A380 Air Travel - As good as the hype suggests ?

[Rodge]

Long range plan to have a world trip and wondering if you've had experience with long haul travel on the A380 and am especially interested if you've noticed its a much more comfortable environment than earlier generation aircraft ?

A380 claims include amoung other things:-
1. Cabin Pressure = 5,000 ft altitude, signifcantly kinder on the body than regular cabin pressure equilivent to 8,000 ft altitude. (I have a client who used to be head Purser on Air New Zealand 747's and he told me that typically people's heart's beat 15% faster at the standard 8,000 ft cabin pressure and when this happens for hours and hours and hours on end that's a key reason for travel fatigue).

2. Approx 50% quieter noise level's than a Boeing 747-400.

3. Better level's of air humidity.

Would love to travel First Class BUT priced up a return trip to London from Auckland on Emirates A380 and it was just over $14,000 per person return Safe to say that's out so we'll be planning to make do in cattle class.

If anyone would like to share their travel experience on the A380 and how it compares to other aircraft I'm all ears.

Is it worth paying extra for ? Typical cattle class to London from N.Z. is ~ $2,500 depending on season, but any airline using the A380 tends to be towards the upper end of the price spectrum.