TaipeiWang

On Sunday I flew Lufthansa for the first time from HKG to MUC. Booked in PE but upgraded to J at the gate. I can understand why Y and Y+ were full and J was not even half full. Lufthansa J product is terrible!

Hard Product: According to the leaflet it was the "new business class". Tight seats and they were all angled somehow, so you had to move the monitor infront of you see something. It was alright for a 12 hour flight and I could sleep, but there is not much space and they don't offer you mattresses. The IFE .. well nothing remotely comparable to ICE

Soft Product: The soft product was terrible! I would never pay for it. The FA didn't greet anyone, they never spoke to you by name as they do on EK all the time. The meal service is done just like in Y with trolleys. They come in with all meals and drinks, nothing has been prepared in the galley. They have all choices right there and mix it in front of you. The food was the worst I ever had - most pax didn't finish from what I could see.

People can complain about EK what they want - fact is their lounges are far superior to any *A lounge (except the CIP in IST) and they J hard and soft products are just amazing compared to LH.

However: Skywards mileage earning is not that good anymore and pricing is high. If I book PE from HKG with LH and get upgraded to J I'd still take that over the same flight to DXB-MUC in Y. Just make sure you eat something before. My return is on 28th.. lets see if it wil be in PE or J

Anyways: Just my quick comparison between LH and EK. I still love EK I guess

irishguy28

what does "HP" and "SP" stand for?

TaipeiWang

changed it

LifeontheBeach

^

lighthand

No one ever accused LH of excellent J product.

But to be fair the *A lounge under ANA, at NRT is excellent IMHO.

jackiedada

Good to know. Haven't flown LH in a long while (5+ years) but the last time I was in one of their 747s FRA-BOM, the whole a/c creaked during takeoff and landing. Was glad that it was probably the last time I was getting on LH.

evilbrian

I enjoy EKs service, which is why I stick with them the majority of the time, but their J fares could never be classified as cheap any more. However, with a little hunting around you can usually find a good cheaper alternative for J out of MEL in my case.

As an example, if I want to travel J to the UK in the off-season, it'll cost me around 6.5K return on EK, whereas I can do it very nicely on Royal Brunei for 4.9K.

gpia

The angled seats are outright weird indeed....the aisle seat is slightly shifted back, so the aisle PAX's face is always in that weird uncomfortable space where you "feel" someone is watching you from behind.

eternaltransit

Better than someone staring you in the face like BA J haha!

CalFlyer

I do not think the comparison results in such a clear win for EK.

Hard product wise, I do not see such a big difference between LH new biz and EK's biz on the A380. Both seats are tight, with the additional disadvantage on LH side that your knees/feet may touch your neighbor. Comparing LH's horizontal new seat vs. EK's B777 "sliders", I would go for LH anytime. EK's ICE is industry-leading, no doubt.

EK food is better than LH food, agree. However, I prefer the LH food trolley service over EK's personalized "prepared in kitchen" service: EK is far too slow in serving its food, on recent flights it took them 2.5-3 hours after takeoff to serve my main course - very slow.

Overall atmosphere could not be more different. While the EK cabin looks, well, "golden", LH follows its traditional cool "no thrills" design. Both works for me.

Both LH's and EK's frequent flyer programs have seen better days. Miles are increasingly useless, though ratios and availability much better on LH. Elite recognition works better on EK; what I particularly like better with EK is that complimentary upgrades are processed by status, while LH now processes them by fare class. Means 60% longhaul complimentary upgrades for me on EK this year, 0% on LH.

For me, overall EK wins, but only by a small margin.

Krzystos

Never had problem with "sliders" on B777, including my longest flights in J DXB-GIG/EZE-DXB. For me it's flat and horizontal enough.

I'm not sure about timings, and never complained about it, including overnight flights.
Also, I always have food (and drinks) in lounge before flight, so it may be better for me to not have next meal so early.


True (but not always, when comparing money paid with miles earned EK is not that bad - usually I have Y flex ticket for the price LH is offering Economy Savers). May depend on routes also.
Anyway, now I would prefer to earn e.g. IHG points instead of Skywards miles.

worth to add, I can't compare to other airline as I never was flying J cabin in other airline then EK...