Hi all, a while back I posted a Lufthansa new business class review on Altimtr, a FRA-IAD flight on the 747-8I, and wanted to share it with y'all here. Hope you enjoy. For the full report including more photos, you can go here. Meanwhile, here are the highlights.





Although we’ve never flown Lufthansa’s previous generation business class, it is with certainty that we rate their new business class a major improvement. The new seat, which we experienced onboard the 747-8I from Frankfurt to Washington-Dulles (IAD), is truly lie-flat, soft, and very comfortable. The cabin looks great, service is dependable and professional, and the 747-8I is a dream.

There are a few issues with the seats and the cabin. Similarly, there were service failings, but they were mostly minor. The flight was lovely overall, and we’d especially seek these seats out if traveling in a pair. We’re also convinced they’d be plenty comfortable on longer sectors, and we’d look forward to trying them out again for more hours at a time.

Meanwhile, the 747-8I is a beautiful machine – all the old-time romance of a 747 with all the latest technology you can put in a commercial aircraft. As verified #avgeeks, we were giddy with excitement at the prospect of this flight.

Seat & cabin



The new Lufthansa business class seats, though very comfortable and nice to look at, aren’t on the level of the new Cathay Pacific and American Airlines business class seats which feature direct aisle access for everyone – a crucial difference if you ask us. Here, we still have to contend with a seatmate – great for those traveling in a pair, but a little iffy when solo considering what much of the competition offers these days.

What’s more, these seats have a unique design in which the two seats in a pair angle inward at the legs, so that the foot-space at the bottom of the seat is directly adjacent, and only separated by a flimsy barrier, from that of your seatmate. Thankfully, we found that this wasn’t much of an issue – we never felt on the verge of accidental footsie and there was no inter-seat awkwardness to speak of. In many ways the comfort of the seat makes up for the drawbacks of its cabin layout.



The cabin looks gorgeous – gone are the garish blues of the old business, with just the right amount of Lufthansa yellow remaining. The 747-8I has the added advantage of a more intimate-feeling upper deck arranged 2x2 (as opposed to 2x2x2 on the main deck). We were happy with the cabin except for one aspect: we noticed that pieces of the interior such as window shades and bathroom door locks felt flimsy and cheap. We’d hope that’s an anomaly and not a sign of what’s to come from Boeing in the future – it hardly ruined the flight, but we found it odd.

Where to sit

The upper deck gets our vote every time, although the main deck is a little bit quieter as it’s more insulated from the sound of air rushing past the fuselage.

Among upper deck options, we’d recommend any seat in rows 85 through 87, but this will depend on individual preference. We sat in 84A, an exit row seat where there’s no one directly in front of you so that it feels a little more private, and there’s a slightly sturdier barrier between the two footwells to fight against inadvertent foot-touching. However, the seats behind row 84 benefit from one more window, and the view back towards the beautiful 747-8I wing is better from those seats as well, so we’d tend to opt for those.

Service - inflight

Two flight attendants served the upper deck and were generally responsive and professional, though one seemed a bit less interested in her job than the other. In our experience, service on Lufthansa has always been competent and perfectly adequate if a bit distant and ‘functional’, and the new business class offered no exception in this instance. Business class service primarily ought to function well and this service certainly does that.

Food and drink

The food and drink in general were quite good – it was all perfectly edible and even tasty. We especially enjoyed the pre-arrival ginger stew with chicken which struck us as just the right thing for the end of a transatlantic westbound flight. They made a nice gin & tonic as well.



One point on which they didn’t do so well in the meal service: the main dish at lunch was served with the foil still on. We’d say that in business class, the meal should arrive with presentation in mind, and that foil on top is a little too much like economy class.

Service - ground

We connected at Frankfurt in order to board this flight so we didn’t experience the normal check-in and security process. However the connection was painless, a lucky break at Frankfurt which is famously labyrinthine and known for endless walks through several security checks seemingly designed to bewilder.

The Senator lounge in the non-Schengen “Z” gate area is very nice to look at, though it was very busy when we passed through in the early afternoon and we didn’t linger long.

Entertainment

The entertainment system left much to be desired. The screen had a very poor resolution with lots of pixellation, especially on the moving map which looked like something from the late 90s. The film and television show selection was underwhelming. The entertainment menu wasn’t intuitive nor nice to look at. And the headphones looked pretty cheap, although sound quality wasn’t too terrible. Generally it seems to us Lufthansa could do a lot to improve here.

Onboard offerings

Amenity kits and blankets look great and work as advertised. The kits contain the standard range of non-memorable but adequate products. Blankets and pillows are reasonably comfortable. And we appreciated the sunflowers in the business class lavatories.

What to fix

Our table was a bit droopy and there were a few stains on it – one of the few moments of sloppiness on the flight. We’d like to see the sort of quality control we’d expect from LH throughout, including on the tray tables.

Pay a little more attention to meal presentation.

Upgrade the entertainment systems to proper HD resolution with good sound and a better catalog of films, etc.

What’s with the cheap-feeling windowshades etc? Boeings always feel solid inside and out, so we found ourselves wondering why the bathroom door lock felt as if it might break off if we weren’t careful.