Lufthansa announced today that it’s newest Airbus A330 which is already “factory” equipped with the new First Class and Business Class cabin entered service today on LH’s Munich-Washington DC route. It’s the first new aircraft that will fly with the new premium interiors.

Last month Lufthansa announced that it’s first 747-8i will debut on the Frankfurt-Washington DC route on June 1. That aircraft also sports the new premium cabin interiors.

I think that Lufthansa is using the high profile Washington DC route to debut the new cabins in part to answer competition it sees from Middle Eastern Carriers such as Etihad, Emirates, Qatar and Royal Jordanian. Washington DC is the only US airport served by these 4 carriers, so it makes sense to compete directly.

The new First Class cabin has been in place for some time and Lufthansa is working through its fleet and retrofitting it’s aircraft. The new business class seat has not been seen in scheduled service until the flight from Munich today.

The next match in the Airport World Cup will have Amsterdam go up against Denver.

Thanks to all who have partcipated!

Here is Amsterdam(AMS) vs. Denver(DEN):

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This match will end at 8:00p eastern time on May 24.

In the Quarter Finals, if there is a tie, I will run a “best out of 3″ Random Number Generator “overtime” to determine the winner.

In the other Quarter Final match currently underway its neck and neck between Tokyo Narita and Bangkok. If you haven’t had a chance to vote in that match, you can do it here.

Here is the most up to date bracket: 2012 Airport World Cup Master Bracket

This part of my trip report covers our visit to Lufthansa’s First Class Lounge in Frankfurt. See the bottom of this post to see other upcoming reports.

First, a background on First Class Lounges in Frankfurt:

Lufthansa maintains two First Class Lounges and a dedicated First Class Terminal in Frankfurt. There is one Lounge in both concourse A and concourse B within Terminal 1 (one for the Schengen side and one for Non-Schengen).

The First Class Terminal is actually a stand alone building located 250 meters west of the Terminal 1 Building. More on that experience in a later trip report!

This should put it in perspective:

Upon arrival from our flight from Chicago (LH431) we painlessly cleared security (an expedited lane is available for Business and First Class Passengers) and proceeded to the First Class Lounge (FCL) in concourse B (Non-Schengen). Since we were connecting to a flight to Istanbul, we were transitting the EU and did not have to go through passport control. We were in the lounge, which is located above Gate B22, within 15 minutes of deplaning. There is an escalator or elevator that will take you upstairs to the lounge. When you enter, the reception is immediately to your left where Lufthansa associates are available to help you.

Once we settled in my wife and I both decided to freshen up with quick showers since our day was only part over and still had a ways to go to get to Istanbul. To me, the ability to shower and change clothes is one of the nicer benefits of a lounge. The fact that the facility rivals a 5 star hotel only helps!

The shower rooms are always immaculate and fully stocked with what you would need:

One of the unique features of the B Concourse lounge is it’s Spa Service. The treatment room was appointed with all the things you would need for a relaxing massage or spa treatment:

The Lounge also offers a large variety of dining options based on what time of day you visit the lounge. Since we were there in the morning, a wonderful breakfast buffet was presented. Everything from hot dishes to granola, yogurts, muesli and cereals were readily available. If you have European blood in you like I do, you’ll appreciate the cold cut trays as a breakfast option.

Good variety of Muesli and Milk to meet various dietary needs:

Cereals and every imaginable breakfast condiment:

Very fresh pastries and breads:

The cold cut station is a favorite of mine:

Additionally, a “help yourself” carving station:

A nice selection of hot dishes were available as well:

For those guests wanting to have more of a restaurant dining experience, the Lounge also offers an a-la-carte menu service:

For those of you that need a “STRONGER” start or continuation to your day, you will find the wonderfully stocked bar ready with a great selection of Wine, Champagne and Spirits (Try the Lufthansa Cocktail!):

I apologize for not having many photos of the rest of the lounge, but there was a fair number of guests during the busy morning and I certainly did not want to be taking pictures and interrupting the patrons.

However I did manage to find a moment to take a picture showing a small part of the lounge:

One thing that I absolutely love to do when I travel is to “plane-spot”. The view from the FCL was fantastic as it was elevated over the apron, and gave a fantastic view of Lufthansa ground traffic. Below is an example of the view. (If you would like to see my other favorite “plane-spotting” photos from Frankfurt, please visit my Lufthansa Aircraft Pictorial Post).

I could literally sit here all day and take photos like this (all from the Lounge):

And of course, no Lufthansa Lounge visit is ever complete without getting a little souvenir of your experience:

In closing, I want to add a comment about the Lounge staff. I’m sure that Lufthansa picks the “best of the best” when it comes to choosing who works there, and it shows. The staff takes such good care of you that it borders on you being spoiled.

If an opportunity presents itself to experience Lufthansa’s First Class Services, take it!! In my experiences traveling with Lufthansa’s premium product the flights, lounges and Lufthansa associates that you encounter become as much a destination as the place you are traveling to. It’s that good!

Here is an index of upcoming trip reports from my recent travels:

Lufthansa’s First Class Services from Chicago to Frankfurt
Lufthansa First Class Lounge in Frankfurt

Istanbul – Sultanahmet Mosque.
Istanbul – The Basilica Cistern.
Istanbul – Spice Market and Grand Bazaar.
Istanbul – Park Hyatt Macka Palas.
Istanbul – Our Day with Ihsan (besttaxidriver.com).
Istanbul – Agia Sophia.
Istanbul – Other Mosques and Churches.
Istanbul – I find out what Zultanite is….
Istanbul – The Food We Found.
Istanbul – Turkish Airlines’ International CIP Lounge.

London – Hyatt Andaz Liverpool Street.
London – Opening of Parliament – Great pictures of the Queen and procession to Parliament.
London – ‘The Sunshine Boys’ at the Savoy Theater (Danny DeVito and Richard Griffiths)…..BRILLIANT, MUST SEE!
London – Spitalfield’s Antique Market – And the lesson I learned.
London – Churchill War Rooms and Churchill Museum.
London – Photos from around town.
London – Dinner at Petrus
London – St. James Park. Very friendly squirrels and ducks.
London – Covent Gardens.
London – All the other things that I can’t think of at the moment….

Pluckley – They said it was haunted……

Lufthansa First Class Services from Frankfurt to Detroit

As I was going through the couple of thousand of photos taken on our trip to Istanbul and London, I decided to start with the important ones. Yes, you guess it, I started first with my photos of Lufthansa Aircraft. In all, I took about 125 of them but no worries, I pulled out my favorite ones to share with you. You don’t have to be a Lufthansa fan to appreciate these fantastic aircraft.

A 744 arriving to her gate. Taken from Lufthansa’s First Class Lounge in Terminal B:

An A321 taxiing to the runway at Munich:

A few Lufthansa tails in Frankfurt:

A 744 gets her windows washed:

An A321 at Frankfurt:

An A330 taxiing to the terminal after landing in Frankfurt:

The Boeing 737 will become harder and harder to find!:

An A340 taxiing to her gate at Frankfurt:

The A330 that would take us home from Frankfurt:

Another 744 arriving at her gate in Frankfurt:

Our plane for the flight from London to Frankfurt:

Lufthansa Cityline in Star Alliance livery:

Another 744 parked at the gate in Frankfurt:

AND FINALLY:

This must be a prototype of an Airbus A390……notice the composite engines :

The Elite Eight have been set and the Quarter Finals are set to begin. Over the next few days you’ll have the following matches to vote on:

1. Tokyo Narita(NRT) vs. Bangkok(BKK)
2. Amsterdam(AMS) vs. Denver(DEN)
3. Singapore(SIN) vs. Munich(MUC)
4. Hong Kong(HK) vs. Zurich(ZRH)

In the Quarter Finals, if there is a tie, I will run a “best out of 3″ Random Number Generator “overtime” to determine the winner.

So without taking any more time, here is today’s Match between Tokyo Narita and Bangkok (Match ends May 22 at 8:00p US Eastern):

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Being reported from Mumbai, Lufthansa CEO Christop Franz has met with the Chairman of India’s Jet Airways ahead of Jet’s initiation of service to Frankfurt and Munich which will begin with the winter timetable later this fall.

The visit was portrayed as a formality suggesting that it is normal for heads of airlines to regularly meet with each other, however I can’t imagine that the topic of Alliance membership was the key topic of discussion. After all, why would the CEO of one of the lead members of Star Alliance meet with Jet Airways’ leadership? To give directions to Frankfurt and Munich?

It’s been no secret that the Star Alliance has wanted an Indian airline to join the group. It had come close with Air India, but Air India’s economic woes prevented their ascension into the alliance. Air India has for obvious reasons rejected the idea of Jet being the Indian carrier to finally make it to the Star Alliance.

As of now, Lufthansa and Air India are the only airlines that offer direct service between Germany and India and with Air India’s challenges it only makes sense that Lufthansa and Star Alliance are motivated and looking to bring in a viable Indian airline. If they don’t, oneworld and Skyteam would certainly be attracted to Jet.

Earlier today Boeing announced the schedule for the final installment of the 787′s world tour which has taken it all around the world visiting Airlines who have ordered the new Boeing aircraft as well as making stops in cities where key vendors and Boeing facilities are located.

For the final leg, there some exotic locations that will see the new bird:

May 24 – Sydney, Australia

May 29 – Auckland, New Zealand

May 31 – Darwin, Australia

June 1 – Tashkent, Uzbekistan

June 3 – Casablanca, Morocco

If anyone has a chance to attend one of these events, please send up your pictures!

Waiting in the mailbox for me today was a targeted offer from American Express that extends a $75.00 statement credit when you book a hotel stay through amextravel.com.

The stay needs to be booked by June 15 and obviously paid for with your Amex card. Your Statement Credit will appear 8-12 weeks after the purchase date (Read as completion of hotel stay).

The Statement Credit does not apply to bookings made with discounts such as AAA, Military, Senior Citizen, etc. The coupon also did not indicate any deadline as to when the hotel stay has to be completed. The offer also did not say if there is a minimum room rate that would need to apply in order to qualify for the credit.

Even though the mailing indicated that is was targeted, there is a Bonus ID of 3218. I’m not sure if you can apply it successfully to a booking but it may work.

Came across this interesting study conducted by Switchfly Inc that measures the percentage of seats that an airline has available for award redemption through it’s frequent flyer program.

The criteria that they used was to find 2 seats on 14 different dates between June and October on an Airline’s 10 longest routes, as well as on it’s 10 shortest routes. From the look of the ranking, I suspect they were looking for economy seat availability only.

I think the list confirms what the most saavy of travelers already know in terms of which airlines are easy to find seats on, and which one’s are difficult. But nevertheless, it’s interesting to see how the airlines rank among each other:

In the final set of matches that will complete Round 3, Hong Kong takes on Frankfurt and Helsinki squares off against Munich. These matches will end on May 19th at 8:00p Eastern Time. If there is a tie, the winner will be determined by a “Random Number Generator”. Thanks again for your participation.

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To see the most updated Tournament Bracket, click here: 2012 Airport World Cup Master Bracket

Appearing on Reuters tonight, it appears that union leaders at United Airlines are asking its members to go forward with a vote to determine if United pilots would strike as a response to negotiations breaking down after 2 years of impasse on a new contract.

A vote like this would only authorize the potential of a strike and does not in anyway indicated that a strike would be imminent. In my opinion I think its more of a negotiation tactic being used by the union to bring management back to the bargaining table in an attempt to ratify new contracts for United’s 12,000 pilots.

It would be difficult for any US based airline to have it’s pilots walk out in a strike because the White House would have the ability to “forbid” the strike since it would not be in the best interest of American Commerce.

I really don’t expect United pilots to even come close to walking off the job, but in case you start to see more talk of this in the media, take it with a grain of salt. A lot of things would have to go drastically wrong for the pilots to ever reach the point of walking off the job.