smfnrt
May 8, 12, 4:21 pm
I’ve been on FT for quite sometime and enjoyed and envied many of those First Class travelers’ experience. With me turning 30, I’ve found the perfect excuse to visit Europe, and at the same time spoil my best friend who also turned 30.
With that said, after a month of slacking off, I’ve finally uploaded all my photos to share with everyone, I hope you all will enjoy!
Now there are far more detailed Trip Reports with pictures embedded, I’m going to shy away from that as they’ve already done a superb job describing every detail. I’m simply going to comment on what I observed on some of the flights and link a full album at a end of each part.
Overview / Planning
I started planning this trip about 6 months before the trip, and my original plan to was to fly Air Canada Biz to Europe, since most of the Intra-Europe flights didn’t have “First Class” so I did not see the need to spend extra 17,500 UA miles to get first.
However, as I was searching, I found Swiss First was available!! (Though via Montreal) and it is the NEW cabin!
With the outbound set, I started to find flights from FRA to any North America town, and with some luck I end up finding FRA-SEA with two first class seats available.
So the Itinerary was set as follows, using 270,000 UA miles for both of us, $800 in taxes, $180 for the BA flight, and $210 for Euro Star
SMF-ORD-YUL (UA F) – overnight in YUL
YUL-ZRH (LX F) – Layover in ZRH
ZFH-MUC (LH C) – 3 nights in MUC
MUC-LHR (LH C) // LHR-CDG (BA Y) – 3 nights in Paris
CDG-LHR (EuroStar) – 3 nights in London
LHR-FRA (LH C) – overnight in FRA
FRA-SEA (LH F) – layover in SEA
SEA-SFO (UA F)
Part 1: SMF-ORD-YUL on UA First Class
Airbus A320 / CRJ-190
Checking in was terrible at SMF, there was an issue with a million flyer’s itinerary and the lone CS agent at the Premier Access Line was not able to help. My guess is due to the UA/CO merger the computer system is different...
Ended up waiting about 25 minutes then an agent directly us to a self-check in kiosk, and of course screen requires an agent… thankfully an agent was able to quickly come and was able to check our bags to YUL.
The SMF-ORD flight, we sat in row 1 AB and during the flight we were served a snack tray. Cold Chicken Pasta, along with a few cranberry and vodkas.
I’ve noticed during the flight the FA didn’t clear our water glasses, later after bringing him the glasses on the way to the toilet, he mentioned that they didn’t load enough glasses so if I give him the glasses, he would have to served us in plastic cups…
I guess the merger really cut back on some items?
ORD-YUL was an express flight, nothing exciting. We sat in 1 CD and were served some snacks and a few plastic cups of beers.
My friend thought was delighted that they serve meals on the plane! He has never flown out of US, and the few flights he has done were on small planes, never mind First Class.
Boy was he in for a surprise next day…
Part 2: YUL-ZRH on LX First Class
Airbus A330-300 (A333)
After a morning of hiking up Mount Royal, brunch, and walk at old Montreal, we headed to the airport.
Check in was a breeze compared to SMF. Swiss First didn’t have a line, we were greeted and asked if we were traveling in First, I guess we look sorta young? (At least one of us does!)
Both of our luggages’ were tagged priority with HON all the way to MUC and we were sent through the priority security line, which at 15:40 there were no body in either line.
Brisk walk to the AC Maple Leaf Lounge and the CS was excited for us that we’re flying Swiss First. I asked for the shower, and apparently there is only one shower room, so we took turns.
The Maple Leaf lounge had few snacks, but quite a select of adult beverages. I had a beer and snacked on some veggies while staring at the plane outside of the window
At 17:25 we started heading down towards our gate, there were a ton of people surrounded the boarding area. We actually walked past it to look at the very clean looking Swiss A330-300 that we’ll call our “office” for the next 7.5 hours or so.
I believe they were just about to board business customers, the CS lady said to us as we walked up, “Business class? Please wait….. “until I interrupted her and said “Oh sorry, First Class” She quickly then escorted us to the counter and checked our passport and we walked up the Jet way.
The FA on board gave us the hand single to turn left for First Class. At this time we had the cabins all to ourselves. We could hear noises in the First Class galley, but no one came and greets us for a good 7 minutes or so. We didn’t mind, we were too busy taking pictures and videos and doing last minute texting/emails.
My friend was super excited when he walked into the cabin, he was amazed at how much room we had, how shiny the interior were, and the fact that we had the cabin all to our selves!!
The FAs finally discovered us, and surprised that we were in the cabin! Two FAs quickly offered us drinks, and of course we had to have champagne! The Amuse Bouche was brought out and those delicious. We must have had about 3 refills each before the plane took off.
Just prior to take off, the lead purser introduced to us and chit-chat a bit. The captain also came and greets us. Both very professional and welcoming!
I will let the picture and one video do the rest of the talking!
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150986575893508.523190.815463507&type=3&l=a815d25514
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwLvjJ5LYTk
Part 3a: ZRH-MUC // MUC-LHR // LHR-FRA on LH Business Class
CRJ-900 // Airbus A320 / Airbus A321
These flights were the Intra-Europe short flights, ranging from 40 minutes to 2 hours or so. But on every single one of these flights, there was a snack/meal served. Very impressive on the short 40 minute flight!
Business class seats were same as Economy seats but with middle seat blocked out and I presume that Business class gets a meal while Economy does not.
Services on these short flights are similar to the UA domestic First Class, except these FAs seem to actually enjoy their job, and I’m glad they spoke English!
See pix at the end of Part 3b
Part 3b: Lounges in ZRH, MUC, LHR (Senator and BMI)
ZRh Arrival Lounge - We had slept in and decided to just eat at the arrivals lounge in ZRH. It was actually less than impressive… It was quite far walk to the arrivals lounge, and the breakfast select was very slim, only some bread and fruits. I was hoping for eggs, sausages and other hot items! And also the lounge was tiny!! But it does have 10 showers, so we didn’t have to wait long to get into the showers.
ZRH departure / senator’s lounge was much bigger, and was not too crowded till about 1900 hours. They had a good selection of hot foods and self-served bottles of beverages.
MUC departure / senator’s lounge was very crowded at 10:20. We grabbed some breakfast, which had very good selections. By the time we went back for seconds, they were in the process of switching out to lunch, even better!
LHR BMI Lounge, Wow, what a posh looking place!! Unfortunately I didn’t take any photos of the interior. But there are many sections, big sofa section, bar section, side bar section, computer table section, meeting room section, and my favorite outward facing section where I did most of the plane spotting!
The only downside is that the US charger didn’t work in the universal port, and I had left my adapter in my checked in luggage
Here are some photos of the shower facilities mentioned earlier as well as some photos of the lounge food, lastly plane spotting pix!
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151048356003508.525418.815463507&type=1&l=2a7983ab2f
Part 4: FRA First Class Terminal and FRA-SEA on LH First Class
Airbus A330-300 (A333)
I couldn’t find any First Class savers from FRA- ORD/LAX/SFO, only to SEA and DFW. I choose SEA since it was closer to home and only one flight to SFO then I could drive back to SMF.
We stayed at the Hilton connected to FRA airport, so it was only a 7 minute walk from hotel lobby to the First Class check-in area. There are many counters and no line. We dropped off our luggage and the lady let us know that where we can access the First Class Lounge. We said thanks, but then we walked outside and to the FCT.
Took the elevator upstairs and greeted by very nice German lady who introduced herself and asked us a few questions as we handed over our passports and ticket packet. She then escorted us through security and let us know that she’ll come find us when it is ready to board.
What an amazing place, it was so clean and modern everywhere! The best was the bathroom, it had an automatic glass sliding door separating the hand washing place and the hallway with the “rooms” to the throne.
Of course, the other areas are super nice as well; however, it was quite busier than I thought it would’ve been.
Since out flight was a morning flight at 9:50, we only were able to enjoy the restaurant (and fancy restroom). I did however, drank two glasses of kiwi juice.
I really enjoyed the personal service that even when you’re seated, they come around and check on you to see if you need anything. Really pampered in the FCT!
We soon were escorted down stairs via escalator (while our personal assistant walked the stairs) and our own passport control guy handed us our passports. We waited for one more guest and then headed into the Mercedez Van (d’oh!)
I won’t comment too much on the LH First Class flight, there are many reports on the service already, and this flight was no different, service was superb!
We had total of four guests including my friend and my self. All sat in the middle 1,2,DG seats. This was not the new interior on LH, but it was still comfy.
I was a little disappointed that the pajamas were just a sweater top, and the amenity kit was not the Rimowa one, I quite fancy those. There was no mattress pad for bed mode either…
So here’s lots of photos of the food on board LH First!
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150987086033508.523238.815463507&type=3&l=281228f138
With that said, after a month of slacking off, I’ve finally uploaded all my photos to share with everyone, I hope you all will enjoy!
Now there are far more detailed Trip Reports with pictures embedded, I’m going to shy away from that as they’ve already done a superb job describing every detail. I’m simply going to comment on what I observed on some of the flights and link a full album at a end of each part.
Overview / Planning
I started planning this trip about 6 months before the trip, and my original plan to was to fly Air Canada Biz to Europe, since most of the Intra-Europe flights didn’t have “First Class” so I did not see the need to spend extra 17,500 UA miles to get first.
However, as I was searching, I found Swiss First was available!! (Though via Montreal) and it is the NEW cabin!
With the outbound set, I started to find flights from FRA to any North America town, and with some luck I end up finding FRA-SEA with two first class seats available.
So the Itinerary was set as follows, using 270,000 UA miles for both of us, $800 in taxes, $180 for the BA flight, and $210 for Euro Star
SMF-ORD-YUL (UA F) – overnight in YUL
YUL-ZRH (LX F) – Layover in ZRH
ZFH-MUC (LH C) – 3 nights in MUC
MUC-LHR (LH C) // LHR-CDG (BA Y) – 3 nights in Paris
CDG-LHR (EuroStar) – 3 nights in London
LHR-FRA (LH C) – overnight in FRA
FRA-SEA (LH F) – layover in SEA
SEA-SFO (UA F)
Part 1: SMF-ORD-YUL on UA First Class
Airbus A320 / CRJ-190
Checking in was terrible at SMF, there was an issue with a million flyer’s itinerary and the lone CS agent at the Premier Access Line was not able to help. My guess is due to the UA/CO merger the computer system is different...
Ended up waiting about 25 minutes then an agent directly us to a self-check in kiosk, and of course screen requires an agent… thankfully an agent was able to quickly come and was able to check our bags to YUL.
The SMF-ORD flight, we sat in row 1 AB and during the flight we were served a snack tray. Cold Chicken Pasta, along with a few cranberry and vodkas.
I’ve noticed during the flight the FA didn’t clear our water glasses, later after bringing him the glasses on the way to the toilet, he mentioned that they didn’t load enough glasses so if I give him the glasses, he would have to served us in plastic cups…
I guess the merger really cut back on some items?
ORD-YUL was an express flight, nothing exciting. We sat in 1 CD and were served some snacks and a few plastic cups of beers.
My friend thought was delighted that they serve meals on the plane! He has never flown out of US, and the few flights he has done were on small planes, never mind First Class.
Boy was he in for a surprise next day…
Part 2: YUL-ZRH on LX First Class
Airbus A330-300 (A333)
After a morning of hiking up Mount Royal, brunch, and walk at old Montreal, we headed to the airport.
Check in was a breeze compared to SMF. Swiss First didn’t have a line, we were greeted and asked if we were traveling in First, I guess we look sorta young? (At least one of us does!)
Both of our luggages’ were tagged priority with HON all the way to MUC and we were sent through the priority security line, which at 15:40 there were no body in either line.
Brisk walk to the AC Maple Leaf Lounge and the CS was excited for us that we’re flying Swiss First. I asked for the shower, and apparently there is only one shower room, so we took turns.
The Maple Leaf lounge had few snacks, but quite a select of adult beverages. I had a beer and snacked on some veggies while staring at the plane outside of the window
At 17:25 we started heading down towards our gate, there were a ton of people surrounded the boarding area. We actually walked past it to look at the very clean looking Swiss A330-300 that we’ll call our “office” for the next 7.5 hours or so.
I believe they were just about to board business customers, the CS lady said to us as we walked up, “Business class? Please wait….. “until I interrupted her and said “Oh sorry, First Class” She quickly then escorted us to the counter and checked our passport and we walked up the Jet way.
The FA on board gave us the hand single to turn left for First Class. At this time we had the cabins all to ourselves. We could hear noises in the First Class galley, but no one came and greets us for a good 7 minutes or so. We didn’t mind, we were too busy taking pictures and videos and doing last minute texting/emails.
My friend was super excited when he walked into the cabin, he was amazed at how much room we had, how shiny the interior were, and the fact that we had the cabin all to our selves!!
The FAs finally discovered us, and surprised that we were in the cabin! Two FAs quickly offered us drinks, and of course we had to have champagne! The Amuse Bouche was brought out and those delicious. We must have had about 3 refills each before the plane took off.
Just prior to take off, the lead purser introduced to us and chit-chat a bit. The captain also came and greets us. Both very professional and welcoming!
I will let the picture and one video do the rest of the talking!
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150986575893508.523190.815463507&type=3&l=a815d25514
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwLvjJ5LYTk
Part 3a: ZRH-MUC // MUC-LHR // LHR-FRA on LH Business Class
CRJ-900 // Airbus A320 / Airbus A321
These flights were the Intra-Europe short flights, ranging from 40 minutes to 2 hours or so. But on every single one of these flights, there was a snack/meal served. Very impressive on the short 40 minute flight!
Business class seats were same as Economy seats but with middle seat blocked out and I presume that Business class gets a meal while Economy does not.
Services on these short flights are similar to the UA domestic First Class, except these FAs seem to actually enjoy their job, and I’m glad they spoke English!
See pix at the end of Part 3b
Part 3b: Lounges in ZRH, MUC, LHR (Senator and BMI)
ZRh Arrival Lounge - We had slept in and decided to just eat at the arrivals lounge in ZRH. It was actually less than impressive… It was quite far walk to the arrivals lounge, and the breakfast select was very slim, only some bread and fruits. I was hoping for eggs, sausages and other hot items! And also the lounge was tiny!! But it does have 10 showers, so we didn’t have to wait long to get into the showers.
ZRH departure / senator’s lounge was much bigger, and was not too crowded till about 1900 hours. They had a good selection of hot foods and self-served bottles of beverages.
MUC departure / senator’s lounge was very crowded at 10:20. We grabbed some breakfast, which had very good selections. By the time we went back for seconds, they were in the process of switching out to lunch, even better!
LHR BMI Lounge, Wow, what a posh looking place!! Unfortunately I didn’t take any photos of the interior. But there are many sections, big sofa section, bar section, side bar section, computer table section, meeting room section, and my favorite outward facing section where I did most of the plane spotting!
The only downside is that the US charger didn’t work in the universal port, and I had left my adapter in my checked in luggage
Here are some photos of the shower facilities mentioned earlier as well as some photos of the lounge food, lastly plane spotting pix!
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151048356003508.525418.815463507&type=1&l=2a7983ab2f
Part 4: FRA First Class Terminal and FRA-SEA on LH First Class
Airbus A330-300 (A333)
I couldn’t find any First Class savers from FRA- ORD/LAX/SFO, only to SEA and DFW. I choose SEA since it was closer to home and only one flight to SFO then I could drive back to SMF.
We stayed at the Hilton connected to FRA airport, so it was only a 7 minute walk from hotel lobby to the First Class check-in area. There are many counters and no line. We dropped off our luggage and the lady let us know that where we can access the First Class Lounge. We said thanks, but then we walked outside and to the FCT.
Took the elevator upstairs and greeted by very nice German lady who introduced herself and asked us a few questions as we handed over our passports and ticket packet. She then escorted us through security and let us know that she’ll come find us when it is ready to board.
What an amazing place, it was so clean and modern everywhere! The best was the bathroom, it had an automatic glass sliding door separating the hand washing place and the hallway with the “rooms” to the throne.
Of course, the other areas are super nice as well; however, it was quite busier than I thought it would’ve been.
Since out flight was a morning flight at 9:50, we only were able to enjoy the restaurant (and fancy restroom). I did however, drank two glasses of kiwi juice.
I really enjoyed the personal service that even when you’re seated, they come around and check on you to see if you need anything. Really pampered in the FCT!
We soon were escorted down stairs via escalator (while our personal assistant walked the stairs) and our own passport control guy handed us our passports. We waited for one more guest and then headed into the Mercedez Van (d’oh!)
I won’t comment too much on the LH First Class flight, there are many reports on the service already, and this flight was no different, service was superb!
We had total of four guests including my friend and my self. All sat in the middle 1,2,DG seats. This was not the new interior on LH, but it was still comfy.
I was a little disappointed that the pajamas were just a sweater top, and the amenity kit was not the Rimowa one, I quite fancy those. There was no mattress pad for bed mode either…
So here’s lots of photos of the food on board LH First!
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150987086033508.523238.815463507&type=3&l=281228f138