Hi all,
So I wanted to update everyone on my "Porsche First Class Excitement" experience.
Mrs. Tridentnyc and I arrived at FCL A and promptly asked the PA at the check in desk if she could arrange the rental for us. She told us not to worry and that she would handle everything. Ten minutes later she returned to where we were enjoying some of the buffet items with our reservation and paperwork. I thanked her profusely and explained the issues I and other Flyertalk members were having booking either online or over the telephone with Avis. She said they were well aware of this issue and that LH First Class Services found this issue very frustrating and asked if I and other FT members might write some emails to Avis complaining to help resolve the issue. Again, LH is well aware of the broken booking site and the phone number which never gets answered. I plan on writing Avis after this posting.
We went down to the Avis counter where there were two long lines, one for Avis Preferred members, which I am and the other for everyone else. I had a rather unhelpful and surly counter agent who couldn't find my reservation under a "Preferred" booking and insisted I step aside after ten minutes on line so she could help another "Preferred" member with their reservation, this cost us another ten minutes as the standard line which Mrs. Tridentnyc was on wasn't moving any faster. About after twenty minutes we got the reservation completed and I was handed the keys.
As has been the experience, the route maps were NOT loaded into the GPS, even after I had the LH F PA make a second call to the Avis counter to request the maps be loaded...oh well, guess Avis isn't interested or can be bothered. As our time was now somewhat limited and we both wanted to experience the FCT for at least an hour, we only had about 75 mins with the 911 before it would be time to board, so I decided to take a page out of JohnRain's book and to high tail it over to Wiesbaden. I used the 911's GPS to Wiesbaden's City Center and it worked like a charm!
This was my first time behind the wheel of a 911 and it didn't disappoint, the responsiveness and handling were just awesome...an utterly fantastic use of 99€ and a long layover at FRA.
I thought both the FCL A and the FCT were fantastic and I'm glad I experienced the 911 drop-off, passport control & security at the FCT as it certainly was the most incredibly serene immigration and security process I've ever experienced. With that said, now that I've done the FCT, I do think in the future I'd probably opt to stay in either the FCL A or B as the amenities are identical and the apron views from the A lounge are far more interesting than the taxi rank view from the FCT as other FT members helpfully pointed out to me earlier.
I'd like to thank all the members here for all the help, especially JohnRain for brining the whole 911 rental possibility to my attention, which I was completely unaware of, thanks JohnRain!
Lastly, my concern over checking our bags was compeletly unfounded as both our bags came out of the chute and on to the carousel in #2 and #3 positions, we actually had no need for the help of the LH F ground services rep who greeted us off the 748 and met us at the carousel, we simply grabbed our bags and ran!
This was my first time flying LH F and the experience really blew me away. The ground services that LH F provides was just faultless and the service in the air was exceptional, perhaps a notch below SQ F onboard in my opinion but still an incredibly lovely experience. Again, thank you all here on FT for helping to make my ten year wedding anniversary trip with Mrs.Tridentnyc a memory of a lifetime!