One of the reasons, I am told, that the cabin lights are on during take offs and landings is so in an emergency, the first responders can see inside the plane. They can figure out how best to help from viewing what is going on inside when they arrive. With windowless airliners this will be impossible. I don't see the safety people going for this at all.
According to an article I read, the A380 was designed to move large amounts of people between hub cities. The hub and spoke operation is on the decline with a lot of direct routes being operated by ETOPS twins. Therefore the projected heavy use of expensive four engine, large capacity airliners just isn't happening and will not happen. It just costs too much to operate with a lot of empty seats.
I'm sure there is some contract somewhere that prevents the logical scenario which you just presented from actually happening. Your solution would have allowed for an efficient, timely repair. Logic doesn't seem to have a place in "airline games".
Delta has a hub in Salt Lake City and claim to have a hub in Seattle. I bet there are plenty of parts in SLC if SEA was short. It would have been simple to put a few on the next flight to Seattle and let Emirates use it. I agree there were other reasons beside inventory that lead them to decide to pull the part back after issue. It looks like Delta's logistics are in question, too.
I have to agree with some of the posters. I have flown Alaska several times and if there were any other way to get where I was going, I would chosen anyone else. They are running cattle cars and that is how they treat the passengers. Between the chaos at the gate and typical late performance I don't see why anyone with a choice would fly Alaska. Virgin America will disappear and yet another choice will be gone forever.
