Q. I want to take a short ride on an Airbus A380 super jumbo for as little cost as possible. Can you suggest a few short, relatively inexpensive routes that are served by this aircraft? I travel a lot and any departure airport is acceptable whether it's out of New York, LA, or an airport in Asia or Europe. Any airline is fine.

A. Although prices will always depend on the season, date and time of travel, there are a lot of great options for hopping on the A380. One of the cheapest is to travel between Auckland and Sydney on an Emirates' flight. I found a one-way flight on that route in an A380 for $169 (in New Zealand currency), although fares fluctuate all the time. Thai Airways also flies their sole A380 within Asia primarily between Bangkok and Tokyo/Hong Kong. On the same route between Bangkok and Hong Kong, Emirates flies its own A380. When British Airways takes deliveries of their A380s this year, they will put them on short intra-European routes for crew training purposes (much like Air France did). It won't last long and the routes are not yet announced. You will also find the A380 on China Southern domestic flights Guangzhou to Beijing and Beijing to Shanghai.