The Lufthansa First Class Lounge Frankfurt Concourse A

When entering the terminal, I saw that the politician was greeted by a police officer at the gate and followed the signage towards connections for A13-A40. We had arrived at one of the A60 gates, so I expected to be lead to the root of the terminal (where the lounge is located), pass through immigration there and end up right next to the lounge entrance. However, the signage led me all along the 13-40 side of the Z concourse (which is just the floor right above the A concourse) all the way down to gate A/Z 26 where two immigration counters were staffed, one for EU passport holders and one for everybody else. The queue was actually a bit chaotic, however, there was someone in front of the queue trying to sort everybody into the right queue. Still, the entire thing looked a bit chaotic. I only had to wait shortly and then ended up right next to the entrance to the former first class lounge which is now a Lufthansa business class lounge. Hence, I had to walk all the way back through a relatively crowded terminal to the root of the terminal building near gate A13 - the entire process took around 20 minutes, even though I was walking at quite a fast pace. This is actually one more reason to hate transiting through FRA.

When I finally arrived at the lounge (the entrance is quite well hidden and even though it is right next to the business class lounge entrance, you definitely have to know that it is there or you might easily miss it), I was greeted by three very friendly agents who printed my boarding pass for the onward flight to Zürich and advised me that, due to the flight being scheduled to depart from a finger gate, I would have to make my own way to the gate (I only remembered that they are actually offering limousine service to remote gates from this lounge after they told me that I wouldn't be eligible for that).

As I proceeded into the lounge, I was quite surprised that it was much larger and much more spacious than I had expected it to be. In the end, this lounge is primarily intended for people who connect from a long-haul flight to an intra-european shorthaul, and for that purpose it seemed almost ridiculously spacious. I would say that the A lounge is larger than the First Class Terminal, and it is definitely more spacious, as there are only a few seating areas scattered around which are relatively far from each other.





In terms of features, the lounge offers the same services as the first class terminal. There is a smoking room, an attended bar, a restaurant and several shower rooms.





I was actually quite surprised that after entering the lounge I saw the aforementioned politician just finishing his breakfast. As I already suspected that I had taken a wrong turn somewhere and had to walk much farther than I would normally have to, I asked him whether I had actually taken the right checkpoint, to which he replied "no, no, you did everything correctly", and then it dawned to me that he had probably been taken through a back alley by the police officer picking him up at the gate (which he confirmed with a broad grin). There is definitely something about being in possession of a diplomatic passport...

I approached one of the lounge agents and told her about the mishap with the rebooking two days before, and she provided me with some helpful tips on where to complain (oddly, her first suggestion was to call the first class hotline in order to complain, but as they were the ones who had messed up, I didn't really want to have a goat as the gardener, as we say in germany). After sorting that out, I decided to take a shower first and then have a small breakfast in the restaurant. Just like in the FCT, they have one shower room with a baththub (even though I'm not entirely sure who would seriosuly take a bath except for the ability to say "I had a bath in the FCL"), and I was assigned exactly this bathroom (the advantage of this is that you won't have to ask specifically for a rubber duck, as it is already present in the room).







I was a bit disappointed that, except for the bath additive, they didn't provide the Etro Relent cosmetics any more, as I really liked the scent of them. The amenities were still Etro branded, but hardly had any scent to them.





After finishing the shower, I proceeded to the restaurant area to order a coffee and pick a light breakfast from the buffet.







I was really amazed by the extremely wide selection of breakfast items on the buffet, and remember, you can order something from a menu as well. This is definitely a huge advantage over the system which SWISS uses, and where you can only order from a menu. While this is probably much better in terms of economics and sustainability, it is definitely an advantage to have a buffet where you can just help yourself to whatever you like at the moment without having to go through the relatively lengthy process of sitting down somewhere, ordering and then waiting for your order to be prepared. This is definitely something I miss in the SWISS lounges, particularly if it is about small snack items.

Not long after, it was already time to leave the lounge again and head to my departure gate for the final flight of the first part of the journey.

Verdict

Having only been to the First Class Terminal before, I really didn't expect the A lounge to be that spacious. While many people on this forum would always prefer the FCT (probably mainly for the unique experience), the differences really boil down to having a private security screening and being driven to the planes on all departures), the A lounge provides the exact same services, it is more spacious than the FCT (at least it feels like it) and the view is also better. Particularly if someone is arriving on a longhaul and connecting to a shorthaul, I wouldn't bother going to the FCT, as the A lounge is just much more convenient. However, if someone is connecting from a shorthaul to a longhaul, it might be worth going over to the FCT, as passport control is done within the FCT lounge and walks to the gate can be quite lengthy. That is also what I intend to do on the return flight to Singapore.