Cabin
Avro RJ 100 (same as RJ 85) actually is not bad cabin and with five abreast seating (AB-DEF) adopted by SN, the cabin is comfortable, unlike the six abreast seating that BA City Flyer used and the seat is quite narrow. Row 1 is the only business class row, and Row 1A and C are the most comfortable with abundant of legroom. Of course Row 1 disadvantage is the lack of floor storage. 1D&F has slightly reduced legroom.

Business Class row




Row 1 – legroom shot



Headrest-cover – close up of “b” logo and note the leather material used


Sign for b.flex seats


Descent began at 3:35pm and we landed on R/W35R at 3:54pm local time. The landing was nice and short, and we parked at spot “757” five minutes later. I love bus gate, as I can shoot a few close-up pictures of this Avro RJ 100.

OO-DWH at MXP



June 20, 2011
LH 3708 MXP-LIS Lv1030 Arr1220 Airbus A319-100 D-AILH “Palermo”
Operated by Lufthansa Italia

Lufthansa Italia is one of Lufthansa’s ambitious projects and is based in Milan Malpensa Airport with operation to a number of Italian and European cities. Throughout the past year, it is obviously not a profitable airline and continues to cut back on frequencies and routes. Finally everything comes to an end and it will be its last day on August 31st. So I made an effort to make a trip on LH Italia before it runs out of business. The ticket is actually quite reasonably priced – only $188USD one-way discounted business class fare from MXP to LIS. Booking is pretty straightforward at Lufthansa.com and I used the USA website and paid in US dollars. I actually used its “hold a seat for 48 hours with a fee” service and just to make sure that I was able to find a flight back to Helsinki from Lisbon. Lufthansa website is excellent and I am able to confirm a seat assignment and enter my BD number with no issue – just excellent German efficiency.

Check-in:
Online check in and kiosks were available at MXP airport, but since there was no line at the first and business class lines, I used the traditional service and got a boarding pass from a rather boring check-in agent. She was not especially friendly but not rude. She weighed my carryon and just told me to lighten the weight slight, as it was 0.2kg over the 10kg requirement. She said I could do it later and just gave me the “approved carry-on label”. I honestly did not think she particularly cared. Then she told me to use the fast track security line. I did not take picture, as there was no “Lufthansa Italia” logo. It was indeed a normal “Lufthansa” operation.

Lounge
Lufthansa has a Senator/Business lounge at the Schengen area and no picture again, as it is a typical Lufthansa lounge with limited snack – breads and fresh fruits with self-service hot and cold beverages, and alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. There is no complimentary wifi service, but I am able to use my Boingo account. I surfed the web a bit and then headed towards the gate around 9:45am. Milan Airport is better than Rome, but there is a severe lack of seating area and too many shops. Well at least the bathroom is not flooded like the one at check-in level – talk about disgusting.