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Old Jun 22, 2014, 8:52 pm
  #55  
tng11
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: YYZ
Posts: 1,666
Lufthansa Senator Lounge Berlin Tegel and Economy Class to Frankfurt

I love Berlin. I was disappointed all I was going to be spending was a night here, with an early AM departure to Frankfurt. What better excuse was there though for a night of partying?


2014-05-06 00.23.53 by jurastudent, on Flickr

Lufthansa Senator Lounge Berlin Tegel

Still somewhat hungover, it was a quick bus ride through the city and a convenient dropoff a few metres from the First Class check-in.


2014-05-06 07.40.04 by jurastudent, on Flickr

At first the check-in agent didn't believe I was in First and demanded to see my passport. After some typing away, she couldn't find my reservation (turns out she was spelling my name wrong ) When she saw my backpack, which I was checking-in, she ordered me to wrap it in a plastic bag before she would check it in. Ummm, I've checked in that bag many times before. After some hemming and hawing, she got someone to bring a plastic bag over and had me wrap my bag in plastic. Boarding passes were issued - and she told me that because I was in First, she had blocked off the middle seat for me. ^


2014-05-06 08.00.27 by jurastudent, on Flickr

Up the stairs and to the lounge entrance, followed by a right turn to the Senator lounge.


2014-05-06 07.40.52 by jurastudent, on Flickr

The lounge was pretty busy at about 8 am in the morning. Most German businessmen in suits who were giving me rather impolite stares while yakking away on their cellphones (I was in a t-shirt, jeans and sneakers.)


2014-05-06 07.57.27 by jurastudent, on Flickr


2014-05-06 08.13.42 by jurastudent, on Flickr

Lots of seating areas and natural light from outside:


2014-05-06 09.00.17 by jurastudent, on Flickr

Drink selection. No beer yet though (and I thought the Germans liked a morning pint. )


2014-05-06 08.33.17 by jurastudent, on Flickr

I grabbed a cappuccino and some veggies/cheese. There were other cold cuts and cereal on offer, but I was feeling a little queasy (I question my judgement of taking the pickle in retrospect given the circumstances.)


2014-05-06 07.56.45 by jurastudent, on Flickr

What ticked me off about this lounge was that I couldn't get onto the free wifi. Whatever airport wifi I could connect to was pay-per-use, at exorbitant rates. Adding to that, my flight to FRA was going to be delayed (cutting into my precious time at the FCT.)

All in all, this lounge felt like it would have been in place at a North American airport, but it was a world apart from the FCT.

Lufthansa Flight 181
Berlin Tegel to Frankfurt
Airbus A321
May 6, 2014
Scheduled: 09:45-10:45
Actual: 10:07-10:53
Seat 19A (Economy Class)
Load: ~90%



2014-05-06 09.26.59 by jurastudent, on Flickr

Many people were getting antsy about the delay, as no updates were provided and I overheard a bunch of people getting worried about their tight connections at FRA (I spoke to a woman who was connecting to SQ25.)

When boarding was called, all hell broke loose and people started crowding the gate. I was able to be among the first to board with the HONs as I had an "FCI" on my boarding pass.


2014-05-06 09.35.28 by jurastudent, on Flickr

On board:


2014-05-06 09.47.12 by jurastudent, on Flickr

The seats are so thin!


2014-05-06 09.49.57 by jurastudent, on Flickr

And uncomfortable. Thankfully I did have the middle seat blocked, so it was in some ways a quasi-upgrade to Euro business class without the crappy cold plate they would have served anyways.


2014-05-06 09.47.26 by jurastudent, on Flickr

Today's flight to FRA was going to be just about 45 minutes. As we were late boarding, we were going to have to wait a little longer on the ground. We departed just about 20 minutes behind schedule. Notably, the person in charge of making announcements on board was speaking extremely softly during the safety briefing and service announcements, to the extent that one could only hear about 1/3rd of the words she said.

The beverage cart was rolled around once, and soon enough it was time for landing into FRA.

D-ABTH in the background - one of the last 747s with old F.


2014-05-06 10.58.18 by jurastudent, on Flickr

We spent a lot of time pausing and waiting on the ground at FRA. First it was going to be 15 minutes before we reached the gate according to the captain, as the aircraft parked at that gate had not left yet. 15 minutes passed, it was going to be a little while longer. And longer.

Eventually, we sat on the ground at FRA for more than 35 minutes - almost the length of the flight itself!

D-ABTF: the other 747 with old F.


2014-05-06 11.15.46 by jurastudent, on Flickr

After the delay, I had 5 hours and a bit of wait time before my flight to ICN. Too little time to go into the city, but lots of time to use the FCT.

Overall, I thought Lufthansa's domestic product was worse than airberlin. AB wins for the seat alone. It's a shame LH sells these seats as business class with just the seat blocked off in the middle. My back would have hurt had it been a 3 or 4 hour flight to TLV or CAI for instance even in business class, which is totally unacceptable given the fares LH are asking for these days.
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