Airrail and DE-operated LH flight QKL-FRA-PHX
Aug 17, 2003, 5:12 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Wesseling, NRW, Germany
Programs: UA *S , MR LT Titanium, HH Diamond, Hertz PC
Posts: 3,940
Airrail and DE-operated LH flight QKL-FRA-PHX
When we decided to go to Phoenix for a second time in a row in August last fall, we did not expect the problems we would be encountering. After several schedule-changes and rebookings (the last one just three days before departure), lots of discussions with all kind of people (including the office of Mr. Weber when nobody seemed to care for my problems), we finally were set for our trip.
QKL-FRA LH6809 ICE sched.: 8:53-9:50, actually: 9:03-9:55
This was the last change made to our reservation. Originally scheduled for a 3:40 hour layover in FRA and taking a plane from CGN, I got a call three days before the flight if I would like to try out the new hourly airrail-service from Cologne to Frankfurt. Sure enough I went for that, but the only available train for all of us was the 8:53 departure, leaving us with a 50 minute layover in FRA and arriving at the train-station outside security. We were a little concerned that our luggage would not make it with us, but we decided to take the chance.
Airrail is LHs new alternative for short-haul flights within Germany using the regular high-speed ICE-trains operated by Deutsche Bahn. Currently Airrail is available between Cologne and Frankfurt as well as between Stuttgart and Frankfurt. If you are booked in Business, you will be seated in a First Class coach, Economy-passengers sit in the Second Class coach. You get assigned seats and a boarding pass like for a plane ride, just that your “plane” has no wings. Also at the train station you check your bags through to your final destination and do not have to worry about hauling your bags around Frankfurt airport. If you travel in Business, drinks and a snack are free, however Eco-passengers get no service. Business and Senator passengers get to use the DB-lounge at Cologne and Stuttgart, and in contrast to DB’s own passengers, also the booze is free there. We were running a little late, however, so we did not use the lounge this time.
Departure out of Cologne was 10 minutes late without any reason given, and while the Eco-section of the train was sold out, C had only three out of six passengers. Ride was quick, one stop at Bonn (without equipment change...;-)), and then on to Frankfurt airport where we arrived only about five minutes behind schedule despite a ten minutes delayed departure. Ride was a little bumpy, and my wife had some problems with the air-pressure when the train went through a tunnel. However riding a train at 290 km/h is quite an impressive thing and makes cars on the Autobahn right next to the train-track look like standing still.
FRA-PHX LH448 763 sched.: 10:40-13:15, actually 10:42-12:59
Seats: 3FG (wife and myself), 16AB (kids)
When we arrived at Frankfurt-airport we went through security in no time, and took a quick stop at the Duty-Free shop at Terminal B. Luckily our flight to Phoenix is the last one of the morning-bank that departs Terminal B, and as we were rather late, lines at the secondary inspection were non-existent. The day before I had checked with the SEN-Desk to see if the flight was overbooked (it was, but only by two), so when we made it to the desk at Gate B24 I asked if they needed volunteers, but they did not. Total time we needed from deboarding the train to the gate was about twenty minutes, including five minutes spent at Duty Free.
Due to shortage in their long-haul fleet, Lufthansa has shopped around last year to lease some planes to fill their gaps, and among ex-Sabena and Swissair Airbii they also got two 763 from Lauda Air. Now painted in the Star Alliance livery, this plane operates the run to Phoenix since the beginning of August. I had heard mixed reviews on the configuration of these planes, and in my opinion, these are really bad. The C-seat is worse than LH’s own by quite some margin. It’s narrow and the pitch is considerably less (not that the current LH-seat would be very generous in both respects), and the whole interior feels old and dingy. The inseat-video is also strangely mounted, and I could not move the screen into a comfortable position. A word of warning for laptop-users: In contrast to LH’s C and F this plane has no power outlets in the seat, so bring that extra battery.
The plane, while coming directly from overnight maintainnance, was not properly cleaned and we had cookie-crumbles and stuff like that on our seat. Also many things on our seats were not in very good state of repair: the seat-cover came off at many spots revealing the cheap foam constituting our seat, and you always had the feeling not to touch things too rough not to break of the cheap plastic covers. Also the ashtrays were still full of ash-remains and stank quite considerably. In Eco however I found the plane-configuration appropiate. While the seats there were also old and partially “hotfixed” (like an armrest that was taped together), they had a better pitch than I remember in LH’s own longhaul-coach, and a PTV – that however takes quite some legroom of the right seat of each group of seats.
Pushback was close to on-time at 10:42, and we had just a short taxi to runway 25R for a takeoff to the west at 11:02. Plane was full to burst: One seat open in C and all seats taken in Y – so three people did not show up or misconnected. Resulting from the full load was a take-offweight of 182 tons and a roll of long 45 seconds down one of FRAs main runways. Today’s route took us very northerly (my last twin-jet transatlantic flight dates back quite some years, so I do not know if ETOPS is the reason for that routing or just the schedule-planners of LH) over Bremen, going between Britain and Denmark, over the Faroer Islands and over Iceland towards Canada, then passing over Minneapolis and Denver to Phoenix. Flight time for this routing was announced at 11:06 hours.
Another thing to note about the PHX-service of LH (and the PHL-flight, which uses the other 763) is that it is not operated by LH, but by Thomas Cook Airlines, their charter-affiliate. The reason for that is simply operational: LH has no 763 trained crews, but TC operates 763 in their own fleet and has many idleing crews due to own schedule-reductions. This however has impact on the service, which was far from what I expect and am used to at LH. Before takeoff the safety video failed, and they had to do the demonstration manually. That lead to some strange announcements like “please observe that non-smoking is not permitted” and “before putting on your mask please extinguish your cigarette first”, and the language capabilities of the Purserette were not very good in my opinion.
After a pretty standard departure it took ages for the crew to come around with drinks the first time...I had my water and blubby after 50 minutes after leaving the ground. This is pretty unacceptable in my opinion, and all in all the service should prove not to be very good. Food orders were taken aisle by aisle (only one FA taking orders) from the back (different to standard-LH, that does this from the front), and status did only come into play when your aisle was served (I was the first in the FG-aisle to be asked for meal-choices, then she continued from the back). Food was brought out the same way, with only one cart, starting with the ABCE-seats and the FG, and as always from the back, so it took some time to get the food out and created long waits between courses. Today’s menu:
Hors d’oeuvre:
Smoked Marlin with Fennel Apple Salad, Red Onions and Lime Crème Fraìche
Veal enhanced by Salsa Diavola and Vegetable Salad
Salad:
Young Lollo Bionda, Lollo Rosso, Mizuna and Romain Lettuce, Beet Greens and red Mustard Leaves presented with Balsamic Vinaigrette,
Bread, Rolls and Butter
Entrees:
Braised Breast of Corn-fed Chicken accompanied by Summer Vegetables and Wild Rice Medley
Salmon served with Caper Aspargus Sauce, Carrots, Green Aspargus, Snow Peas and Polenta
Rigatoni Pasta in a light Vegetable Mousseline accented by Parmesan and Chanterelle Mushrooms
Cheese and Dessert:
Cambozola, Grand Padano and Provolone offered with roasted Pine Nuts and Grapes
Cassata Crème and Chocolate Sauce
Fresh Fruit Salad
For the first time on an airplane I did not like any of the appetizers offered, so my wife had both choices. The fish was decent and tasty, however the veal looked not too inviting, and the meat was sliced very thin. Because I was starving (had no breakfast, gave my snack in the train to my son because he was very hungry also) I had a total of five rolls which were good as they always are on flights out of FRA. Main course came, and I had the chicken while my wife had the salmon. This time it was the other way round, the chicken was very nice, however the salmon was dry and lying in a very oily sauce that did not taste well and also drowned the vegetables coming with it. Desert presentation was also a bit strange...usually all choices come on one cart, this time however it was fruit and cheese only, and then the mousse came on a seperate run with the spirits.
About an hour after lunch the “movie-snack” came around...whole apples, a fruit-cake and something I could not identify. I thought this was too close to lunch, so I passed on that, and also due to the moving around in the cabin, they woke me up with the associated noise. At this point our son comes forward from Eco to complain that they only had three rounds of drinks so far (it’s now five hours into the flight), and the request to get a bottle of water was rudely rejected. My wife intervened and finally got them to refill an empty bottle we brought on board with water from their Vitell-bottle (studpid: Both bottles fit 1.5 liters, so they could simply have given the bottle). When we afterwards complained to the Purserette she replied that this is “correct according to our service concept”. May be the case, but it’s not customer-friendly and very unflexible. I need to add however that in Business we never had problems to get a full bottle of water.
Second meal came two hours out of Phoenix:
Salad:
Seasonal Greens, Flagolet Beans and diced Bell Peppers presented with Dressing
Rolls and butter
Hot Specialties:
Sea Bass accented with Rosemary Butter
Fittata with Spring Onions
Desert:
Amaretti Cake
As I do not eat fish and did not like the fritata, my wife again had both. Fish was dry again and also pretty bland, and she passed on most of the Fritata as it was were heavy and filling (and she not too hungry any more). I again went with some rolls and pilfered the snack-cart afterwards.
Approach into Phoenix was different from my last flight there, this time flying more easterly southwards until Phoenix, turning west, passing Sky Harbour on the right and then turning and flying back over Downtown for a smooth landing. For the first time in ages people started clapping hands both in the back and a few in the C-cabin, which I found a bit strange. Must be the charter charm that the crew “dispensed” all the way.
When we had disembarked INS computers were terribly slow due to the power-outage on the east-coast and created a long backlog of people waitng to clear immigration. When we got through (we were one of the first in the non-resident lines) three of our bags were already there but the fourth was missing. After a looooong wait we finally found that in the back where someone had taken our bag from the belt and put it aside. Customs was no problem, but we had to recheck one bag for the main baggage-claim. Immigration and customs in Phoenix drops you off in the secure area of the terminal, so if you have any knife or stuff like that in your checked luggage, you have to recheck the bag and retrieve it at belt five of the main baggage claim outside security. As usual it took ages for the bag to show up, but I picked up our rental car from Avis in the meantime, and we were off for the Wyndham Airport Hotel at 2:30pm.
All in all I was pretty unhappy with the flight this time. Catering was not up to the standard I am used from LH, choices were not choosen too well in my opinion, and the service simply was unattentive and flawed at best. Having to fight for water in the Economy cabin is simply unacceptable, and the slowness of the C-Class service and the terribly uncomfortable seat surely will annoy people paying big bucks for a C-ticket to Phoenix. I can definetly understand why people in Atlanta complained about the service so they got the A343 back. BA surely has a whole different animal around in the Phoenix market with their London service on the 777, even if they do not yet offer the new Business Class with flat beds. If it was not for the heavily oversold return flight and my chance to take a bump, I would set hell to loose to get rebooked on real LH metal for my return.
QKL-FRA LH6809 ICE sched.: 8:53-9:50, actually: 9:03-9:55
This was the last change made to our reservation. Originally scheduled for a 3:40 hour layover in FRA and taking a plane from CGN, I got a call three days before the flight if I would like to try out the new hourly airrail-service from Cologne to Frankfurt. Sure enough I went for that, but the only available train for all of us was the 8:53 departure, leaving us with a 50 minute layover in FRA and arriving at the train-station outside security. We were a little concerned that our luggage would not make it with us, but we decided to take the chance.
Airrail is LHs new alternative for short-haul flights within Germany using the regular high-speed ICE-trains operated by Deutsche Bahn. Currently Airrail is available between Cologne and Frankfurt as well as between Stuttgart and Frankfurt. If you are booked in Business, you will be seated in a First Class coach, Economy-passengers sit in the Second Class coach. You get assigned seats and a boarding pass like for a plane ride, just that your “plane” has no wings. Also at the train station you check your bags through to your final destination and do not have to worry about hauling your bags around Frankfurt airport. If you travel in Business, drinks and a snack are free, however Eco-passengers get no service. Business and Senator passengers get to use the DB-lounge at Cologne and Stuttgart, and in contrast to DB’s own passengers, also the booze is free there. We were running a little late, however, so we did not use the lounge this time.
Departure out of Cologne was 10 minutes late without any reason given, and while the Eco-section of the train was sold out, C had only three out of six passengers. Ride was quick, one stop at Bonn (without equipment change...;-)), and then on to Frankfurt airport where we arrived only about five minutes behind schedule despite a ten minutes delayed departure. Ride was a little bumpy, and my wife had some problems with the air-pressure when the train went through a tunnel. However riding a train at 290 km/h is quite an impressive thing and makes cars on the Autobahn right next to the train-track look like standing still.
FRA-PHX LH448 763 sched.: 10:40-13:15, actually 10:42-12:59
Seats: 3FG (wife and myself), 16AB (kids)
When we arrived at Frankfurt-airport we went through security in no time, and took a quick stop at the Duty-Free shop at Terminal B. Luckily our flight to Phoenix is the last one of the morning-bank that departs Terminal B, and as we were rather late, lines at the secondary inspection were non-existent. The day before I had checked with the SEN-Desk to see if the flight was overbooked (it was, but only by two), so when we made it to the desk at Gate B24 I asked if they needed volunteers, but they did not. Total time we needed from deboarding the train to the gate was about twenty minutes, including five minutes spent at Duty Free.
Due to shortage in their long-haul fleet, Lufthansa has shopped around last year to lease some planes to fill their gaps, and among ex-Sabena and Swissair Airbii they also got two 763 from Lauda Air. Now painted in the Star Alliance livery, this plane operates the run to Phoenix since the beginning of August. I had heard mixed reviews on the configuration of these planes, and in my opinion, these are really bad. The C-seat is worse than LH’s own by quite some margin. It’s narrow and the pitch is considerably less (not that the current LH-seat would be very generous in both respects), and the whole interior feels old and dingy. The inseat-video is also strangely mounted, and I could not move the screen into a comfortable position. A word of warning for laptop-users: In contrast to LH’s C and F this plane has no power outlets in the seat, so bring that extra battery.
The plane, while coming directly from overnight maintainnance, was not properly cleaned and we had cookie-crumbles and stuff like that on our seat. Also many things on our seats were not in very good state of repair: the seat-cover came off at many spots revealing the cheap foam constituting our seat, and you always had the feeling not to touch things too rough not to break of the cheap plastic covers. Also the ashtrays were still full of ash-remains and stank quite considerably. In Eco however I found the plane-configuration appropiate. While the seats there were also old and partially “hotfixed” (like an armrest that was taped together), they had a better pitch than I remember in LH’s own longhaul-coach, and a PTV – that however takes quite some legroom of the right seat of each group of seats.
Pushback was close to on-time at 10:42, and we had just a short taxi to runway 25R for a takeoff to the west at 11:02. Plane was full to burst: One seat open in C and all seats taken in Y – so three people did not show up or misconnected. Resulting from the full load was a take-offweight of 182 tons and a roll of long 45 seconds down one of FRAs main runways. Today’s route took us very northerly (my last twin-jet transatlantic flight dates back quite some years, so I do not know if ETOPS is the reason for that routing or just the schedule-planners of LH) over Bremen, going between Britain and Denmark, over the Faroer Islands and over Iceland towards Canada, then passing over Minneapolis and Denver to Phoenix. Flight time for this routing was announced at 11:06 hours.
Another thing to note about the PHX-service of LH (and the PHL-flight, which uses the other 763) is that it is not operated by LH, but by Thomas Cook Airlines, their charter-affiliate. The reason for that is simply operational: LH has no 763 trained crews, but TC operates 763 in their own fleet and has many idleing crews due to own schedule-reductions. This however has impact on the service, which was far from what I expect and am used to at LH. Before takeoff the safety video failed, and they had to do the demonstration manually. That lead to some strange announcements like “please observe that non-smoking is not permitted” and “before putting on your mask please extinguish your cigarette first”, and the language capabilities of the Purserette were not very good in my opinion.
After a pretty standard departure it took ages for the crew to come around with drinks the first time...I had my water and blubby after 50 minutes after leaving the ground. This is pretty unacceptable in my opinion, and all in all the service should prove not to be very good. Food orders were taken aisle by aisle (only one FA taking orders) from the back (different to standard-LH, that does this from the front), and status did only come into play when your aisle was served (I was the first in the FG-aisle to be asked for meal-choices, then she continued from the back). Food was brought out the same way, with only one cart, starting with the ABCE-seats and the FG, and as always from the back, so it took some time to get the food out and created long waits between courses. Today’s menu:
Hors d’oeuvre:
Smoked Marlin with Fennel Apple Salad, Red Onions and Lime Crème Fraìche
Veal enhanced by Salsa Diavola and Vegetable Salad
Salad:
Young Lollo Bionda, Lollo Rosso, Mizuna and Romain Lettuce, Beet Greens and red Mustard Leaves presented with Balsamic Vinaigrette,
Bread, Rolls and Butter
Entrees:
Braised Breast of Corn-fed Chicken accompanied by Summer Vegetables and Wild Rice Medley
Salmon served with Caper Aspargus Sauce, Carrots, Green Aspargus, Snow Peas and Polenta
Rigatoni Pasta in a light Vegetable Mousseline accented by Parmesan and Chanterelle Mushrooms
Cheese and Dessert:
Cambozola, Grand Padano and Provolone offered with roasted Pine Nuts and Grapes
Cassata Crème and Chocolate Sauce
Fresh Fruit Salad
For the first time on an airplane I did not like any of the appetizers offered, so my wife had both choices. The fish was decent and tasty, however the veal looked not too inviting, and the meat was sliced very thin. Because I was starving (had no breakfast, gave my snack in the train to my son because he was very hungry also) I had a total of five rolls which were good as they always are on flights out of FRA. Main course came, and I had the chicken while my wife had the salmon. This time it was the other way round, the chicken was very nice, however the salmon was dry and lying in a very oily sauce that did not taste well and also drowned the vegetables coming with it. Desert presentation was also a bit strange...usually all choices come on one cart, this time however it was fruit and cheese only, and then the mousse came on a seperate run with the spirits.
About an hour after lunch the “movie-snack” came around...whole apples, a fruit-cake and something I could not identify. I thought this was too close to lunch, so I passed on that, and also due to the moving around in the cabin, they woke me up with the associated noise. At this point our son comes forward from Eco to complain that they only had three rounds of drinks so far (it’s now five hours into the flight), and the request to get a bottle of water was rudely rejected. My wife intervened and finally got them to refill an empty bottle we brought on board with water from their Vitell-bottle (studpid: Both bottles fit 1.5 liters, so they could simply have given the bottle). When we afterwards complained to the Purserette she replied that this is “correct according to our service concept”. May be the case, but it’s not customer-friendly and very unflexible. I need to add however that in Business we never had problems to get a full bottle of water.
Second meal came two hours out of Phoenix:
Salad:
Seasonal Greens, Flagolet Beans and diced Bell Peppers presented with Dressing
Rolls and butter
Hot Specialties:
Sea Bass accented with Rosemary Butter
Fittata with Spring Onions
Desert:
Amaretti Cake
As I do not eat fish and did not like the fritata, my wife again had both. Fish was dry again and also pretty bland, and she passed on most of the Fritata as it was were heavy and filling (and she not too hungry any more). I again went with some rolls and pilfered the snack-cart afterwards.
Approach into Phoenix was different from my last flight there, this time flying more easterly southwards until Phoenix, turning west, passing Sky Harbour on the right and then turning and flying back over Downtown for a smooth landing. For the first time in ages people started clapping hands both in the back and a few in the C-cabin, which I found a bit strange. Must be the charter charm that the crew “dispensed” all the way.
When we had disembarked INS computers were terribly slow due to the power-outage on the east-coast and created a long backlog of people waitng to clear immigration. When we got through (we were one of the first in the non-resident lines) three of our bags were already there but the fourth was missing. After a looooong wait we finally found that in the back where someone had taken our bag from the belt and put it aside. Customs was no problem, but we had to recheck one bag for the main baggage-claim. Immigration and customs in Phoenix drops you off in the secure area of the terminal, so if you have any knife or stuff like that in your checked luggage, you have to recheck the bag and retrieve it at belt five of the main baggage claim outside security. As usual it took ages for the bag to show up, but I picked up our rental car from Avis in the meantime, and we were off for the Wyndham Airport Hotel at 2:30pm.
All in all I was pretty unhappy with the flight this time. Catering was not up to the standard I am used from LH, choices were not choosen too well in my opinion, and the service simply was unattentive and flawed at best. Having to fight for water in the Economy cabin is simply unacceptable, and the slowness of the C-Class service and the terribly uncomfortable seat surely will annoy people paying big bucks for a C-ticket to Phoenix. I can definetly understand why people in Atlanta complained about the service so they got the A343 back. BA surely has a whole different animal around in the Phoenix market with their London service on the 777, even if they do not yet offer the new Business Class with flat beds. If it was not for the heavily oversold return flight and my chance to take a bump, I would set hell to loose to get rebooked on real LH metal for my return.
Aug 17, 2003, 5:46 am
#2
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Austria (Vbg)
Programs: LX SEN, BA Gfl/GGL, IC Dia, HH Dia, Hyatt LT GLOB
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<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by djohannw:
For the first time in ages people started clapping hands both in the back and a few in the C-cabin, which I found a bit strange</font>
For the first time in ages people started clapping hands both in the back and a few in the C-cabin, which I found a bit strange</font>
Sorry to hear about your disappointing flight. So, LH would be good advised to review this product-mix (Lufthansa, Condor, Lauda).
Aug 17, 2003, 9:58 am
#5
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Agoura Hills, CA USA
Posts: 2,662
This has to be a most unacceptable way to cross the pond in a coveted business class seat. LH has such a wonderful first class product that I cannot imagine why they have not seen to have their product people investigate this type of service.
Aug 17, 2003, 8:49 pm
#6
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Wesseling, NRW, Germany
Programs: UA *S , MR LT Titanium, HH Diamond, Hertz PC
Posts: 3,940
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by LH738:
Good luck for your return, djohannw. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Which uniform did the crew wear (Lufthansa or Thomas Cook)?</font>
Good luck for your return, djohannw. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Which uniform did the crew wear (Lufthansa or Thomas Cook)?</font>
Greetings - Dirk
Aug 18, 2003, 1:57 am
#7
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: SXF/TXL, old europe.
Programs: Skyhigh Airlines Platinum for Life
Posts: 962
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> Currently Airrail is available between Cologne and Frankfurt as well as between Stuttgart and Frankfurt. If you are booked in Business, you will be seated in a First Class coach, Economy-passengers sit in the Second Class coach.[/B]</font>
Aug 18, 2003, 3:11 am
#9
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Stuttgart, Germany
Programs: Too many...and an Amanjunkie
Posts: 1,667
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by daysleeper:
I remember that on the ZWS-FRA run, LH cattle class pax were booked in DB first class as well.
</font>
I remember that on the ZWS-FRA run, LH cattle class pax were booked in DB first class as well.
</font>
djohannw,
Great report! Hope you get your bump on the return...
Do you have the registration of the 763 ? On my "downgrade flight" from Montreal to Vienna last December the cabin interior of OE-LAZ (now D-ABUW) already looked to be in desperate need for a major overhaul....
Aug 18, 2003, 7:27 am
#10
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Wesseling, NRW, Germany
Programs: UA *S , MR LT Titanium, HH Diamond, Hertz PC
Posts: 3,940
Thanks all for the feedback, after sleeping a few nights over it I decided that I will call LH's customer service today here in the US to let them know about it.
As to the aircraft, I do not remember the full registration, but I think D-ABUW looks quite familiar to the picture I have in mind from passing by the aircraft.
Greetings - Dirk
As to the aircraft, I do not remember the full registration, but I think D-ABUW looks quite familiar to the picture I have in mind from passing by the aircraft.
Greetings - Dirk
Aug 18, 2003, 8:31 am
#11
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Stuttgart, Germany
Programs: Too many...and an Amanjunkie
Posts: 1,667
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by djohannw:
As to the aircraft, I do not remember the full registration, but I think D-ABUW looks quite familiar to the picture I have in mind from passing by the aircraft.</font>
As to the aircraft, I do not remember the full registration, but I think D-ABUW looks quite familiar to the picture I have in mind from passing by the aircraft.</font>
it's the one with the white tail. It seems as if they caught you on photo:
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/403190/M/
Aug 21, 2003, 11:26 pm
#12
Suspended
Join Date: May 2001
Location: DUS
Posts: 4,004
Hi Dirk,
Thanks for the report.Just returned from LAX and we had the same meal you described in C on the way to LAX.
To be honest, the veal appetizer was ok, my brother had the salmon, which was disgusting and I had the chicken, which was ok.
In between snacks were basicly non existent on LH 456, slept for a few hours and after that only Milka chocolate bars and some chrisps were left.
The second meal service on the 11 hour FRA-LAX service was not even up to the standards of a charter carrier.It is beyond my wildest expectations how an airline can serve Frittata or sea bass only, we are talking about an 11 hour flight after all !!
What about a second full meal service, at least on the longer EU-West Coast flights ??
Service on the way back in Y was completely out of this world, first time in my flying life so far, that I was under the impresion that parts of the young LH crew were not up to the tasks of serving a full 744 cabin...
Thanks for the report.Just returned from LAX and we had the same meal you described in C on the way to LAX.
To be honest, the veal appetizer was ok, my brother had the salmon, which was disgusting and I had the chicken, which was ok.
In between snacks were basicly non existent on LH 456, slept for a few hours and after that only Milka chocolate bars and some chrisps were left.
The second meal service on the 11 hour FRA-LAX service was not even up to the standards of a charter carrier.It is beyond my wildest expectations how an airline can serve Frittata or sea bass only, we are talking about an 11 hour flight after all !!
What about a second full meal service, at least on the longer EU-West Coast flights ??
Service on the way back in Y was completely out of this world, first time in my flying life so far, that I was under the impresion that parts of the young LH crew were not up to the tasks of serving a full 744 cabin...
Aug 29, 2003, 11:11 am
#14
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 1999
Posts: 11,468
Thanks for this very interesting report. I was in one of those NG 767 seats with on a BKK-VIE this spring. This cramped seat with a broken leg rest had me limping with leg pain out of the plane after the 13 hrs. flight. Never ever, will I knowingly book a seat on this plane!
Unfortunately, LH is again providing service-inconsistencies, as encountered often. Even, the meal service does not make US carriers (UA)look that bad.
Unfortunately, LH is again providing service-inconsistencies, as encountered often. Even, the meal service does not make US carriers (UA)look that bad.
Mar 11, 2004, 6:16 am
#15
Moderator: Lufthansa Miles & More, India based airlines, India, External Miles & Points Resources
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: MUC
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Posts: 48,193
djohannw,
I am forced to ride the 767 operated by DE on LH 762 MUC to DEL on June 2 in Y. (Good offer and I have to be in Delhi the next day after working a full day on June 2 in MUC etc etc) I have succeeded in blocking 16A for myself.
You mention that your children were in 16A/B on the NG/DE 767-300.
How was that seat compared to the rest of the seating? Legspace?
Sadly I was told that the moment a needy mother with children shows up, I will loose my seat at check-in as it is one of six bassinet location in the plane. Wish me luck!
Regards Oliver
I am forced to ride the 767 operated by DE on LH 762 MUC to DEL on June 2 in Y. (Good offer and I have to be in Delhi the next day after working a full day on June 2 in MUC etc etc) I have succeeded in blocking 16A for myself.
You mention that your children were in 16A/B on the NG/DE 767-300.
How was that seat compared to the rest of the seating? Legspace?
Sadly I was told that the moment a needy mother with children shows up, I will loose my seat at check-in as it is one of six bassinet location in the plane. Wish me luck!
Regards Oliver