Happy to join the LH F Club, though i'm sure this TR is about as unique as a Camry in an Applebee's lot.

After a lovely trip through Croatia and Slovenia, it was time to head back to the reality. It’s not too tough to say goodbye when you’re holding a Lufthansa First ticket, but I can’t say enough about both countries as destinations.



More pictures follow report. This was just past the Austrian border looking back at Slovenia.



Not my plane

Up until today, this flight was supposed to be operated by the A319. It seems Adria does plenty of last minute down gauging and only likes to fly the A319 if the load justifies it. That was fine with me since i’ve never flown the -900 and it’s arguably more comfortable in J class with the other seat blocked off.


All Adria today

The airport was very quiet early on this Sunday morning. Actually, I can’t imagine ever seeing it particularly bustling with the current traffic. I’d like to see increased service here (from the likes of BA, etc). I did buy a slick Adria CR9 model at the gift store near check in… only to discover it 10 euros cheaper at duty free. Bah.

First though, was a trip to the storied Adria lounge /sarcasm. In a cruel twist of irony this was actually my best lounge experience of the day.



You have to walk up a stairway that looks positively residential, and there are no windows… but the seats were actually a very comfortable place to relax and they had a decent selection of sandwiches/pastries/beverages, none of which I was hungry for at this hour.

Since there are only 4 jet bridges at LJU, we inevitably had to bus to remote stand.


Lovely early morning at LJU




A319 in the bullpen apparently



Adria Airways 116
Ljubljana LJU- Frankfurt FRA
D: 7:00
A: 8:25
CRJ-900


The flight quickly got underway from this point and we took off to the southeast and turning 180 degrees.





It was a wonderfully clear day for views for views of the Julian and Austrian alps along the way.


Lake Bled, where I rowed to that island the previous day


Julian Alps

The Business cabin size is based on demand and consists of a standard seat with the neighbor seat blocked off.




Service began and I was offered a pretty nice breakfast spread. Passable egg dish with hash brown, a yogurt/museli parfait of sorts, tasty fresh fruit, and an overabundance of rolls.




Over Austria now


No IFE which is a shame given the quality and diversity of Slavic television.






We passed to the north of Munich before veering left into Frankfurt and looping around for an approach to the 7s. Flight time was apprx 1:10.



Don’t have too much to say about the crew. Didn’t have much interaction but they seemed nice enough and it was a perfectly pleasant flight on Adria.

We taxied for some time through a maze of remote stands until we found ours.


Now, I had never flown Lufthansa First, so I was quite excited about the whole experience awaiting me.

In terms of FRA transit, this didn’t go well.

I don’t want to rant here, but this was a completely stressful and unpleasant experience all around. Some of it was from my unrealistic expectations. Some of its my fault for perhaps not having the best strategy for getting to the correct lounge to maximize the layover. But most of it is from the ridiculous labyrinth called Frankfurt airport and categorically unpleasant LH employees along the way.

First off, despite checking everywhere I could, I always got conflicting or ambiguous reports whether or not LH would send a car to pick me up from my Adria flight. This was not the case.

So fine. To the bus it was, and a 10 minute joyride to the opposite end of where I wanted to be.

It might take a PhD to understand Frankfurt airport and i’m not exactly sure where we were dropped off, but it was very, very FAR from my 748 at Z69.

Once the 10 minute ride ended, I experienced the full effects of the Frankfurt labyrinth. Tunnels. Elevators. Moving walkways. Broken Elevators. Broken moving walkways. Walking. More walking. Long passport control line. My precious layover time was quickly evaporating.

Since I was travelling with my parents and they were in Business, (I know, I’m a dick, but it wasn’t my fault!) I wanted to leave one in the Business lounge and take one as a guest to the First Lounge. Was not that simple.

Once I finally arrived at –what- Z-level?, near the circular atrium area where the lounges are located, I started looking for a sign or entrance to the F lounge. I later found out it was a level down on the Schengen level.

So by process of elimination, I joined the HUGE line to the Business/Senator Lounges. When I got to the front I was told the F lounge was below and I’d have to re-clear security first for that level. I inquired about returning here to meet family members and then walk to the gate, but the agent was rather terse and unaccommodating. The numerous people reaching over my shoulders to show their ticket wasn’t helping matters. Since it was almost 9:30 already, I made a rash decision to just stop by the Senator Lounge for a few minutes and just head to the gate.

Senator Lounge was ok, but crowded and I just had a quick plate of decent scrambled eggs, overall frustrated how this transit turned out from my lofty expectations.

We headed all the way down to Z69, a good 10 min walk. I was expecting a secondary security screening at the gate, but there wasn’t any… greatly contrasting my Munich experiences.


Time for some gate pics


A380 heading to Houston


Ah, there she is. The venerable Queen after several rounds with Everett’s finest plastic surgeons.




I see you.



Lufthansa 430
Frankfurt FRA-Chicago ORD
D: 10:45
A: 12:50
747-8

I wasn’t sure how Lufthansa would do its first class boarding at the gate, since most passengers would be driven from the lounges. Boarding started a little late amidst throngs of gate lice. First was a pre-board allegedly for families, during which half the state of Kerala felt the need. Really itching to get onboard, I walked up to the unoccupied agent at this point and asked if F could board yet. No.

So I turn around with my tail between my legs… defeated once again, only to hear her make the announcement literally 30 seconds later for First/Business. Naturally I am now pushed to the end of Business queue about 70 deep. (the 748 has 92 J seats). Thanks for that.

When I finally got onboard and took the precious left turn into the 747’s nose, I was elated sit down and press the reset button. Luckily the rest of the experience met the hype.

This is one beautiful airplane, and it was a real thrill to fly on her.


Ahh…this is more like it

Several crew introduced themselves and had a bit of a chat. Also chatted with my neighbor across the aisle who was unabashedly instagramming the hell out of this.. and who could blame him! This isn’t something you get to do everyday.

Grand Siecle was served along with macadamia nuts. Pajamas and amenity kits were also delivered. They were the Escada leather cases. Not too exciting for me. Business class did get a cool football themed kit.



Seat 3K


My throne for the next 8 hours! Not nearly long enough.




Understated and classy new Lufthansa First cabin.

We pushed back a little late and got in line for runway 25. I guess the direction of operations shifted during my layover. For some reason the nose gear was extremely loud during turns. Like nails on the chalkboard.

Company traffic






I inexcusably forgot to turn on one of the exterior cameras at this point. Takeoff was quite bumpy and climbout was in some pretty rough air.






Here is the quintessentially weird Lufthansa F menu.

Not even going to bother pasting the beverage menu. There was Grand Siecle. There was Johnnie Walker Blue. And I had no intentions of drinking anything under $200/bottle.


Amuse bouche was a nice cut of salmon


More champers. Flossy flossy


Breads came first


In case you forget where you are. With this booze selection it was a distinct possibility.




Caviar time! Delicious.

Then came the starter assortment. The several chunks of lobster among the beet nonsense were good. Trilogy of Beetroot? I'll take the Godfather. Hell, i'll take the Hangover. The slow cooked corn-fed poulard tasted… like chicken. And the Tomato Salad 2014 was a marked improvement over the crime against humanity formerly known as Tomato Salad 2013.



Was not offered the nasty sounding gazpacho and did not wish to be.

I was torn on the main, so the f/a recommended the monkfish and I generally have good luck with fish on planes. He also said I could try something else later.




The monkfish turned out to be pretty good. A little tough but had a nice taste to it.

The bulgur wasn’t a very substantive side so I decided to ask for a side of the asparagus entrée. The other f/a didn’t seem as keen on the idea, saying it would take time to warm up. That’s fine. I got nothin’ but time… pass the asparagus.





This rounded out the meal nicely. I heard J also received obscene amounts of white asparagus with their entrees.

The sketchy sounding Whisky cake with green tomato tasted slightly better than expected, so let's just pretend the "confit" doesn't look like a Teletubby threw up on my plate. I also took this as indication to move onto the Johnnie Walker Blue portion of the flight.







Disappointingly it was nowhere near blue, so I quickly moved on to the UV Blue which was excellent.

I know that's not even something to joke about.

All in all it was a very enjoyable meal service.

Afterwards, I took the grand tour.

The 747-8 is currently the longest passenger airplane in the world. It will hold the title until the 777-9 takes flight.


Main deck J class. There are also 32 business seats on the extended upper deck.


The new stairway has awesome foyer-like properties


Redesigned wing and GEnx engines


Amongst the cheery commoners ☺




Swanky F bathroom

When I got back, I reclined the seat and relaxed a little. I had no intentions of sleeping though.. why would I?

I purchased the wifi package for around $20, which is always a good way to pass the time for me. I even got google hangout to work, which I thought was a great opportunity to BRAG share a unique experience with a dear friend.


The f/a suggested I try a 21 year old single malt that wasn’t on the menu. I believe it was Aberfeldy. It was excellent and preferable to the JWB for me.







Contrary to conventional wisdom, this was not the Lufthansa equivalent of a “happy ending”

The “Special Moments” menu entitled “Summer in the Mountains” was distributed.



This turned out to be a seriously impressive snack spread.


The warm herrengrostel


Then this meat and cheese wonderland complete with a little friend


The smorgasbord in all its glory. Go big or go home.


They like to stuff you with pretzels

Then on to dessert



This frozen “kaiserschmarrn” was very impressively presented, but it was really not to my taste at this point. So much food. So much scotch. And this rum-soaked concoction did not sit well.



Cool Airshow







Definitely a nice place to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon










Auf Wiedersehen

In some sort of coup de grace, the agent in LJU had forgotten to priority tag my suitcase, and it ended up being The. Last. Bag. Off. Do you know how many bags a 748 can carry? Neither do I. I can’t count that high. It just wasn’t my day for airports.


Overall

Crew: Good. Nothing that blew me away, but nothing that disappointed me either. One f/a was friendlier and more engaging than the other, but this can simply be language and personality difference. The supervisor/purser was very nice and stopped by several times.

Food: Very good. Despite the typical ridiculousness of Lufthansa menus, most dishes turned out well. The mains were more along the lines of what I’d expect in Business class. The luxury items/ alcohol and special touches were all top notch. I was also very impressed by extent of the second meal service.

Entertainment: Good, not great entertainment selection. I spent most of the time using the wifi. Resolution was a little disappointing. Outside cameras and airshow graphics were very cool.

Seat/Amenities: Large and spacious. Some would like more privacy, but it didn’t bother me in this instance. For normal lounging, the ottoman was almost too far away, but I’m not going to complain about excess room. Side table for drinks/snacks was also not a comfortable reach. I’m sure the mattress/bed conversion would’ve been very comfortable if I had wanted to sleep. Bose headsets are great. Amenity kit sufficient but unexciting to me. Electronic double window shades can provide hours of fun. Like the rose touches. Like I said, understated and classy.

Frankfurt transit: At the least, very confusing. With all the glory of the First Class Terminal experience, many things could be done to provide a better experience for F transit passengers, or any passenger. Lounge locations and other policies unexplained and counterintuitive, even when I had done some research. I hope I just caught some employees on a bad day.


Despite some snags, it was mostly pleasant and eye opening experience to fly one of the best First Class products out there.

Thank you for reading!