May 23
There was a story at Flyertalk some weeks ago about some new service changes in Lufthansa First Class.
The ones I noticed during my recent trip were as follows:
Different sort of pillow:
New butter knife design:
New Salt and Pepper:
New Napkin Rings (oooh!)
New Cutlery
Starters no longer served on stands:
All three were offered if you wanted them on a single platter
No Frying pan loaded, so crepes offered for breakfast:
May 22
Quite a lot of bloggers have covered the Lufthansa First Class Terminal at Frankfurt – you can read their reviews here:
Mommy Points
Lufthansa Flyer
View from The Wing
One Mile at a Time
It is hard to know what to add!
So here are my 9 favourite things:
1. The Building:
The idea of having a terminal JUST for First Class – who can’t love that?
2. The Bathrooms
A full size, nay deep bath, with a Rubber Ducky (you can keep) – that has to be a definition of ‘luxury’, surely?
3 and 4. Wining and Dining
A great selection of wines, readily available on request:
Unlimited champagne:
Great food with fresh ingredients:
And a great range of desserts:
5. A quiet work area with a proper desk
6. A place to rest your body and your eyes:
7. Plenty of seating areas
Including a smoking room:
8. And the car to the plane:
My recent stay involved 4 passengers and so we had to use a minibus!
9. Special First Class wallets
May 21
I was connecting from Amsterdam to Frankfurt on my way to Shanghai and so enjoyed a A319 operated shorthaul trip with LH.
The business class cabin was pretty empty – just three passengers and so I managed to slip in to Row 1 and enjoyed a pretty good view of the take-off and landing. I am usually an ‘aisle man’ so this was a pleasure.
Good leg room in Row 1 as usual, but as these are reserved for their best frequent flyers they are hard to get in to. Luckily the whole row was empty on my flight so the crew did not mind me moving. I later learned that the manifest tells the crew that the passenger is connecting to First Class at FRA as they mentioned this to me, asking where I was going.
The food was pretty tasty if not large in quantity:
The flight featured the new LH coffee cups:
After landing (on time) at Frankfurt, there was a chance to do some plane spotting:
B747-800:
A380:
Overall
A nice flight, with a nice crew, probably helped by being pretty quiet.
May 20
Some days ago I wrote about the Privium lounge at AMS, available only to people who have the iris scanning entry card used at the airport.
I had a little time so decided to pop along to the regular lounge used by Lufthansa in Amsterdam; the Servisair Lounge.
My travel experience was not enhanced by the visit.
The lounge is an L shape, and this is the main part of the seating area:
Strange raised seating areas are also available:
The seats provide little, or no back support. Free WiFi is limited to 2 * 30 minute logins. OK if you have a short time before your flight but as the lounge seems to be used by several Star Alliance airlines this seems a little mean.
The drink and snack selection was dismal:
Summary
Well worth avoiding if you have any real alternative at AMS
April 22
Overcoming concerns from the Chinese Government about the EU Emissions Trading Scheme Lufthansa secured permission to fly their A380, 5 times per week to Shanghai. Flights start 26 September 2013.
Bookable now:
April 21
A View from the Wing covers the impending work slowdown/strike by LH.
I have been waiting 24 hours now for United to ticket an award ticket on LH using my MileagePlus miles. United tells me that I am a victim of the LH go-slow.
Anyone else impacted?
March 22
I finally managed to secure a Lufthansa First award ticket with United miles from Shanghai to Frankfurt and then on to London. They usually release these about 2 weeks before departure.
Right up until the day before departure the F cabin was booked to three but ended up going out with seven. I booked the exit row although as LH F on the 744 comes with a seperate bed, this doesn’t make much difference.
Boarding was a scrum, with little or no priority for First or Business passengers. Once upstairs my trolley bag went in the back closet and my shoulder bag in the overhead quite easily. There is a small drawer under the bed at the feet of the chair.
After take-off, the Purser came around with the menus and talked briefly to each passenger. He took main menu orders.
There was an amise-bruche of shrimp:
There was a choice of Hors d’oeuvres:
Caviar
Slow Roasted Beef Carpaccio with Pesto and Parmesan Shavings
Pan-fried Cod with Wasabi Mayonnaise
Carpese Salad, Basil Oil
Salad
Green Garden with Cherry Tomato and Pine Nuts
Main Course
Roast Lamb in Red Wine Demi-Glace with Lemon, Gratin Potato, Broccoli and Baby Carrot
Grilled Seabream Fillet with Eggplant Caponata and Parsley Potato
Ricotta and Spinach Canneloni, Tomato Concassee
Cheese and Dessert
Cheese
Warm Apple Tart and salted Caramel Sauce
Fresh Fruit
The food was tasty, if not plentiful. My recollection of the last time I flew LH F was that the Flight Attendant allowed you to have more than one starter. However, this seems to be based on status now. As a non-LH member I was offered only one starter, whereas Senators and above seemed to receive the rack of 3.
The Movie and TV Selection was poor so I had a sleep on the most incredibly comfortable bed that I have ever had in the sky. I sleep well until about two hours before landing when they came around to take meal orders for the second meal.
Hors d’oeuvres
Cured pan-fried Tuna Loin, Olive Tepenade, red Pepper Jelly and Mango Salsa
Smoked Chicken Breast, Goat Cheese, red Pepper and Cucumber
Pork Belly with Vegetable Roll, Soy Chilli sauce
Entrees
Braised Beef Cheek Ravioli, Porcini Mushrooms with Mushroom Sauce
Pumpin Cake Dim Sum, Watercress Cake and Xiaolong Sanquan
Dessert
Carrort Cake
Fresh Fruit
Again, status passengers were offered extra Hors d’oeuvres.
Lufthansa provide a sleeper suit for passengers in F, which comes in different sizes for tops and bottoms. It was very comfortable and I am glad that I changed shortly after departure.
Arrival was a mess. We landed and taxied to the C gates but had to disembark in to buses to be take to the A gates. The F passengers, were met with some seeming to be taken to the F Terminal and others to the A gates but in a mini-van rather than waiting for the bus. As I had to get back to the B gates for my connection, I then had to take the train back to the B gates and the First Lounge there.
The lounge was empty when I arrived, after going through the B gates security check. There was a First and Business line and no one was there. In fact the staff were waiting for their next customer. The lounge was nice, although no Spa facilities were open due to the time of night I was there. The agent confirmed that my connection was on time and the barman arranged a drink for me. I decided not to eat although regretted this in the end as my connection was delayed, but only after I got to the gate.
Overall
A nice flight, but I had really hoped for it to be magical.
February 24
Last weekend I posted about a change to an award ticket in order to try and obtain a seat in LH First Class from Shanghai to Frankfurt in early March.
After sorting it all out, but making a booking via Seoul and Munich to London, I had a look over the weekend at United.Com. Well that pesky LH flight was still showing availability.
So, I tried a booking – and guess what – it worked!
I managed to grab the Upper Deck Window seat, and will be spending a little time at the First Class Terminal!
February 22
On my mammoth 40,000 mile trip which starts next week, I am coming home from Shaghai to London on a United Award ticket. I’ve held this since November, but the routing was not the best. I was flying Shanghai to Seoul, then Asiana to Frankfurt and Lufthansa to London.
As many readers know Lufthansa only opens its First Class seats for redemption about 2 weeks before the flight, so I have been assiduously checking each day since the two week window opened.
So when I found First Class space on Lufthansa from Shanghai to Frankfurt and then London, I was delighted. I rebooked myself via the United web site – it worked out all the refund of taxes properly! Whoopee!
But no, as soon as the booking refreshed in my browser I knew something was awry. The Lufthansa segments I had just booked had vanished, and so had my original flights via Seoul. I quickly called United in the UK – who picked up on the first ring on the Premier Line – and asked them to look at it.
“Well it can take 24 hours for Lufthansa to confirm” I was told. Ouch!
“Can I get back my original routing?” I asked.
“No, there is no space left now, we’ll have to wait and see what LH say. You call them to see how it looks”, the agent explained.
So here I was stuck with no way home.
Quickly I did two things, found space, again via Seoul but with Lufthansa to Munich and then London with United miles and booked that. (Free cancellations for 1K’s suddenly felt like a great perk). Then I check my booking with the Lufthansa web site – sure enough – waitlisted!
Waitlisted for an award!
24 hours later the position was the same. I checked the seat map (no real indication I know), and found only two seats on LH729 reserved. So there was space just none at reward inventory!
I called back United (and again answering on the first ring), I had the miles for the PVG-LHR (and taxes) refunded and we decided just to go with the backup plan, via Seoul and Munich.
Even this morning, United claims that there are award seats on the route that I wanted, but of course the booking fails when you come to pay!
So the lesson I suppose is – Don’t change a United award ticket online – make a new booking and then convert the old one to a one-way. That way you might avoid the danger I nearly faced – being stuck in Shanghai!
February 14
Spured on by my review of unusual Air France and KLM awards, I wanted to bring you some interesting awards from another European airline – Lufthansa.
For several years, LH has had a catalogue of consumer goods in the seat back pocket. With an emphasis on travel originally, the catalogue now has lots of desirable products, most of which can be obtained with miles. One of my favourites is:
Who could resist that – only 19,000 Miles and More miles?
If you have a substantial number of miles you can even obtain a Summer House for your garden:
Only 1,615,000 miles!
For those aviation buffs, you can book a flight simulator session for 95,000 miles. There are some conditions to this offer:
Radison Blu gift cards are available for 8,250 miles giving a EUR25 credit at their properties.
Marriott Hotels have offers for 34,000 miles for a EUR100 credit or 14,000 miles for Lunch for Two. There are also hotel night stays available.
You can also spend 330 miles to earn 1EUR in Airport Shopping in Munich Terminal 2. Participating stores are:
February 9
Lufthansa have reduced the cost of some of their Miles&More award tickets to destinations in Germany from the UK. Also in the sale are flights to several USA destination – Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas and Philadelphia.
Business Class tickets to German destinations are 20,000 M&M points. Flights to the USA are 55,000 in Business.
Also, on sale are flights to Damman, Doha, Jeddah, Kuwait and Tunis for 40,000 miles in Business.
Flights to Osaka, Nagoyo, Seoul and Narita are 70,000 miles in Business.
Book between 1 Feb and 28 Feb, for travel from 8 Feb to 16 March 2013.
Offers from multiple destinations are available via this special web site.
