including 5 minutes of running water. You can see videos of it on YouTube.

Don't planes burn enough fossil fuels without carting around a few extra tons of water quite unnecessarily. Market efficiency, yeah right.

First, your napkin math is shit. They aren’t carrying 6000 pounds of water for the 14 first class seats to get 5 minute showers.

Second, the water they use per person weighs less than the weight of the extra passengers that could be fitted in if the arrangement wasn’t first class cabins but was instead economy. First class passengers are where all of the margin is.

Finally, you don’t seem to understand what “market efficiency” means because it has nothing to do with this.

You're right https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/11132/how-much-... it's much less (350 KG). Elsewhere they do say the showers are marble and mirror. So extra weight. I assumed without checking there would be lots of first class passengers, got it wrong.

> you don’t seem to understand what “market efficiency” means

If the fossil fuels were costed appropriately, there'd likely be no flying, certainly nothing like this. So its mispriced, is what I mean.

That really is the key -- the manufacturers have little to do with actual comfort, which is up to the airline. The larger perceived cabin I suppose is somewhat due to Airbus choices, but that of course is heavily psychological.

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