For my trip to Spain I found a very good offer on Lufthansa. With their WEXTRA1 ticket which had to be paid 35 days in advance I only paid about 200 Euros including tax for my trip between Copenhagen (CPH) and Malaga (AGP). Routing I booked was CPH-MUC-AGP with an extra early departure to get to fly with LH Cityline CRJ. My dates were 11 Jun 03 outbound and 23 Jun 03 going home.
About two weeks before my trip I checked my itinerary on Virtuallythere.com and found that I had been rerouted on an flight leaving MUC before I had even got there. A call to my travelagent who called LH and reason was resolved. My MUC-AGP flight had been cancelled and discussions with LH about my rerouting started. LH offered me CPH-MUC-FRA-AGP, flight one day before or later, or full refund. They wouldn't let me fly CPH-FRA-AGP which didn't bother me, being a flyertalker :-) Nor did they agree on giving me an upgrade because of my extra hassle. And hassle it was, since I was now leaving a couple of hours earlier from the airport and living far away from it I had to spend a night at a friends place the night before travelling. I will write to LH about this. Also sad was that now there would be no Cityline CRJ.


SK 661 Copenhagen - Munich
08:55-10:35
M90 / Seat 27F


Arriving half an hour late at the airport because of the train I started with going to the SAS ticket desk to get my new ticket. There was a, how can I explain her, a lady who didn't talk but more screamed. I did not get a good impression of her at all. She told me all upgrading was handled by gate agents and gave me two new tickets. I remarked that I would need three tickets and without asking she instead checked me in all the way right there. No choosing seats or nothing. Luckily I got window seats like I wanted anyway.

At the gate I asked for an upgrade and the agent told me they have totally stopped with upgrades like that. The flight was almost full and a small breakfast was served with juice, coffee or tea. While deplaning I started to chat with one of the FA who had heard about my rerouting and felt very sympathetic which was nice.


LH 191 Munich - Frankfurt
11:15-12:25 (half an hour late)
A300-600 / Seat 30A

At the gate in MUC I once again asked for an upgrade but was told no such were possible. So I asked if I could get a new seat further up front in the plane which was ok. The plane was supposed to be an A321 but had been changed to this A300-600 and load was about 80%.

If felt funny being on a widebody for such a short route. Once in the plane we were delayed because of two missing passengers whose luggage had to be unloaded. On the plane a cold drink was served without any snack.


LH 4264 Frankfurt - Malaga
13:35-16:30
A321 / Seat 22A

At the gate in FRA I once again asked for an upgrade. Maybe from seeing the tired me who had hardly slept or ate the gateagent agreed after hearing my story. She started typing in her computer and said an upgrade would probably be possible. That was, until she saw I was travelling in W-class. She said she couldn't upgrade when flying in such a cheap class. So on to the plane I went without any upgrade.

When the gate-agents put my ticket in the machine accidentally no boarding pass came out. It had mysteriously disappeared so a new one had to be printed out for me. The plane was around 95% full. I went to my seat and it was already occupied. Turns out the man before me in the line had been given my boarding-card and his own. What was worse (?) was the he didn't know he was seated in business seat 3F which I saw when i asked to look at his boarding pass! So he went forward and i took his real seat.
An american (I think) who seemed to have had a drink before the flight approached me and asked why we had switched seats. I explained but he wasn't satisified because the one I changed with had left his bag in the overhead compartment where I sat. I told the man to go up to seat 3F and sort it out since I didn't want to get up, disturbing the two people next to me. He wasn't happy with my denial to cooperate but I felt I had explained everything and that he was just plain stupid. He went to the FA who came to me and asked what was going on. Luckily I know german and could talk to her in that language so the american (?) couldn't understand. She went to talk to the man in 3F and soon his bag was moved and my terrorist-label was removed, or so I hope.

Meal service on this 3h flight was like a joke, the food tasted good but it was so little that I don't understand how anyone could be satisfied with it. The meal consisted of a cold plate of ham and some sallad, a milka-bar and two sorts of bread.


I arrived to Malaga fine but hungry and tired and could start my vacation in Granada. 12 days later in was time for me to go home:


JK 141 Malaga - Munich
13:30-16:25
A320-200 (EC-IPI) / Seat 10F

There was noone at check in in Malaga so i had to check in at the business counter. Since I was in very good time (seq number 4 on BP) the checkin-agent asked if I wanted exit rows, I told her yes but was a bit worried they wouldn't have windows (they did on both my flight luckily). Waiting in Malaga was good because the runway is close to the windows so you are pretty close to the takeoffs/landings.

I saw my plane land and it was painted in Star-Alliance colours. Upon boarding I noticed that the plane looked very, very fresh. Everything had the right colours, nothing was torn. (I later found out that the plane was very newly delivered). The plane even featured small lcd-screens in the roof for IFE. Before takeoff they showed a computerized safety-demonstration and apart from some candid-camera clips it showed the usual inflight map during the flight. Also head-phones were handed out for the audio-channels available.

During my stay in Spain I had discovered that I was most probably intolerant to gluten and so I had ordered a gluten-free meal for this flight. When the crew served me they discovered that they had gotten my salad and desert, ie my plate but not the main dish. So after some commotion the very friendly crew gave me one of their own meals. It was two big pieces of meat with ham and mushroom and sauce served on porcelaine. After having eating I actually felt full I think for the first time on a plane.
Only funny thing was that there was a package of butter on my plate, funny because I couldn't eat bread.

So sitting on exit row seat on a brand new plane with good food and very good crew made me feel extra good. This single flight was the best I have made so far.

You could really tell the SAS influence on Spanair: Boarding-passes look the same, inflight magazine is called Spanorama (SAS has Scanorama) and featured article about Swedish car maker Volvo. Also in the magazine where inflight movies were listed the pictures were of video-covers with Swedish titles!


SK 1662 Munich - Copenhagen
17:05-18:45
M80 / Seat 20F

For this flight no special meals could be booked since meal service was only listed as a refreshment. So upon boarding the plane i told the purser that I would be happy if anything else but the sandwich could be served to me. With the meal service I was given an apple instead of the sandiwch. A couple of minutes later another steward also gave me a vegetable snack-pack with carrots and beans.
The steward was a little annoyed when I ordered beer with my apple because he meant it contained gluten. I explained to him it is in such small dosis that it is insignificant and I can drink it without problem (I did my research :-) ).

I feel it is a shame SAS has reduced their inflight service like this. There used to be a real meal, after meal drink service and so on. Now there was only coffee/tea. What I mean is that why should I as a low-fare flyer care to fly with SAS when their product soon so closely resembles to that ot low-cost companies? Well, anyway, I will still stay loyal to SAS as long as I can.


So this was it. First time on LH and JK. In short:
SK (SAS) was what I had expected after the cuts lately. Only ok.
LH (Lufthansa) was ok also nothing more.
JK (Spanair) was the big surprise, very good service!


Thanks for reading and happy flying!



[This message has been edited by PappaG (edited 08-14-2003).]

A nice report. I'll be sampling JK in August (ARN-BCN on a MD-80), glad to hear that they're still offering full-fledged service even in coach.

How was the new Star Alliance terminal in MUC?

The new Star alliance terminal T2 at MUC opens on Sunday, June 29th 2003 - in two days! So, PappaG had no chance to see it.

Yep, you are right. There were still signs abou treconstruction in MUC when I was there so during my stay I just had some of the free coffee and waited.

Oh, I somehow had gotten an impression that it was already open. Well, I suppose we'll see a trip report covering it pretty soon.

Pappa G, I wonder, why you've asked three times for an upgrade ? Especially payed W-fare and with special meal ordered... Aeroplane is not a restaurant and f/a are not waiters !!!
Does it make you feel someone better ?
Yesterday I get a C-class boarding pass on LO flight HAM-WAW without any asking, it was just allocated in the system (Thank You LOT)) - it was nice - tasty, warm meal, steel cutlery , but it's only 1:20 flight... I arrived to Warsaw in the same time that Y-pax... HOLD ON.

LH had rerouted me making me leave CPH a couple of hours earlier. This meant I could not leave my hometown the same morning as planned but had to start my trip one day early in order to make it to the airport in time. Also my rerouting meant more plane changes and a more complicated trip.
I had not ordered any special meal on my way out.
Please note I was all the time very polite and got acknowledgements from most of the airline-agents I talked to.