2) LH 417 IAD-FRA - the whole F cabin to myself!
LH417 IAD - FRA Dep 3:00pm Arr 5:15am
Seat 1k
Upon entering I was quickly whisked to my seat 1K. I was holding out for some vague hope that some switch would mean it would be new F, but it was the old product, but still looked pretty good. I was in pretty quick and was still not 100% sure at this stage I'd have the place to myself, so while it was quiet I took plenty of snaps of the very nice cabin.
my home for tonight:
cabin views
I was asked if I wanted a drink, and there is only ever one answer to that question, so on it came.... along with confirmation at this point from the FA that I would have the entire cabin to myself! She said there were two other pax who had switched to the later flight. Frankly having now done this flight I think they made the smart move! But still very nice to know and made the champers all the more enjoyable
Although there were two jet bridges everyone in J boarded through F, so I had to watch the crowd amble through the cabin, along with one guy who for whatever reason insisted on his bags going in F overheads. Go figure. But before long we were all boarded up and ready to go, and after a quick taxi we were up in the air....
Once up in the air, service started pretty quickly... and hey I kind of knew I was going to be first served
First up was a nice little salmon and cucumber amuse-bouche to fiddle with while I perused the menu
Now the thing I normally like about first class dining is you have more interesting options like duck and lamb and some usually exotic stuff, so I was a bit disappointed to see that the offerings this afternoon were basically a first class version of chicken, beef or fish sir?
So anyway I decided to go with the beef. But the best bits were like some of the more beautiful folks in the world all "up-front"! I was asked if I wanted the caviar, with the obvious answer, and whether or not I wanted vodka, which was a less obvious answer. I am not a hard liquor drinker, but it seemed "de-rigeur" so I had to say yes. Anyway caviar was fabulous:
I could have passed on the vodka but hey another glass of champagne easily removed the bad taste. Next up a nice platter of appetizers to choose from, and I took the shrimp and the sirloin, both of which were ab fab:
At this point I glanced outside and saw we were passing over a very exotic looking island, I figured we were too far north for Bermuda and it looks similar but not quite the same, anyone know where this is??? I have no idea:
Anyway back to the food and soon was time for the main course. I had to giggle as each and every time the FA laid out my knive and fork the wrong way around:
The beef turned out pretty nice and well presented:
and by this point I had my own little private bar going... I switched to a Bordeaux red, which was a pleasant but unmemorable Haut-Medoc:
I figure you ain't in F every day, at least I am not, so I basically did not say no to anything. So next up was some nice cheese to help go through the rest of that Bordeaux:
and finally, last but not least, a nice chocolate desert with tea to try help me get some sleep
After all the indulgence it was time to try get some sleep. Oddly they did not hand out pyjamas, just some kind of sweater, so I had to try sleep in my jeans. And I have to say I just could not do it. The problem is the departure time of mid-afternoon, and when you land it is basically around midnight, which is round about the time my body is actually ready for sleep. So try as I did, I could not get a wink of sleep.
Instead I ended up watching a couple of movies on the AVOD, which was a pretty small screen and smaller selection. But the seat was darn comfy. And I had some fun just walking around the cabin trying each seat to check out the view!
I had asked to not be woken up for breakfast, but hey I didn't go to sleep, but unfortunately was too spaced out through lack of sleep to get snaps of the breakfast menu and options. I ended up going with fruit, yogurt and coffee and enjoyed some pleasant views of Frankfurt as we came into land
And then before you know it the F experience was history, but not before checking out at least one the famed F lounges in Frankfurt.....