Croatian Y SPU-MUC Lufthansa F MUC-LAX United Y LAX-MRY
I was glad that I changed my ticket to add Split and also spent the extra miles on my existing J ticket to fly LH F. I had done LH F on paid flights when it was great with GPUs doing a mixed UA Y to J ticket EWR-EUR and LH F EUR-JFK. I had done both the A380 and 747-8i but not on the A340 (my favorite plane). Prior to this also my LH flights were all East Coast except for FRA-LAX in J coming home from CPT. Anyways more on it later.
The early morning flight from SPU on Croatian is on a Dash-8 so that was an extra "bonus" to fly the prop plane. I assumed that it was Y only layout for the sub 2h flight. I didn't feel "cheated" by not having the intra-EU flight not being a J award.
I thought the OLCI was weird when it got re-routed to a 3rd party. Seems the airport is all handled by one central 3rd party company. All the flights and airlines are at the same counters. Luckily there is a J/*G/Premium line which by passed the crowds.
Literally right behind passport control before the escalators to the departure area is the Lounge.
Nothing amazing, but places to sit compared to the crowded upstairs. Just some nuts and crisps, I went upstairs to try and get a bite and was pretty SOL. The duty free place at least had these fig protein bars.
The plane came in from Zagreb landing 5 min before our boarding time. Luckily it was a quick turn and we were bussed out to the plane.
There was 3 rows of J in front of me behind the curtain. However, some rows had 2 people sitting next to each other so it wasn't even adjacent seat blocked...just a try of food instead of these sweet olive oil crackers.
When we landed at a non-gate position I saw a silver MB and thought "great, they are doing a transfer service". Once I got out and noticed the guy was talking to ground crew and it looked a little more used and abused than the limos that it wasn't for me. I had always thought it was always LH-LH transfers but another FTer mentioned he thought it was any LH group-LH that got it. In any event this meant going all the way to the main terminal and then taking the train back to the satellite terminal to get to the F lounge. I would still have about 90-100 minutes to enjoy.
I forgot how slow the water takes to build up...luckily I had enough time to draw a bath and actually soak for a bit.
Had a few more bites and whiskey after the bath before I would head out to the gate. Since it was on the the other side of the terminal + security I left about 10 min before boarding time.
I hadn't boarded LH F without an escort/driver but I assumed it was the same skirmish like LX F/J/*G that get called at once. Surprisingly she did call F first and made a few people wait.
A warm welcome on board. I noticed the clock ticking down to departure. When I looked at the seat map around OLCI I thought it seemed like 4 seats were taken. I noticed the FA had only one set of PJs and kit (women's prepped) on the front counter. Doors closed and a random lady took 1K with me in 2A each having our own side of the cabin.
The purser introduced herself but the star of the show was the lead FA taking care of us in the cabin. She was absolutely wonderful. The right amount of cheeriness/conversation with professionalism and outstanding service.
The reisling and CdF were both great wines. I got pretty drunk with the champagne, vodka and wine.
Lobster+cream cheese amuse bouche.
Oh god why do I always think I should try a cold soup. It almost always makes me want to vomit. I've had maybe one or two fruity (melon mostly) ones in the past that were fine but this with the trout cream and cheese was a no go. The FA and I had a good laugh about it.
Very good lamb shoulder.
I thought I was going to sink in and watch a movie but feeling that I was going to zonk out the FA made the bed up across the aisle from me while I brushed my teeth.
A few hours of sleep were good and would do enough to make me rested to finish up the day in California and go to bed at a normal time to get on schedule.
While working on photos I ordered a snack of the chorizo (good spicy kick to it) pasta and some ice cream.
So I was a little confused with the menu. It had the whole first meal run of show and then a page of snacks on the next. I thought maybe they would present a new pre-arrival menu card; but, it turns out it is a choose your own adventure meal from that before landing. Honestly, I would have liked a proper meal service. Sure, I made one of myself but there's reasons now and then you like going to the chef's tasting vs. a buffet.
The tom kha was a let down.
I love that the LF F salads always have great greens, herbs and edible flowers.
Global Entry was easy as pie in the swamped TBIT. The LH F ground rep apologized that my bag didn't come out first because it didn't have the F/HON tag on it. I said I figured that would be the case because I've flown before where I didn't start on the F carrier and it wasn't a big deal I had a 3h lay over. Though when I've flown TG F and NH F connecting from a J flight that didn't get the F tag at check-in that at NRT or BKK they've added it on themselves behind the scenes.
Slowly made my way in the fresh air over to T7 after giving Tom Ford a once over while he was waiting with 4 Rimowa (Salsa) suitcases with a handler.
A confusing sign in the middle of nowhere.
Decent pulled pork at the cantina thing in the 80s gates.
A full flight to MRY with the only empties being next to me and the guy across the aisle from me.
Happy to be home.
In a few days flying to Hawaii to race the Spartan Beast and after that New Zealand in November and Thailand in December.