Background: This winter, I had to fly to Europe for work, so my company paid for business class tickets. I was excited to fly the new A380, which flies the FRA-SFO route. Much to my dismay, however, the A380 doesn’t fly in the winter time! Bad luck. However, there was a silver lining to this negative info. The B747 does fly this route, and LH has re-vamped their B747 first class. I would be able to try the new first class. However, there was even more of perk: the first class on the B747 has BOTH a bed AND a seat! It isn’t like the A380 or the A340/330 series which has a seat that converts into a bed. It has both.

The advantage of having both is that each is better as its individual role. The seat was very luxurious and comfortable. I’d imagine it’s essentially the same seat as that on the A380, only that it doesn’t convert fully to a bed. The bed, however, is where the difference is. That bed is extremely comfortable! It is like a real bed on a hotel. The beauty of the bed is that when you turn on your side, you can look directly out the window and see the sky! It is pretty incredible. Most first class seats, when you lay flat, you only see plastic—the head is shielded so you don’t see anything. But with the B747 LH first, you turn your head and you’re looking straight out the window!

Booking: My company paid for business class, so I could pick basically any day. I wanted to make sure that I got a Europe-SFO flight, because they’re usually 11 hours, which means that I can usually get 7 or 8 hours of sleep on such flights. I upgraded before the flight using a systemwide upgrade. I went to the airport, and applied the systemwide. No problem. LH has stopped this for Z fares, so I’m afraid this will probably be my last experience on LH F (unless I fly C or D fares, which is highly unlikely or use miles to get into LH F).

Experience: One word: amazing. I think this is one of the most amazing flight experiences I have ever had. It’s hard to imagine traveling like this, let alone doing it. To me, this is vastly superior than private jet (not that I’ve ever flown in one, but I have had offers to, which I declined). I feel much safer in a B747 than a Citation or Lear jet, and the room is just incredible.

Only negative:

I would say that the only negative component of this whole experience was the mini-van. 4 dudes who don't know each other packed into the back of a mini-van. Very ghetto. They could have just taken 2 cars and taken 2 of us per car. The fuel costs would have been minimal--the plane wasn't that far. That would have kept the experience truly luxurious. But the ghetto minivan (the kind that they bring bread to the shops with) made the experience very "unluxurious".

My whole experience is captured in a 9 minute video (always 100% commercial-free) here, where you can see all the details:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pes3wGR_YF8

I hope you enjoy it!

Here are some photos to see what the experience was like:


lounge espresso by sfflyer123, on Flickr


screen by sfflyer123, on Flickr


seat & bed by sfflyer123, on Flickr


ready for eating by sfflyer123, on Flickr


caviar by sfflyer123, on Flickr


appetizer by sfflyer123, on Flickr


veal cooked perfectly by sfflyer123, on Flickr


dessert by sfflyer123, on Flickr


petit four & espresso by sfflyer123, on Flickr


in the bed! by sfflyer123, on Flickr


pre-arrival snack 1 by sfflyer123, on Flickr


cookies2 by sfflyer123, on Flickr

Once again, the entire experience is documented in my commercial-free video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pes3wGR_YF8

I do hope you enjoy it!