East Coast Explorer - From Karlsruhe to Washington D.C., Boston and back
Hello everybody,
this trip report covers my recent trip to the US East Coast where I went to Washington D.C. just in time to get hit by a 90°F or 35°C heat wave and to Boston. I took this trip to visit a dear friend of mine in Washington D.C. who I haven't seen for a while and to spent some time with my father in Boston. While I haven't been in Washington D.C. for over eleven years I regularly fly to Boston and see Bean Town as my second home.
The report consists of the following legs:
FRA-IAD on LH418 in Business Class
DCA-BOS on US2030 in Economy
BOS-FRA on LH421 in Economy
The TATL Lufthansa legs were paid by a voucher I got for a voluntary denied boarding (VDB) last year. As some of you may remember last year the Lufthansa ground crews decided to go on strike in spring causing a pretty messed up service until early summer. While Lufthansa has two flights from Frankfurt to Boston and one from Munich in summer the flights were heavily overbooked for several weeks. So it was an easy task to score a 700€ VDB voucher. Thank you European Union for this nice law. I also upgrade the first leg with miles. I took advantage of the North America promotion where the cost for upgrades were reduced from 50.000 to 30.000 miles.
First leg:
Lufthansa
747-400
LH418 FRA-IAD
Seat 14H Business Class
Departure: 1:05pm
Arrival: 15:45pm
I live about 1 hour by train south of Frankfurt International airport. The easiest way for me to get to airport is to use Deutsche Bahn and its ICE service directly to the Airport long distance railway station. To make it even more convenient I checked in online the day before and just had to drop of my luggage at Frankfurt airport before heading to the lounge and gate. The ICE service is pretty reliable and even in 2nd class very comfortable. My train was scheduled to leave at 9:07am and arrived on time.
Karlsruhe Main Station with a advertisement for 75 years of Bürger Maultaschen (Swabian ravioli)
ICE 602 with service to Cologne scheduled for 9:07am
The newest in German Beer Brewing: Beer with Cuba Libre flavor.
ICE3 pulling into the station. This train consists of two individual ICE3 trains connected together.
The train arrived on time and left punctual at 9:07am. Next stop was Mannheim and after that we already pulled into Frankfurt Airport Long distance train station one minute before time.
Display in car 27. We arrived one minute before time.
After arriving at Frankfurt airport I dropped of my luggage, made my way through security and headed for the new Lufthansa Tower Lounge behind gate 65. My flight to Washington Dulles would leave at gate 55. To reach the lounge you take one of two elevators and reach a nice and spacious lounge on top of concourse A. The Lufthansa Business lounge has three areas. A work area with charging terminals where you can charge your various electronic gadgets. A lounge area with lounge chairs and a eating area with tables plus chairs and bar tables and bar stools. The lounge has several alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks available, a fruit bar, some snacks and a toasted sandwich bar.
The self service bar with Becks and Paulaner on tab.
The fruit bar
The best combination ever: Bubbly and Gummi bears
No well known champagne and sparkling wine brands but good quality never the less. Also available the famous Lufthansa Cocktail mix.
The best part of the Tower lounge is the great view. Paradise for plane spotters like me.
Around 12:15pm I made my way to the gate just to find that boarding was delayed to 12:40pm. 12:40pm came and suddenly free style boarding was announced. At least they had two dedicated jet bridges. One for First and Business and one for Economy. On board a friendly f/a welcomed me on board the 747-400 and showed me to my seat 14H.
My seat for the next 8,5 hours.
This time no Gummi Bears
.
The menu:
Gin Tonic, Water and delicious macadamia nuts
The food:
Hors d'oeuvres:
Roman and Rucola Lettuce with marinated Vegetables, stuffed cherry Pepper, fried Mushrooms and Parmesan Cheese accompanied by Balsamic Dressing. As drink a glas of 2008 Casablanca Valley Chardonnay Reserva, Ventisquero, Chile
Entrees:
Pikeperch in Red Wine Sauce with Romanesco, Basmati and Wild Rice.
Cheese and Dessert:
Cambozola, Grana Padano and Provolne Chesse
Amaretti Chocolate Flan
Somewhere over Canada
More food or the pre-landing Snack:
Tomato and Mozzarella with Pesto and Vitello Tonnato
Overall the service and flight was pretty nice. The food was good and the seat is comfortable. Still I can understand people who have problems to sleep on these lie-flat but not horizontal seats. For me this is no problem since I can sleep even in a economy seat. The crew was very nice and attentive but not over caring.
Second leg in next post.