Good morning from Tokyo! While a full trip report will be coming in a bit, I couldn’t help but share a few pictures of Lufthansa’s Airbus 380 first class, after flying it from Frankfurt to Tokyo.

As evidenced by the pictures, this was one of the emptiest flights I’ve ever been on, especially in business class, where they ended up having a higher flight attendant to passenger ratio than in first class! Seven flight attendants for 14 passengers (out of 98 seats).

Yes, the picture above is business class in-flight…

Check out Lufthansa’s latest (brilliant) ad, which is in German:

C’mon, that’s easily one of the most kick-ass ads ever. And for anyone that doesn’t know who the kid denies the autograph from, it’s the captain of Bayern Munich and the German National Team.

Check out this time lapse video taken at Frankfurt Airport. Easily one of the coolest things ever!

(Tip of the hat to Delta Points)

Trip Report Index

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We intentionally planned a long layover in Frankfurt so that we could visit the First Class Terminal. While the first class lounges in the terminal are almost as nice as the First Class Terminal, the major difference is the guaranteed car ride to the plane, the novelty of which hasn’t worn off for me yet.

After a 15 minute walk through the terminal and then 10 minute walk along the outside roadway of the airport we made it to the First Class Terminal. Since we already had our boarding passes we were through security in no time.

The security process is one of my favorite parts of the First Class Terminal experience, given that there’s never a wait. It’s like having your private security lane with agents there just for you.

Our personal assistant invited us to sit down and took our boarding passes and passports. I asked her if our flight was going to be operated by the 747 with the new first class product, and she promised to check. Unfortunately we were eventually informed that we would have the old first class.

The Terminal was fairly empty, which was nice, so we had a whole set of couches to ourselves. Within a few minutes of settling in a waiter came by to offer us drinks. I went with VOSS water.

Seating area

Terminal

Comfy seats

VOSS water

The novelty of the ice cream cooler in the First Class Terminal still hasn’t warn off for me, so I had some ice cream in a waffle bowl with sprinkles and almonds. Yes, I’m like a five year old.

Ice cream

After getting some work done for about an hour we decided to have lunch in the restaurant.

Dining area

Menu

As usual the buffet had just about everything imaginable, so I took a little of (almost) everything. To drink I had Fanta, which would be my last one for a long while.

Buffet

Buffet

Buffet

Buffet

Lunch

Dessert

After lunch I decided to take a shower. Lufthansa also has some really nice private rooms with bath tubs, though I didn’t have quite enough time for that.

Shower room

Shower

Shower room

Shortly before 5PM our personal assistant approached us and told us our flight was ready for boarding. After passport control she introduced us to our driver, who drove us to the plane in a Mercedes S500.

Car transfer

Even though I’ve probably been to the First Class Terminal a dozen times, the novelty of driving across the tarmac in a sports car still hasn’t worn off for me. For those of you that are HON members (Lufthansa’s top tier elites that get First Class Terminal access regardless of which cabin they’re flying), does the novelty ever wear off? Please tell me it doesn’t, because I would have nothing to live for.

Car transfer

Nice views!

As we pulled up to the plane we were escorted through the elevator up to the jet bridge, where the driver introduced us to the crew, who directed us to the upper deck.

Lufthansa 432
Frankfurt (FRA) – Chicago (ORD)
Thursday, August 11
Depart: 5:35PM
Arrive: 7:30PM
Duration: 8hr55min
Aircraft: Boeing 747
Seat: 82C (First Class)

As we got to the upper deck we were greeted by two super-cheery flight attendants that directed us to our seats in row 82. I really can’t say enough positive things about Lufthansa’s first class flight attendants. In my experience they’re professional yet personable, which is a balance that even many of the world’s best airlines aren’t able to achieve.

There was only one other passenger seated in first class, and as the flight attendant came to our seats she informed us it would just be three of us. In the process I confused her pretty bad, since we had been communicating in German the whole time. As a result she started speaking to my friend in German as well, though he doesn’t speak a word of German so just stared at her puzzled. Once she understood why he wasn’t responding she just laughed, and for a while proceeded to address me in German and him in English, till she realized it was easier to just address us both in English.

First class cabin

Once settled in we were both offered champagne with macadamia nuts.

Pre-departure champagne

Following that we were offered an amenity kit, slippers, and sweater.

Slippers, sweater, and amenity kit

View from 82C

As was the case on the outbound segment from Frankfurt to Bangkok, Lufthansa blocks every other seat in first class on the 747, so the seats on the other side of the cabin were our “sleeping” seats.

Seats for sleeping

Around our scheduled departure time the captain came on the PA to inform us of our flight time of 8hr30min, anticipating an on-time arrival in Chicago.

As we pushed back the safety video started playing, and after a fairly long taxi to the runway we were airborne.

Taking off

About 10 minutes after takeoff the crew started the service with hot, scented towels. Lufthansa has the best towels of any airline, hands down (I dare anyone to disagree with me).

Hot towel

Shortly thereafter the purser came through the cabin to offer us the lunch menu and wine list.

Menu

I was disappointed to see that the menu was identical to the one we had from Frankfurt to Bangkok, which I wasn’t a huge fan of.

Menu

And the wine list read as follows:

Champagne
2000 Champagne Laurent-Perrier Millesime, Frankreich

Monthly Proposal
2010 Western Australia Sauvignon Blanc

White Wine
2008 Nies’chen Riesling Erste Lage
2008 Horse Heaven Hills Chardonnay

Red Wine
2002 Chateau Belgrave
2005 Redoma Tinto
2007 Mendoza Pasionado

Service started with the same not-so-aesthetically pleasing starter.

Amuse bouche

My friend just ate the center cheese layer of it, and made “art” of the rest of it. Surprisingly the flight attendants were amused.

In it’s most useful form

After that the signature Lufthansa roses were distributed.

Signature rose

For the appetizer I went with caviar and also the prawn with strawberry dish.

Appetizer

Then I went with the salad, which was fairly good.

Salad

For the main course I went with the filet of sole. It wasn’t especially good.

Filet of sole with sauce mornay, leaf spinach, and potatoes

Then for dessert I went with the elderflower soup with berries and sorbet. I prefer sweet desserts so wasn’t a huge fan, aside from the Lufthansa logo being “stamped” onto the sorbet. I love the attention to detail!

Cold Elderflower Soup with mixed Wild Berries and Cassis Sorbet

Love the logo!

Then to finish off the meal we were offered chocolates.

Chocolate

As is usually the case I’m not a huge fan of Lufthansa’s meals. But nonetheless I find the actual meal service to be among the most enjoyable of any airline. I can’t give the flight attendants enough credit for their charm, attention to detail, and genuine interest in taking care of passengers. It’s what really sets Lufthansa apart, and this crew was especially good.

As we finished up our meals they offered to make our beds on the set of seats across from us.

Bed

I slept for a few hours and woke up about three hours out of Chicago. At that point I made a quick round of the plane, though on the way back talked to one of the first class flight attendants for about 30 minutes. She was a lot of fun to talk to, and it was clear she loved her job.

About two hours out of Chicago we were served the pre-arrival meal. The service started with hot towels followed by the menus being distributed. I love that Lufthansa has separate menus for each meal service, as they’re the only airline I know of where that’s the case.

Pre-arrival menu

I also love that Lufthansa’s pre-arrival meals to the US are usually salad “buffets.” It’s a bit lighter of an option than what most airlines serve, which in this case is a good thing.

The way it’s served is that the flight attendants come around with a cart with each of the above options separately plated, and then they prepare the salad to your liking.

Pre-arrival meal

For dessert was key lime pie, and I had a cup of coffee to accompany it.

Dessert

About 30 minutes before landing the purser came around to bid us farewell and thank us for flying Lufthansa. Shortly thereafter both of the excellent flight attendants came by to thank us for flying Lufthansa, and also brought two glasses of champagne, saying “you guys started the bottle, and now you have to finish it.” Love it!

As we initiated our final descent there were some great views of Chicago as we came in over Lake Michigan, and about ten minutes later we were on the ground.

Descent into Chicago

This was my first trip as a Global Entry member, so naturally I was disappointed when there were no lines at immigration. It took a while for the bags to arrive, though within about 20 minutes of deplaning we were through customs and immigration.

And so ended a great trip…

Trip Report Index

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After a 45 minute train ride from Munich we made it to the airport at around 10:15AM, a little under 90 minutes before our flight.

Airport entrance from train station

We proceeded to the other end of the terminal where Lufthansa’s partitioned off first class check-in is located. One thing I love about many airports in Europe are the flight status boards that still have the “flipping” letters and numbers instead of being electronic.

Terminal

First class check-in

There was no line at first class check-in and we were promptly helped by a friendly agent that checked our bags all the way to Chicago, which was our final destination for the day, since we were flying from Munich to Frankfurt to Chicago (we wanted to connect through Frankfurt so we could go to the First Class Terminal and also fly the 747 instead of an Airbus 330 given the superior product).

There’s a dedicated security entrance from the first class check-in area, where there was virtually no line.

First class security corridor

Once through security we proceeded straight to the first class lounge, which was only a few minutes away.

Terminal

First Class Lounge entrance

We were greeted at the entrance and informed of the “great news,” which was that our flight was leaving from the gate right by the lounge. To “normal” people that might sound like good news, though to me it certainly wasn’t. If you leave from a remote stand Lufthansa drives you there in a Mercedes or Porsche, so I was secretly hoping that would be the case. Oh well, we knew we’d get our car ride in Frankfurt at least.

The first class lounges are all designed in a similar fashion. The Munich one isn’t especially big given how many people it accommodates, so it was quite crowded given that it was “rush hour.”

Lounge seating

Lounge seating

Sweets

Bar

Since we hadn’t had breakfast we grabbed a table in the restaurant. We were approached within a minute by a waiter offering us drinks. I went with freshly squeezed orange juice.

Restaurant

The breakfast buffet is probably a bit better than what you’d find in the club lounge of a nice hotel, with several cold options, pastries, breads, and also eggs.

Breakfast spread

Breakfast spread

Breakfast spread

Ice cream

I went with muesli with blueberries and strawberries and was just going to go with a croissant on the side, though couldn’t resist the pretzel that was at the buffet. After all, it would be one of my last on the trip!

Breakfast

After breakfast we headed over to to our departure gate at around 11:10AM, as boarding was scheduled to begin. As it turns out the flight was delayed by a bit and the inbound aircraft was just arriving, so we headed back to the lounge for a few minutes. I guess there’s at least some benefit to leaving from a gate close to the lounge.

Once there the agent apologized profusely for not checking on the status of the flight again, though promised to monitor closely and let us know when the flight was ready for boarding, which was about 10 minutes later.

As we headed back down to the gate, boarding was underway and our boarding passes were quickly scanned.

As I walked away from the podium, though, the gate agent stopped me and said my bag was too big.

The funny thing is that I’ve flown well over 100 segments in international premium cabins, and not once have I been stopped, despite most airlines having insanely low baggage allowances. I’ll admit I have a standard sized US carry-on that’s usually stuffed,so in a way I’ve been surprised that I’ve never been stopped. It’s probably a function of being in a premium cabin.

I’ve always found Lufthansa to be pretty good about looking the other way when it comes to cabin baggage for first and business class passengers. Heck, I remember checking in at the First Class Terminal once where the agent said that I could carry on three bags if I wanted to, since she thought it would be easier for me (and they weren’t small bags either).

Anyway, the agent asked what my final destination was, and I said Chicago. I showed her my boarding pass with the flight number, and while she didn’t say anything, her colleague’s eyes got wide and he said “he’s in first class, just let him go.”

She didn’t listen and still printed a checked bag tag for me and told me to leave my bag at the jet bridge. I pushed back a little bit, and at that point she told me to ask the flight attendants, and if they said it was okay I could take it aboard.

So I simply covered up the tag and boarded as I usually would and there weren’t any issues. There were even empty bins as we pushed back.

Gate

Lufthansa 111
Munich (MUC) – Frankfurt (FRA)
Thursday, August 11
Depart: 11:40AM
Arrive: 12:55PM
Duration: 1hr15min
Aircraft: Airbus 320
Seat: 5C (Business Class)

At the door the flight attendants were handing out Milka Nussini chocolates to all passengers.

Chocolate

Air Canada 777

Boarding finished up fairly quickly and the captain announced our flight time of one hour, anticipating an on-time arrival despite our late departure.

We taxied to the runway quickly and were airborne in no time with amazing views of the beautiful countryside.

Shortly after takeoff

Cabin after takeoff

As we climbed through about 10,000 feet the seatbelt sign was turned off and meal service began.

I’ve gotta say, Lufthansa’s intra-Europe meals have gotten borderline inedible, and that’s coming from someone that used to like them. The only part of the meal that was decent was the dessert, and even that wasn’t great.

Snack

Just around the same time that all the passengers had been served meals we began our descent, and 30 minutes later touched down in Frankfurt, where we taxied past a bunch of 747s before making it to our gate in the A concourse.

Nice bird!

Another nice (though more senior) bird!

Frankfurt terminal

This is where the real fun begins!

I’ve received several emails from readers over the past couple of days commenting about how bad Lufthansa first class award availability is, especially when booking 10+ months out.

Historically Lufthansa has hands down been the most generous airline in the world when it comes to releasing saver first class award space. Back in the good old days they had 16 seats in the first class cabin on 747s, and it wasn’t unusual to see eight or more award seats on many flights. At the very least they released two award seats per flight, and that’s if they were feeling stingy. This is exactly why United instituted Starnet blocking back in the day, because it was costing them far too much to pay Lufthansa for all those first class seats Mileage Plus members were taking up.

Then back in April they started only selling eight first class seats on the 747, given that they’re slowly reconfiguring their 747s with a new first class product, and in the process taking out half of the seats. In the meantime they’re blocking every other first class seat, making for some of the most expensive seat blocking of any airline.

Ever since they reduced the number of first class seats on the 747, availability across the board has gotten worse. Much worse. At first it wasn’t too bad, and they just made it near impossible to get first class award space on some 747 routes, like Los Angeles to Frankfurt. Then they started making it near impossible to get first class award seats on the A340-600 routes between Los Angeles/San Francisco and Munich.

And now they’ve just about completely eliminated first class award space 10+ months out. There’s no doubt that airlines don’t all release award seats as soon as the schedule opens up, though historically there were some routes that were gold mines when it comes to award availability, like Detroit to Frankfurt, Charlotte to Munich, etc.

For example, up until last month I saw two first class award seats on Charlotte to Munich for just about every single flight when the schedule opened. Now I just had a quick look at award space from Charlotte to Munich, and there’s not a single day with availability for all of next October. And I checked the actual availability, and not a single first class seat is sold.

Let me take it a step further — I don’t see a single first class award seat on any Lufthansa flight after September 1 of next year. Not a single seat (though admittedly I haven’t searched every date on every route, so there might be some counter examples, which I’d love to hear about).

So anyway, I’m just mentioning this because it’s a radical change in inventory management at Lufthansa. I have several clients that come to me year after year to book their European vacations 11 months out with tons of flexibility that have started to love Lufthansa. It’s sure hard to all of a sudden say “well, despite having over a month of flexibility and planning 11 months out, there’s not a single seat available.”

Though it kind of makes me wonder if they’re considering eliminating first class on many routes as opposed to just changing their approach towards award tickets.

Feel free to share your frustrations below.

Trip Report Index

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Reality bites. After a most enjoyable Thai Airways flight we found ourselves in what I usually consider to be hell on earth, more commonly known as Charles de Gaulle. Except this time it wasn’t actually that bad.

We had a long layover due to the lack of award availability between Paris and Munich, so had about five hours to kill. We decided to head over to the Lufthansa Senator Lounge, which was quite a hike.

Walkway

After about a 15 minute walk and then clearing security, we took the elevator down to the Lufthansa lounge. There we were greeted by two very friendly agents that checked the status of our flight and invited us to the Senator side of the lounge.

Lufthansa lounge

As is the case with most Lufthansa lounges, it was fairly sterile/industrial, which I quite like. We took a seat and started getting caught up on email. Ah, the joys of flying for 12 hours and being disconnected.

Lufthansa Senator lounge

Lufthansa Senator lounge

Lufthansa Senator lounge buffet

After about an hour my friend decided he wanted a shower. Great idea, though there’s one slight problem — the Lufthansa lounge doesn’t have showers. Look, on the whole I find French people to be fairly friendly, though I’ve learned not to expect “one time exceptions.” So yeah, he wants a shower and I want a pony. Both are equally likely to happen.

He went up to the Lufthansa agent and asked if there was any way to get a shower. The agent said unfortunately there was not, at which point my friend suggested that the Star Alliance lounge had showers, and asked about the possibility of getting a pass to visit it. You see, we’re idiots, because we actually passed the lounge on the way to the Senator lounge upon arrival from Bangkok, though it’s located airside in a different terminal, and since we were flying intra-Europe we no longer had access to it.

So the lady made a phone call to the Star Alliance lounge, who said they would allow us entrance, though we needed to find a way to get into the terminal. My friend asked if they couldn’t issue some sort of a gate pass. Instead of laughing at him and saying “of course not,” she called the check-in desk to see what they could do. After about five minutes on the phone she told us to go to Lufthansa check-in where they could issue us a gate pass.

My friend packed up his bags right away, though I was skeptical. I figured our chance of actually getting a gate pass of some sort was, oh, I dunno, 0%. I would’ve told my stubborn friend to just go on his own, but this is Charles de Gaulle and I knew that if we parted ways I’d never see him again, and I was responsible for driving him to Berchtesgaden later that afternoon.

So I played along. If nothing else it’s an adventure… right? We tried to exit the secure area, though there wasn’t actually an exit, so we had to literally walk through the metal detectors in the opposite direction.

We queued in the first class line at check-in, and after a few minutes were helped. We explained to the agent that we were offered a gate pass and were supposed to come to check-in to get that taken care of. She was surprised and asked who told us that. Instead of telling us to go to hell or laughing at us she picked up the phone for about ten minutes to make a few phone calls.

Lufthansa check-in

Sure enough, after about ten minutes she wrote us lounge invitations, saying “we’re not supposed to do this, but I’ll make an exception.” This is possibly the best customer service experience I’ve had in a long time, and I never expected that would happen in Paris!

After a long walk we made it to the Star Alliance lounge, where we were directed to the business class side, which is located in the “basement.”

Star Alliance lounge

Stairs to business class lounge

The lounge was actually really nice, with plenty of seating, desktops, and relaxation areas.

Star Alliance lounge

Star Alliance lounge

Star Alliance lounge

Computers

Even better was the snack selection. They had sandwiches, soup, hot dishes, desserts, and baguette.

Buffet

Buffet

Lunch

Given how much work it took to get to a lounge with showers, I figured I might as well take one. While the shower room was perfectly fine, the issue is that it had no sort of ventilation, so I was sweating my rear off due to the room probably being well over 100 degrees. I left the shower soaking wet, kind of eliminating the point of it to begin with.

Shower room

Shower

After spending another hour in the Star Alliance lounge we headed back to the terminal from which our Lufthansa flight would be departing. In the Senator lounge we were greeted by the same cheery agents that asked if everything worked out okay.

In the meantime they had put the lunch spread out, which was quite decent. The only thing I care about is that they had pretzel bread.

Lufthansa Senator lounge buffet

Lufthansa Senator lounge buffet

Lufthansa Senator lounge buffet

At around 12:30PM we headed to gate 62, where boarding was already well under way.

Plane to Munich

Plane close-up

Lufthansa 2231
Paris (CDG) – Munich (MUC)
Friday, August 5
Depart: 1:05PM
Arrive: 2:35PM
Duration: 1hr30min
Aircraft: Airbus 320
Seat: 2D (Business Class)

Once aboard we settled into seats 2D & 2F, which featured Lufthansa’s fairly new “slimline” seats. Intra-Europe business class sucks, there are no two ways about it. While the service is nice, the seats are just economy seats with a blocked middle seat. I’ll take a bigger seat with no service anyday over intra-Europe business class.

The legroom featured maybe 31″ of pitch, and the seats weren’t very comfortable given that they lacked padding.

“Business Class”

Legroom (or lack thereof)

After an efficient boarding process we began a long taxi to our departure runway, where we were airborne within about 15 minutes.

View after takeoff

Approaching cruise altitude

The seatbelt sign was turned off after about 15 minutes at which point the flight attendants started the in-flight service. The flight time was about one hour.

As a snack we had the choice between tuna with cheese and a fruit cup or a boxed salad. I went with the tuna, while my friend went with the salad.

The tuna from my snack was rather inedible, so I just had a bit of cheese and fruit.

Snack

I’m a bit confused by my friend’s snack, though. I’m not sure if they miscatered the flight and the flight attendants had to buy some packaged salads at the airport or what, as the snack wasn’t served on a tray or with anything else.

Salad or something?

So neither of us really ate the food, though that was fine since we were still full from earlier. As the trays were cleared we began our descent into Munich. Ah, beautiful Bavaria.

Final approach

We had a quick taxi to the gate, where we disembarked and headed for baggage claim.

Munich Terminal

It took about 20 minutes for our bags to arrive, at which point we headed to the rental car area to pick up our rental car for our drive to Berchtesgaden.

Baggage claim

And with that, my favorite part of the trip began. I think I finally found my favorite vacation destination ever.

Approaching Berchtesgaden

Trip Report Index

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Lufthansa 782
Frankfurt (FRA) – Bangkok (BKK)
Wednesday, July 27
Depart: 10:45PM
Arrive: 2:10PM (+1 day)
Duration: 10hr25min
Aircraft: Boeing 747
Seat: 82C (First Class)

On the 747 Lufthansa has first class on the upper deck. They used to have 16 first class seats on the upper deck in a 2-2 configuration, but have recently started installing a new product which has only eight seats. In the meantime they’re literally blocking every other seat in first class, meaning they’re only selling eight first class seats. It’s some of the most expensive seat blocking in the world, though it sure as hell makes for a nice flight.

Tonight we were flying the old configuration. While the hard product is far from modern, there’s something classic about it that I love.

As soon as we got to the upper deck we were welcomed aboard by two smiling German flight attendants, addressing me in German and my friend in English.

We had seats 82C and 82H assigned, which are the two aisle seats in the second row of the upper deck. Since the window seats are blocked, we literally had the entire row of four seats to ourselves.

View from row 82

Lufthansa’s idea with the seat blocking is that one seat acts as a bed while the other seat acts as a seat for lounging/dining, though when traveling with someone else it’s quite nice to be able to sit next to one another and talk.

As soon as we settled in the super-cheery flight attendants introduced themselves and offered us pre-departure beverages of choice. I just went with a glass of water, which was served with macadamia nuts.

Pre-departure beverage

Shortly thereafter we were offered pajamas and amenity kits. I love the fact that Lufthansa switches up their pajamas every few months, making it easy to build up a diverse collection. In tonight’s case the shirt was white while the pants were blue.

Pajamas

Amenity kit and slippers

I immediately changed into the pajamas given the late night departure.

The flight attendant also presented us with a card describing Lufthansa’s first class seat blocking, asking us how we wanted our seats set up. She suggested we use the seats on the left for lounging, and she could already turn the seats on the right into beds, which she did while we were still on the ground.

Seats in bed mode

Card describing seat blocking

As departure time rolled around the captain announced a slight delay due to weather. Because of thunderstorms earlier in the evening they had to stop loading bags, so they were just finishing that up. He did however say that the flight time would only be 10 hours, meaning we should arrive on schedule.

We pushed back within about 15 minutes of our scheduled departure time with a full first class cabin and had a fairly quick taxi to the runway as the safety video played on the projector.

We had a long takeoff roll and hit quite a bit of chop on the climb out.

About 15 minutes after takeoff the seatbelt sign was turned off and the flight attendants sprung into action.

As should be the case with any quality airline, the purser made the rounds in first class to introduce herself and offer us dinner menus.

Menus

The menu read as follows:

To start the service the flight attendants offered each of us a rose, followed by a hot towel and amuse bouche. Lufthansa’s first class towels have by far the nicest aroma of towels offered by any airline.

Rose

Hot towel

Amuse bouche

Now, as much as I love Lufthansa, I’m not a huge fan of their meal service. They’re quite possibly my favorite airline in the sky in spite of their meal service, actually. Perhaps I’m not sophisticated enough, or perhaps this food doesn’t translate well at 35,000, though the taste just isn’t right sometimes.

The amuse bouche wasn’t especially tasty (or aesthetically appealing, for that matter).

As our table was set up we were offered bread.

After that the appetizer cart was rolled around, and Lufthansa usually lets you choose the entire “tray” of them. The caviar was great, though the rest of it just wasn’t very well executed.

Appetizer setup

The next course was a salad, which you really can’t screw up. It was very good.

Salad

Then for the main course I had a Swiss noodle dish, which was phenomenal.

Main course

My friend had the lamb, which he really enjoyed.

Lamb

For dessert I went with the “chocolate dream” dessert. It was good, though no wet dream.

Chocolate dream

I ordered a White Russian with dessert.

At the flight attendants’ insistence I also went with the cheese plate, and asked for a small sample of each cheese. I was quite full so barely touched it.

Cheese plate

Then to finish off the meal each passenger was offered three chocolate “tablets.” I also ordered a cup of coffee.

Coffee and chocolate

Chocolate

While the food was only okay, it was one of the most enjoyable meals I’ve had in the sky. Not only did I have good company, but the flight attendants also seemed genuinely happy to be there, and really couldn’t have been more professional. After a rather disappointing flight on Singapore Airlines I realized that service on western airlines can be just as good, if not better, than service on Asian airlines.

At this point we were offered individual bottles of water.

Water

My friend, being the lightweight he is, went straight to sleep, though I stayed up. I browsed the entertainment selection though it wasn’t especially good, so I ended up just getting some work done on my laptop instead.

After a couple of hours I did go to sleep, and slept a solid three hours or so before being woken up about 90 minutes out of Bangkok.

The crew was once again smiling and started the service by offering us scented hot towels. Shortly thereafter we were presented with the breakfast menu and also landing card for Thailand.

Breakfast menu and landing card

The breakfast menu read as follows:

Service started with a glass of orange juice. Lufthansa also has excellent freshly squeezed orange juice, of which I had a couple of glasses.

Orange juice

For the breakfast I went with the fruit plate and muesli to start, along with a couple of things from the breadbasket (served with Nutella, of course!).

Breakfast

Then for the main course I went with scrambled eggs, which were prepared onboard.

Scrambled eggs

By the time the meal service finished up we were 30 minutes out of Bangkok and I changed out of my pajamas and restowed everything I had taken out during the flight.

The purser came by once again to thank us for flying Lufthansa, and this time around we talked for about 15 minutes about the industry in general. I appreciated her honesty since she shared both the good and the bad in the industry, though despite that it was clear she still loved her job.

Purser saying goodbye to passengers

We picked up some chop as we descended into Bangkok, and as we descended lower it became clear that it was a fairly nice day.

View as we began our descent

Final approach

After landing we had a 15 minute taxi to the gate past dozens of Thai aircraft, where we eventually parked next to a Swiss and Austrian plane.

Taxiing to our gate

European neighbors

Upon deplaning we proceeded for immigration where there was no queue thanks to the premium line we were able to use. We then waited at baggage claim for about 15 minutes before our bags arrived.

Baggage claim

Once we had our bags we hopped in a cab to Le Meridien Bangkok, where we would be spending the night before continuing to Phuket.

On the whole Lufthansa delivered once again. Perhaps I’m biased because I’m German, but I just love Lufthansa. There’s something incredibly classy about them that I can’t credit to any particular aspect of the experience, but rather the experience as a whole. I think they might just be my favorite airline…

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The Lufthansa First Class Terminal experience is literally unbeatable. The second we stepped off the Hotel Kempinski shuttle we were welcomed by our personal assistant who verified our boarding passes and immediately escorted us through security.

The terminal just has a small entrance way and seating area as passengers get checked in, and then just past that is the security checkpoint. The great thing about the security checkpoint is that there’s never a line since it’s just for passengers using the terminal. The security agents are all wearing suits and do everything in their power to make the experience as pleasant as possible.

Lounge entrance

Case in point, less than two minutes after entering the terminal we were through security and comfortably seated in the lounge area. Is there any other airport experience in the world that can compete with that? It takes the hassle out of the airport experience.

Lounging area

Lounging area

Comfortable seats

For those that have never been in the First Class Terminal before, it’s entirely disconnected from the rest of the airport. The only way to get to a flight from there is to be driven in a luxury sports car or van (tough life, I know!).

The lounge has plenty of seating areas with comfortable couches and chairs, private office suites, a dining room, a bar, a cigar lounge, sleeping rooms, and amazing shower and bath suites.

Bar

Lounging area

Office suite

Sleeping room

Cradling recliners

The best part about the experience is how hassle and worry free it is. You don’t have to worry about when your flight leaves, because your personal assistant gets you when your flight is ready for boarding, to escort you to your Porsche or Mercedes driver that will take you to the plane.

Anyway, given that it was around 5:30PM by the time we settled into the lounge, our first order of business was to have dinner, since our flight was at 10:45PM and we still wanted to enjoy our meal aboard.

We took a table in the dining room, where a waiter approached us immediately to offer drinks.

Table setup

The First Class Terminal has an impressive buffet spread and a la carte menu.

I had a look at the buffet spread and it looked amazing, so I went with that. Our waiter constantly kept our beverages topped off too. I took a little bit of most of the options and a German pretzel (no meal in the First Class Terminal is complete without it).

Buffet

Buffet

Dinner

The dessert selection was equally impressive, so I kinda went to town with that (though that pastry is my friend’s).

Dessert

After a nice meal we sat down on one of the couches and got some work done. A couple of hours later while roaming the first class terminal an ice cream freezer caught my eye. I wasn’t hungry in the slightest, but the novelty of having made to order ice cream in an airline lounge was too much to pass up, so I had one scoop of stracciatella and one scoop of champagne truffle ice cream. Combined with some sprinkles and almonds it was quite amazing.

Ice cream

My selection

At around 10:15PM our personal assistant advised us that our flight was ready for boarding and asked us to gather our belongings. She escorted us down the elevator where we had to clear passport control. By clearing passport control I simply mean that two immigration agents handed us our passports without any sort of a wait.

Departures lobby

At that point our personal assistant introduced us to our driver for the evening, who would be driving us to our plane. There was one other first class passenger in the lounge that would be on our flight, so he hitched a ride with us in a Mercedes S500.

Mercedes interior

For an airplane geek there’s nothing quite as exciting as driving across the tarmac and parking right next to a massive 747 and then being escorted aboard.

The excitement never wears off!

We parked to the left side of a 747 and then our driver helped us with our bags and walked us to the gate’s elevator, where we were brought to the door. At that point the driver introduced us to the crew, and the crew took it from there. I could tell right away it would be a great flight.

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One of the things I love about traveling from the US to Asia via Europe, even if I’m not actually planning on visiting anywhere in Europe, is to arrive in Europe in the morning and leave at night. Longhaul first class flights are part of the fun of a trip, though frankly two first class longhauls in a row aren’t especially fun. It’s nice to be able to sleep in a “real” bed between flights, and also to wait a bit between five course meals.

To that end, we had booked a dayroom at the Hotel Kempinski Frankfurt Airport. As a Lufthansa first class passenger on a connecting flight this is a complimentary benefit, whereby they’ll give you a complimentary dayroom with roundtrip airport transfer. I had emailed the hotel a couple of days before our stay to ask about availability, and they responded within hours confirming our stay.

Instead of heading straight to the hotel, though, we first visited the Lufthansa First Class Lounge closest to our arrival gate.

Our plane upon arrival

Arrivals hall

We wanted to catch up on email a bit before heading to the hotel (since I don’t believe they have free wifi) so dropped by the First Class Lounge. This worked out pretty well since we would be going straight to Lufthansa’s First Class Terminal later in the day.

Lounge entrance

At the entrance we were greeted by an agent who informed us that our flight would be leaving from the same apron, though mentioned it was subject to change.

All of the Lufthansa first class lounges are designed in a similar way, with a very industrial, minimalistic design, which I love.

Lufthansa First Class Lounge

View from the lounge

We sat down on one of the couches and I got working for about an hour. Moments after sitting down one of the waiters came by to offer us drinks. They have really good smoothies, so I went with one of those.

Smoothie

After about an hour we exited the terminal and proceeded to the arrivals area where we found the courtesy phone for the Hotel Kempinski. They promised to pick us up within 20 minutes, and with typical German precision they were there just under 20 minutes later.

We got picked up in a van for the 15-minute ride to the hotel. After almost a day of flying it’s certainly nice to go to a retreat like the Hotel Kempinski, given that it’s very secluded.

Hotel Kempinski exterior

The exterior of the hotel is very “German,” though the hotel as such is well past its prime.

At the reception we were quickly given a key to our room after presenting our boarding passes and a credit card for any incidentals. The agents was friendly and explained he had a very quiet room for us at the end of the hallway.

Lobby

Lobby

He was right on both counts – the room was quiet and the room was way the hell at the other end of the hall. It must have been a five-minute walk.

Hallway

While we all have different interior design tastes I’m sure (and some of us, like me, are more or less indifferent), I would have a hard time choosing a more hideous interior design than this hotel if I tried.

Room

Room

Bathroom

Shower

I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Either way I found the room quite, erm, charming, and it was perfect for a four-hour nap. And indeed there was something relaxing about the setting, given that we really felt like we were at the end of the world.

View from the room

After a nap and shower we headed back downstairs to catch the shuttle to the airport. It’s also worth noting that the hotel has a pool and gym, though we didn’t have time to check that out this time around.

The shuttle bus driver was very friendly and drove us and an older Thai couple back to the airport. He dropped us off at the First Class Terminal which was very convenient.

While the interior design of the place is borderline unbearable, I really do like the hotel for just getting away, and also love the fact that Lufthansa offers this as an amenity for first class passengers. It’s so nice to be refreshed between long flights on a layover, especially when it’s free!