jonman21

I went on my first ever international first class award in early May, and it was unforgettable. I have all of you wonderful people in the FT community to thank for sharing your wisdom throughout the many years I've been visiting this site. Just a few years ago I likely would've redeemed these miles for a direct SFO-HKG-SFO itinerary. I'm so glad I know better now.

I redeemed 290,000 United miles to book 2 F tickets (since I booked the award in Sept 2010), and my itinerary was as follows:

SFO-FRA (UA F)
FRA-CDG (LH C)
(stop)
CDG-BKK (TG 77W F)
BKK-HKG (TG F)
(dest)
HKG-FRA (LH F)
FRA-SFO (LH A380 F)

When I booked the FRA-SFO leg, it was on a 744, but at the beginning of the year Lufthansa announced that they were going to start A380 service on that route beginning May 10. I got incredibly lucky because my flight was scheduled for May 16 and there were no delays in rolling out the service. It was an incredible experience to be on that brand new plane in such a brand new cabin!

My travel companion is an avid photographer so these are his photos; I do, however, take credit for all the captions. The link I'm posting is the gallery of all of our flights; he also has other galleries posted of our time in Paris and Hong Kong, for those interested.

I hope you enjoy!

http://www.jasonwaltman.com/gallerie...stClassFlying/

matthandy

Wow, what amazing photos! Your travel companion has done a fantastic job and it looks like you both had a good time. It's great that you were able to share this experience.

LH F on the A380 looks very nice indeed, that bathroom is out of this world!

matthandy

Let me add that the photos are exquisite, very professional indeed, especially those of the food. I guess that it helps having a nice, fast lens for this.
Your friend is very talented, I'm jealous

Vanilla320

Amazing photos. Thank you for the way trough the first classes ;-)

Angeleno228

Love the photos, looks like a very exciting trip it was!

Euan

Great photographs and looks like a fantastic trip.

grischtu

Brilliant, just brilliant. For sure you join the top 3 FT photo trip reports challange.
Congrat!

TPJ

Wonderful - many thanks for sharing!

GodAtum

Thanks for the trip report. The first seats on the A380 dont look like they offer any privacy?

malkie

Fantastic photos - really like your style of photography of the terminals.
Can I ask what camera do you have, and what editing software to you use?

jonman21

Thanks for all of the kind messages, everyone! I'll be sure to pass them along.

Thanks so much, matthandy! Your BA trip report is amazing, by the way - new BA First looks fantastic.

The bathroom really was ridiculous! I couldn't believe there were 2 of them for just 8 of us. Having a urinal in there was awesome - and the sink also has an LED light attached to the faucet to let you visually know how hot/cold the water is before you get wet.

Ooh a photo trip report challenge? How exciting! Thanks so much!

I actually preferred the LH A380 F seats to the TG 77W F suites with the sliding doors. It was probably my young TG crew that appeared to be being trained during our flight, but a lot of the time the FAs ignored when our doors were closed and we had the "Do Not Disturb" light on - they'd awkwardly pop their heads over our doors and ask: "Would you like something to drink?" It was odd.

I preferred having the more open space in the LH A380 F cabin - and I didn't feel like there was a lack of privacy because when we put up our electronic privacy sliders, we couldn't see anyone else in the cabin (except if they were getting up to walk to one of the restrooms).

Thanks! I'll pass your comments along - he has a Nikon D300S and uses a combination of Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop to edit photos.

LAXJetter

Ive never liked the A380 from the outside but seeing everyone's first class experience, I might have to give the whale a shot.

nycflyer75

Those pictures were absolutely incredible! Looks like you boys had an awesome time too! Can I say "slightly jealous" lol ^

thaidai

looking forward to our 2nd F run no 380 yet but TG suites great pix

Moomba

Great photos. Thanks for posting.