The final leg!
MUC (T2)-MAN(T1)
Lufthansa Flight LH2502
Airbus A319
Once in the terminal, we paid a quick visit to the Lufthansa desk to have our boarding cards printed, the kind desk lady pointing us straight towards the Business Lounge, where we would spend most of the next 6 hours waiting for our final leg to MAN. At this time of the morning, the Lounge was pretty busy, but it got much quieter as the morning went on, before filling up again after lunchtime. The lounge was comfortable enough, with quite a good selection of snacks and drinks available, with tables being cleared of glasses and plates very frequently. However, some variation in the seating would have been nice, it was all rather functional upright table and chairs. It would have been nice to have a quieter section with reclining chairs or similar for example.
I knew that I wouldn’t be home until about 7pm, and that I was straight back at work the following morning, so I was determined to stay awake throughout the day, get back to my ‘home’ timezone and get as good a night’s sleep as possible. This meant fighting boredom and fatigue for several hours, which basically meant drinking a lot of Diet Coke, and eating a lot of the gummy bears on offer at the lounge – let’s keep the sugar levels high!!
I also went out of the lounge for a walk around the airport shops. I bought some chocolates for the in-laws, and a Calvin Klein necklace for the wife. Now this was actually a cruel. She had been pestering me for days about what her gift was, and while I hadn’t given her any clue as to what it was, I had said it was something bought on the trendy part of Michigan Avenue. The necklace was only about 40 Euros, but came in the fancy CK box etc. The plan was that I would pretend that this was her ‘main’ gift, and it wasn’t necessarily a bad gift, but I knew she’d be expecting something nicer. It worked beautifully, she tried, but couldn’t hide her disappointment with the necklace and she was both surprised and delighted when I handed her the Apple bag!! Aren’t I cruel!!??
The flight from MUC-MAN took around 1hr45minutes, and was all on time and straightforward. We were bussed to the plane, passing the ongoing construction work expanding the terminal buildings at MUC. It seems that LH are really committed to MUC as a second large hub after FRA, and the airport seems to be quite the success story. It’s a shame that BA can’t make something similar work at MAN. I mean what’s so special about LHR anyway?? BA are always complaining that they don’t have the capacity at LHR to enter new markets in the Far East etc, why can’t they operate some flights other than to LHR and LGW from MAN? I’m sure it comes down to simple economics, but if LH can do it on mainland Europe, where there is more ‘local’ competition from Swiss, KLM, AF, Brussels Airlines, Alitalia etc, I think it’s reasonable to question BA’s almost total abandonment of MAN (or BHX for that matter).
The business product on LH was typical of European carriers nowadays, with frankly very little distinction between Y and J. The middle seat was kept empty (big whoop – I usually enjoy that privilege on Ryanair!), there’s no extra legroom and a full meal service was provided. There were 3 rows of J on this flight, so 12 passengers today with one flight attendant looking after us all.The main course was pasta in tomato sauce with mozzarella cheese – very edible, and quite similar to the meal I’d had on the BRU-PHL flight some 16 days earlier (was it really that long ago?!). The starter and dessert were both pretentious nonsense creations which I didn’t bother with, some kind of tiny fish mousse to start and then a cube of some sort of wild berry jelly floating in some pink water with leaves in it for dessert. Honestly, that’s not a dessert is it - just give me a bloody donut or ice cream or something!! I wish I had taken a photo of the meal, but to be honest, I was struggling to stay awake at this point! The service was efficient as one would expect from LH, but without the same care and more importantly, genuine smile that was provided by the USAir staff.
There was a very familiar feeling about landing back at MAN, on what was a slightly drizzly early June afternoon. I realised while going through the electronic passport control gates at MAN, that the only time we had been through any sort of security was at ORD, about 24 hours earlier, which I found a little strange, but I guess that’s the norm with all connecting flights. One thing I did find strange at MAN were the baggage carousel – it’s not wide enough where the bags enter the public area – bag were forever getting stuck as they popped up onto the carousel, with someone constantly having to poke/pull the bags down to get them moving. I hope that someone got fired over that design flaw – how hard is it to design an effective baggage carousel??!!
Kindly, M’s sister had come to pick us up, and got us both home safely by just after 7pm, which I calculated to be about 27 hours since we had hopped on the Blue line to ORD! I was tired, but very happy to be home with my wife, and sleeping in my own bed that night!
So there we have it, my biggest ever trip, my first long-haul experience, my first lie-flat seat and I’m sure many other firsts which I sincerely hope won’t be lasts! The trip wouldn’t have been possible without BMI’s generous Diamond Club, which I am very sad to see go. It wouldn’t have been dreamed up without the wealth of info on FT – a hat tip to all on the BMI board. Finally thanks to my lovely and understanding wife, who has made great use, and had much joy with the new Ipad over the last few weeks, though I would be lying if I said there wasn’t an ulterior motive in such an extravagant gift. To quote the great Max Boyce from one his famous songs about Rugby trips;
“And we’ll all bring our wives back a present…….so we can go next time again!”