First Seat On Singapore Airlines A380

[peter991]

First Seat on Singapore Airlines A380 Sells for Record-breaking USD$100,380.00

The first ticket of the Singapore Airlines A380 First Flight Charity Auction received a winning bid of USD$100,380.00 (3,242,365.55 THB) today. The lucky winning bidder will receive a pair of one-way Suites tickets from Singapore to Australia and the opportunity to join Singapore Airlines as guests for the historical delivery of the first A380 by Airbus, at their headquarters in Toulouse, France. In addition to being pampered, the winning bidder who hails from Sydney Australia will also have dinner at the award-winning restaurant -My Humble House, by Sam Leong's who is also head culinary chef for Singapore Airlines.

"Its been so long since we've had an aeronautical feat of engineering: the 747 or even Concorde, I'm extremely excited to have the opportunity to be the 1st ever passenger on such a large feat of engineering and even better that charities are benefiting from the maiden flight" said Julian Hayward, the lucky bidder from Sydney Australia.

With hours remaining on the first release of seats, bidding continues to increase rapidly. Suites tickets have currently been bid up to just over USD$10,000, Business Class Tickets reaching US$8,000 and economy seats bid up to an average price of USD$1,000. With time still remaining, interested bidders can register and place their bids by visiting A380 Auction Site.

"We have bidders who have expressed a strong interest and intent to be on this historical flight. We have seen great support from the global community as bidders continue to express their support with strong bidding activity. "Many bidders are prepared to pay a premium because they know that 100% of their bid is going to worthy charities" said Joshua Gold, from Auctionwire, the auction management agency hired by Singapore Airlines to conduct the auction. This first winning bid is a great start to a charity auction that will provide a great experience for so many people, include the passengers in the air and the charities on the ground.

Peter

[britmaveric]

[TopChinese]

That's nothing. Doesn't beat the cool S$380k price that one bidder paid upfront for the same package. Guess this Mr Quek fella didn't want to jostle with the masses:

http://cgi.ebay.com.sg/The-ULTIMATE-SIA-A3...emZ150155467151

You still have a chance to bid for 1 way tickets for your family to Sydney... its going for a steal at S$152,500.00

http://cgi.ebay.com.sg/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi...s_promot_widget

Remember to secure your place in the auction by placing the security deposits... that's US$1000 to be eligible to bid for Business class.. and US$10,000 for First.

Edited September 3, 2007 by TopChinese

[Prakanong]

Well hopefully I will get on it in Biz next year through work ;-)

If it had been delivered on time (France has a lot in common with Thailand) I would have been on it in a few weeks time back to Europe.

[chavy]

sucker....there's one born every minute

[dominique355]

NO PANIC, Please; there is a seat for everybody ...

said the captain of the Titanic.

:D

[Spee]

Pampering?? There's only so much of that to be done on an aircraft. For that kind of cheese, I'd be wanting complimentary membership to the mile high club and membership renewal every hour on the hour the whole way.

[cdnvic]

Well hopefully I will get on it in Biz next year through work ;-)

If it had been delivered on time (France has a lot in common with Thailand) I would have been on it in a few weeks time back to Europe.

I wish people would look things up before making themselves look silly (you do know how to use a serch engine don't you? Or type airbus.com?)

Airbus is a European constortium made up of German, British, French and Spanish holdings. I know its fashionable to blame the French, but this was a group effort.

NO PANIC, Please; there is a seat for everybody ...

said the captain of the Titanic.

There's always one hysterical guy in every disaster movie. Now I know who they model him after

[Rinrada]

sooooooooooooo my $40 or was it $ 50 bet wisney enough ...aw well never mind....preferred my wee run on the Concord anyway.........double malt.......that will do nicely Sir...Good old BA ...Those were the Days.....

[peter991]

Singapore reveals A380 will seat 471, airports not so happy

Singapore Airlines revealed on Wednesday that its inaugural Singapore–Sydney flight will be configured to seat 471 passengers in a three class configuration, but it appears not everyone was happy about the news.

Singapore’s A380 product will offer 60 Business Class seats on the ‘Upper Deck’, 399 Economy seats on both decks and 12 exclusive Singapore Airlines Suites on the ‘Main Deck’.

And these all new suites have been garnering quite a bit of attention, with news that tickets were selling in the charity auction for sky high prices, and the first couple of seats sold off for a total of USD100,380 on eBay.

On the topic of the suites, the airline declares, “The new Singapore Airlines Suites will... feature the ultimate inflight luxury, in a class beyond First.”

The brand new A380 is set to replace one of Singapore’s Boeing B747-400s, and will operate on the SQ220/221 service, with ‘liftoff’ in just a little over a month on the 28th of October.

Airports not so happy

In a new report released by the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), it has been revealed that the average seating of the new A380s is 503, according to announcements made by the first few airline customers.

Singapore’s announcement means that its figures will lie quite far beneath the average, and very, very far from the Airbus recommended 525 seats (though still 21 more than Qantas).

But this emphasis on passengers’ comfort is expected not to sit too well with the airports.

This is because airports have spent millions on upgrading terminals so that they can cater to these massive aircraft. And they will not receive the initial return they expected quite so soon due to the lower than expected numbers travelling through.

To put these figures into perspective, the average seating of the 503-passenger A380 is only 20% more passengers than the B747-400, when initially Airbus was boasting of figures closer to 40% more than the B747-400.

When compared with the USD900 million that Heathrow alone has spent in upgrading Terminal 3, the speedy economic return for the airports seem not so bright.

[Florin]

Given the limited number of A380s being produced in the next 1-2 years, I very much doubt an extra 20 passengers / plane (or lack thereof) would influence an airport's bottom line...sounds like whining for whining's sake.

[cdnvic]

If these suites are a success that would mean more affluent travellers which would offset the 20 or so less cheap charlies (like me) that they expected.