British Airways Airbus A380 800 (388) seat review by SteveP #32861

Nice exit row seat. Lots of leg room but as noted slightly narrower due to the tray table in the armrest. Also, no loose bags on the floor during takeoff and landing, so all bags have to go in the overheads. There is not really a lot of space overhead either so try and board early or keep carry-ons small. You can't really put bags a row or two ahead as that is WT+ (although a flight attendant could do so for you, I suppose).

The window seat has a tiny magazine slot for the usual inflight info, and there is enough space between the side of the seat and the wall to put a blanket and some newspapers or reading material. Frustratingly, the seat behind has a window storage bin (and also underseat storage) so I guess you could say this layout is a bit of a design failure. On my flight, the passenger behind me was in and out of his window bin perhaps 100 times over a six-hour flight. This was slightly annoying as the "click" of the latch is magnifies my the hard window above and is just a few inches from your ear (even unreclined).

There is no window at this seat (which may or may not be an issue). The emergency exit door itself has a tiny window up quite high so if you are up out of your seat you can sort of take a look, but as the upper deck is far up on the curve of the fuselage, you can't really see the ground well.

Some reviews of this seat mention the "bump" protruding from the exit door and the proximity to the washroom. The bump is not an issue, although you do need to sort of thread you way in and out of the seat (again due to the curved wall as well). The floor area is completely clear (I'm 6'3" and there was room to stretch my legs completely and then probably another 2'). I took my carryon bag down and positioned it as a footrest, which was quite comfortable.

The "bump" makes it impossible for anyone to stand too closely in front of you, so while the queue for the washroom might be a bit of a problem for the aisle seat, it's not a problem for the window. There are two washrooms at the front of this section and then two more at the back (which also serve the smaller rear section).

This was a BA Economy flight, so pleasant and professional service but every year it is lower value. Now there is no snack with the first drink service, and the "lunch" an hour before arrival was a bag of crisps. The meal itself was just OK - very average.

I would rate this seat much better than the WT+ (Premium Economy) seat one row ahead on the aisle. While that seat is slighty wider, it has less legroom, almost identical food service (BA has brought back the better cutlery due to competition but the food itself is no better). That seat is much too close to the washroom, however. You could almost put your hand on the toilet seat with the door open while sitting in your seat. That's just horrible - especially for a "premium" seat. (Virgin's 787 has a similar set of Economy seats. There really should be a law that you can't be served food within at least two metres/yards of a toilet seat. Awful