flyerbjorn

And I forgot to report back from a year ago.

When you arrive from outside the EU, you must clear immigration and security. I exited the secure area and headed for the welcome lounge. There were lots of showers and the breakfast was slightly nicer than in the SEN lounge. More importantly, there were very few people in the welcome lounge, so it felt a lot more quiet than the SEN lounge, where I headed before the connecting flight. With a C class BP, I was through security in a few min.

N1003U

A while back there was a discussion here about whether or not the pressing service in the WL at FRA was still being offered.

I can report that it is alive and well.

I have been using the pressing service in the FRA Welcome Lounge this year roughly monthly, for both my shirts and suits. My experience is that the service is consistent, good quality, and, in addition, much faster than in past years.

I generally arrive at the lounge in the 06:30 - 08:30 timeframe (or, increasingly rarely, in the 11:30-12:30 block on LH405), and I can't remember the last time I had to wait for a shower room. For those arriving on an international long-haul flight, who have to be presentable straight-away, I find the WL pressing service to be quite practical.

N1003U

Update: maybe the pressing service in the WL is not as alive and well as I thought. It seems to have been "optimized" a bit.

I was horsing around on the LH site recently and came across this page:
https://www.lufthansa.com/online/myp...l=en&cid=18002

the last paragraph contains this statement:

"...For First Class passengers, HON Circle Members and Senators there is an exclusive ironing service available in the Welcome Lounge. Any passenger who would like to have their shirt or blouse ironed simply needs to hang it on the coat hanger in the locker above the wash basin before taking a shower and it will be returned promptly, freshly pressed..."

This implies to me (in the usual ambiguously-worded LH sort of way) that the Welcome Lounge pressing service is only available F/HON/SEN customers. I leave it as an exercise for the student to speculate how they enforce this, but I assume the same LH IT system that can't keep track of seat assignments somehow tracks guests by status in the WL and only offers the pressing service to those with appropriate status.

I have verified the limited service offering with at least one person traveling recently as a UA status customer. The pressing service was not offered on the electronic menu in the shower room, and the cabinet behind the mirror where one usually places clothes to be pressed was locked. The same person traveling subsequently as SEN was offered the customary pressing service.

So I have at least one data point to confirm that ironing services only go to F/SEN/HON in the Welcome Lounge. Can anyone else who has recently used (or tried to use) the "ironing service" confirm or refute this situation? I have SEN status, so any differences in offering have been transparent to me, but I would like to hear from non-status C or non LH customers who have had other experiences with respect to the ironing service in the Welcome Lounge.

I am not sure why LH would limit the pressing service to only certain guests in the WL, but I would place my first suspicion on "optimized" staffing levels.

klausa

I was under the impression that this was always the case.

N1003U

I have never really noticed, but there was recently some question/speculation as to whether the ironing service still exists, and I thought perhaps this might explain the discrepancy.

I never knew before coming across the webpage above (somewhat randomly) that there was a difference in how Welcome Lounge guests are handled. I guess is just surprised me a bit.

I would be interested to hear from someone with F/HON/SEN status who has tried but failed to receive ironing service in the WL, if anyone has had such an experience.

flyerbjorn

Maybe not recently enough, but I had a shirt pressed when I visited the Welcome lounge early last year. I just asked nicely and handed them my shirt.

I'm a UA 1K and was arriving in LH C.

N1003U

That is good to hear that you could get a shirt pressed anyway.

Do you remember if you were offered the option while in the shower? Usually on the information/welcome screen there is a menu option for ironing service, when it is available.

flyerbjorn

No, I don't remember an information/welcome screen. I was one of the first guests of the day. After waiving my LH C BP, I walked straight through to the showers.

I probably just handed them my shirt and asked nicely. I most likely tried to smile and speak a little bit of German, which is confusing since I understand some german, but nor a lot.

anandrg

I searched this and other threads and didn't find an answer. Although I am sure someone has asked this question before. So my apologies - please direct me appropriately if this question has already been answered.

I am a UA 1K (*G) arriving in FRA in UA Y class along with my wife from SFO at ~10 AM. We have no onward flight connections but we do have a 4 hour layover for a long-haul train.

Given only a UA *G arrival BP in Y, is there any LH or other *A lounge that we can access? Wife has no status so I will need some lounge that allows 1 guest.

thanks in advance

flyerbjorn

You won't have access to the Welcome lounge flying UA in Y.

While there are showers in the regular LH lounges, I don't think you can access them without a departing BP.

UAPremExecflyer

The lounge access rules really are clear. There are no LH or *A lounges that you qualify for. If you want to use a lounge, you can pay for access.
Several threads on this topic, including this one

NewbieRunner

For less than the price of two people using the LUXX Lounge, you can use paid showers in the public area of T1 before going to Squaire (above the long-distance train station) which has many restaurants for lunch.

anandrg

Thank you so much for this tip and for others confirming that there is no lounge we can get into for free.

BOSTravels

Are there any areas in the Welcome lounge to take a quiet nap?

YuropFlyer

There are 4 "sleeping chairs" in a darkened quiet room (all next to each other, you can't lock any doors).. if you're really tired, you might be able to snooze a bit there, but I found them not to be very comfortable on the single time I've tried them. Better than nothing for sure.