chris63

Welcome to FT, it is 2024, if you book with Lufthansa they tell you about the FCT & so does the app when your booking is in that, anyone booking LM or on points is surely savvy enough to know

oliver2002

FWIW, the T1 F checkin area (that used to have a shuttle service to the FCT till about 2011?) that had a seating area etc was closed as part of the T1 realignment in 2022/23 and the 4 counters the blogger saw are a stop gap measure.

MichielR

There is a lot that can be said and that needs to be improved about LH F but the points that were outlined here are probably the least relevant for most travelers.

Lack of privacy/doors, general state of the cabins/inop seats, F&B (mostly B), FRA arrivals, rebooking in case of IRROPS are all much more relevant in my opinion than desks that aren’t used or a minivan instead of car transfer for all of 3 minutes.

Fabo.sk

Hi Jason, when can we expect the review of AF 'F' to show up at turningleft?

Sounds like it should be fun based on this one.

cfischer

Right, the author wrote as much ... never booked F, first time ever flying etc. That's when you get when you make F awards available There is too much whining in this piece about stuff that doesn't matter. The major issues, like 'AG', are missing

JasonDs

Hi ladies, gents and theys,

I am Jason and the guy that wrote the review.

Just wanted to point out first and foremost that I am not a blogger or serious writer (obviously! Lol). I am a plane/travel nerd who has been obsessed with airline travel since being a child in no-wheres-ville Australia where the big annual trip was the seven hour car drive to Sydney and the closest I got to a plane until I was 16 was watching them fly over me at 40,000ft.

When I finally moved to the UK I started working for BA as cabin crew and spent about 20 years with the airline. It was actually a chance encounter with a customer on board who introduced me to the world of miles and points and how to exploit them!

Writing reviews just became a bit of a hobby for me along with my avgeek-ness and I very much acknowledge they are not as polished as some of the more ‘professional’ peeps out there.

As someone mentioned on this thread already, no, I am not experienced in flying First with the only two points of comparison (as a non staff passenger anyway) being BA (Avios) and JAL (op-up). Business Class trips are the main source of material for my trips.

I do have another FlyerTalk account which obviously I do not want to use to answer this thread as my identity is linked but I guess that an issue I have always had with FT is often there is often a lack of objectivity. People either ‘love’ an airline and won’t hear a thing against it or hate it so much they will actively trash an airline at any opportunity so being a ‘I can see both sides of the coin’ kinda guy I tend to avoid the debates. Once I made a negative comment about a business class flight on SQ and I was looking over my shoulder for some weeks after haha.

With my LH experience specifically, I enjoyed it.

I don’t write reviews to question company policy on rolling out new products or get involved in airline politics I just basically recount my travelling experience and yes, I do try be objective and genuinely wonder why some things are the way they are.

I also fully acknowledge that one flight can not always be a reflection of an airlines overall product - it is easy to catch an airline on a bad day or a good day.

But just to touch on a few things mentioned in this thread:

’nobody starting at FRA uses the check in desks in the main terminal’. Then why does Lufthansa have them if no one uses them? To dedicate four desks and four staff members staffing those guests plus the fact I waited a little while in the line to use one of these desks suggests they do get used. Check in was fine anyway, the only weak point at the main check in hall is the massive queues at security.

‘Lufthansa notifies you about the FCT if you book with them’. The important part of this one is ‘if you book with them’ which I would say a decent percentage of bums on LH seats do not. Being the geek I keep an eye on availability and on the flight I was travelling on up until 4 days prior to departure I could see only one occupied seat in F on the seat map and F7 availability. The next day, ‘more than four seats available’ appeared on Lifemiles and on departure the cabin was full, It is only my guess but I would assume the majority of people in that cabin were redeeming and probably not via LH.

Minibus vs Car. This was not a big deal for me at all but all I will say is this - I obviously read many other reviews and one American-German blogger in particular who is very obviously a Lufthansa fan boy and has completed numerous LH F reviews always seems to end up in a car of his own. Funny that! 😜

I guess the last thing I want to say is about pre conceptions and expectations. These play a large part when flying and reviewing. For example, when I reviewed Oman Air my expectations weren’t high going in so I ended up being blown away by their product. Similarly China Southern Airlines, expectations were pretty low but I got off the plane raving about them. Singapore Airlines my expectations were high and the flight was actually so bad I chose not to submit the review. With Lufthansa, my expectations were in the middle which is pretty much what I felt I got. Lounges were great, onboard service was great, food was amazing, the seat..well we all know.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback and wish you a good weekend. 😊

chris63

Lufthansa Senators *G are allowed to use the First Class checkin desks & there are an awful lot of them departing FRA.

Anyone using miles/ points for F seats will know about the FCT

RayG

I have done precisely this as I was staying in one of the adjacent airport hotels connected to T1 and expected FCT to be crowded, which it was (main terminal check in phoned FCT and confirmed so), figuring that FCL B would be more pleasant. This turned out to be the case.

You also have the benefit of being in the proper terminal rather than locked in as in the FCT — horses for courses, I suppose.

If I happen to originate in FRA, I‘d probably do the same again every time, skipping the FCT, so am happy they have F check-in (if I ever have to use it) in the main terminal.

purdue1015

Hi All,

Just booked my first ever int' F ticket for later this week.

ORD BOS MUC, first leg on UA. Will continue on MUC AMS on separate PNR on LH (Cityline) J.

Can anyone point me to any resources for getting to/from BOS and MUC LH lounges?

Have +- 3 hour layover both times.

Anything about LH 380 F I should know that isn't blatantly obvious?

Thanks!

NYC1

Don’t confuse the urinal for a shower…

Enjoy the flight. There are no mysteries / “hacks”.

It’s a short flight. If you want to sleep, eat later and like caviar, tell the FA to save you some and have it whenever / for breakfast.

worldclubber

You can use the F lounge at MUC at an arrivals lounge after the F long-haul and wait for your flight to AMS.

The may or may not drive you to your AMS flight, if it departs from an apron position. By the book, you should walk to the gate. But sometimes they still do.

purdue1015

Thanks. Wife may want to sleep first. Food is pretty much on demand it sounds like? So if wife wants to go straight to sleep...she can do that no worries?

Also, I assume it will be pretty straight forward arriving at MUC how to get to F lounge?

NYC1

Yes, on demand.
Just follow the signs. MUC is easy.

purdue1015

Thank you!!

worldclubber

Just tell the FAs what you want to eat after you wake up (or your wife) before you go to sleep, so tell them you want caviar, which starters and main course. The menu can be found on LHs website.

At MUC, the F lounge in the satellite terminal is nicer than the other one, but just follow the signs to LH F lounge and you will get to one of them.