FLIGHT#19
Lufthansa Airlines #772
Bangkok, Thailand (BKK) – Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (SGN)
Date: Dec. 3, 2010
Departure: 17:15
Arrival: 18:30
Length: 0:55
Miles flown since start of trip: 37,884 mi.
Aircraft: Boeing 747-400
Seats: FIRST 82AC, BUSINESS 1K
I booked many tickets as part of our world tour that were not included in the sixteen segments of our Oneworld Round-The-World ticket. Because we travel with about
100kg of bags plus three carry-ons, I always tried to book us in business class if the price was at all reasonable.
When booking this segment, I was very pleased to see that my dear friends at Lufthansa offered a
5th freedom flight from Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh city at a price half of what Thai or Vietnam Airways wanted. The benefit of LH was they flew a 747 which meant their tilty lie-flat seat.
Then about two weeks before departure, I decided to
burn 30,000 orphan LH miles and upgrade the hubby and son from biz to first class. I was on a FF ticket using UA miles so I was stuck in business class. I considered this a good political move since soon Corbin and I would be in EK FC on the A380 while hubby was in Y. The back story is that he
didn’t want to do the dishes a couple of months back so I got him to agree to that one at a weak moment. Normally our rule is that I cook and he does the dishes. I had cooked this amazing Indian meal for a group of our friends. At the end, our tiny German kitchen looked like a WWII war zone. After they all left, he asked me if I would trade cleaning the kitchen for anything that I wanted. Of course, in the back of my mind, I had something. We would be flying Emirates A380 from Sydney to Auckland in Y but I had enough miles to get an award ticket in FC. But I still felt guilty about taking advantage of him. When I booked it, I realized that I had enough miles for one more person. But since our son can’t fly by himself in Y, I upgraded him instead of my husband. Relationships can be complicated.
So this portion of the trip began after a lovely flight from Krabi, Thailand to Bangkok (
click here to read that trip report).
We landed in BKK and followed the signs to International Departures. Soon enough we were in the departure area looking for the
Lufthansa transfer desk. Once we found it, a small sign announced that no one would man the desk until two hours before departure.
With two of our family in First Class and me in Business, I was hoping that all of us could spend our four transit hours in the
Thai Airways Royal First lounge. Luckily the very kind lounge attendant took down our details and welcomed us in. He simply asked that we give him the lounge invitation once we got our LH boarding passes. Why isn’t life always this simple?
Immediately we were shown into our own
private living room. The lounge has eight or ten private living rooms each of which has a couch, several chairs, a desk area and your own Bang & Olufsen TV. It was a perfect space for the three of us to enjoy our four hours.
Terry and Corbin enjoy our own private living room
Our B&O TV, Terry and his champagne
For those passengers not lucky enough to get a living room, the lounge offers lots of seating. We never saw the lounge at anything close to capacity. A couple of times, we noticed it would get kind of full and then a blink later, it would be empty.
The non-living room part of the First Class lounge
A large selection of newspapers
As we sat down in our living room, we were handed
a menu and our drink orders were taken. The menu was a bit limited for a first class lounge but all delicious. Our attendant also mentioned that samples of all the food could be seen in a room at the end of the hall. Corbin and I made the
pilgrimage to the food room and decided that we would have to try a few of the items.
The following pictures are just a sample of what we ate during our four hour stay. I forgot to take pictures of some of the items. We also drank a bit. It’s difficult to say no when they come by every five minutes to ask if you’d like another drink or something else to eat.
Please don’t judge us. We were just trying to make them feel like they were doing their jobs.
The main dishes on offer in the food room
More options
Cheese and sweets
If you don’t have your own private living room, you might choose to eat here.
Delicious fish cakes
Shui Mai Dim Sum
The national dish, Pad Thai