FlyerTalk Forums - SIN-FRA-JFK Lufthansa First Class

This is the return leg of the trip report "JFK-FRA-SIN Lufthansa First Class" which can be found here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum81/HTML/003040.html

Sep 1, 2002
LH 779 SIN-FRA
D-ABVX ("Schleswig Holstein")
sched dep 2305
sched arr 0540+1
(actual dep 20 min late; actual arr 15 min early)

I arrived at Changi Airport at 9.30pm. Check in was very quick: only one other person was checking in and he was at the first class counter so I went up to business class instead. SATS does ground handling for LH, and SATS people were efficient but not particularly friendly. They said the seat next to me was empty for now, and I asked them to try to block it, but they said they could make no promises. I whisked myself through immigration (this is Singapore - no surprise that there is zero wait) and headed straight for the Singapore Airlines first class lounge.

Check-in: 5/5

The Silver Kris lounge is very nice. Not a Virgin Clubhouse or a CX Wing/Pier but still one of the world's best. I logged on to the internet to check email, and asked for some postcards, which are cheerfully delivered. I asked the lounge attendant to please mail the postcards for me, and he happily says yes. This is a little-publicized benefit on Singapore Airlines: they will mail for you things that are on SQ letterhead or stationery. I also helped myself to some fruit and orange juice, not feeling like stuffing myself with the other food, since I'm planning on eating on board.

Lounge: 5/5

At about 2215, I left the lounge and walked to the gate, at which I found a line. I decided to try a quick visit to the ANA lounge in terminal 1, since I've never been to an ANA lounge before. A quick dash on the inter-terminal airside shuttle got me there, but fool that I am headed to the central part of the terminal, where all the airline lounges I've ever seen are located, only to find... no ANA lounge. I headed back to the shuttle... it's now 2235. On my way back, I see an escalator with a sign pointing up: "ANA lounge." It's now getting late, but I don't want to have come all this way for nothing, and so I went up to the lounge, showed my LH F boarding pass, and told the attendant I just want to take a quick look around.

The ANA F lounge is nothing to rave about. There was a very small variety of food and drink, and the lounge was full of people waiting for the midnight flights to Japan. There was some fresh fruit, but no Japanese food in evidence. I left the lounge and hurried back to the gate in terminal 2, fully expecting to hear a page for "Mr. Buster CT1K, please proceed to gate E5 for immediate boarding."

It turns out that I need not have worried. The hold room was full of people and boarding, even at 2050, has not yet begun. Security was efficient and courteous. But when boarding finally did begin at 2255, it was a mess. Although boarding was announced for First, Business and Star Alliance Gold passengers, boarding was total chaos. Call me a snob for believing that priority boarding should not merely be announced, but enforced.

Like on most airlines, upper deck boarding with the 744s is always difficult. 1L is usually the door used for F and C passengers, but the upper deck staircase is at 2L, where Y boarding takes place. I finally managed to get to the upper deck and settle into 83A. 83C is empty, and the other empty seats are pretty much where www.checkmytrip.com said they would be. There are only 4 empty seats on this flight: one of them is next to the gentleman sitting across the aisle from me.

Security: 2/2. Boarding: 0/3. Security & Boarding: 2/5.

Pre-departure drinks were offered, and during this time, I picked up a couple of tapes for the flight: The Royal Tennenbaums, which I had watched halfway on the flight from FRA, and Black Knight. Then the captain came on the PA system to announce that we were delayed boarding because the video system was not working. The captain and then the purser apologized that while F and C would have the usual entertainment, the Y class video system was not working and would only be able to listen to the audio tracks of the movies. No mention of compensation.

After take off to the southwest, I tried playing my movie tape to no avail. I called the FA, who tried to start it also, but there was simply no way. None of the video or audio channels worked either. After asking the purser to check, it became apparent that seats 83A and 83C on the upper deck were the only seats with malfunctioning entertainment equipment. The FA offered to move me across the aisle, and asked permission from the man sitting in the window seat. Rather than have me sit next to him, he decided to swap seats with me and professed that he did not need the entertainment system at all.

This was a suitable solution for me and the seat swap was done quickly with the FA helping - pillows, newspapers, toiletries bags, books, magazines, headphone booties, carry-on baggage, tapes and the puke bag which I use for trash were all quickly swapped from one side of the plane to the other. I settled in and started hunting around on the Royal Tennenbaums tape for where I left off a week ago.

The purser came by to distribute menus and to apologize for the malfunctioning video system. I told him it was all right, and asked whether he would be as flexible as his colleague was on the JFK-FRA flight last week and play a film out of order for me. I wanted to watch Time Machine, which was scheduled to be the second movie on channel 5, but I'd prefer to watch it during dinner. The purser said no, giving the excuse that he had over 100 business and first class customers who might object. That was fine, and I decided to amuse myself with my tape instead. Dinner was soon served:

Dinner

Hors d'oeuvre
Caviar with the traditional garnishes
Seared grouper accompanied by bouillabaisse creme, celery, tomato with cilantro
Roasted tenderloin of beef carpaccio, offered with mango chutney on endive and spicy plum sauce

Salad
Seasonal grees with carrots and zucchini julienne presented with tomato vinaigrette or yogurt grapefruit dressing

Bread, rolls, toast and butter

Entrees
Grilled loin of veal accompanied by morel mushroom sauce, baby carrots, broccoli, apple slices, almond shavings and spaetzle
Salmon with curried vegetable crust, champagne sauce and pearl barley
Potato lasagne offered with bell pepper sauce, mushrooms and parmesan shavings
Roasted breast of guinea fowl enhanced by pineapple curry sauce, sweet potatoes and wild and white rice

Cheese and dessert
International cheese: gruyere, chevre, havarti, gorgonzola and parmesan
Mozart tart
Chocolate and orange mousse
Fine chocolates

The caviar was as always delicious. I passed on the salad and had the grouper and beef carpaccio instead. Both were tasty but not particularly memorable. The wine list, like the movie listings, was still the August version. With the appetizers I tried a sip of the 1999 California Chardonnay, De Loach, California. It was very flavorful, and on hindsight might have been better than the Riesling. Recalling the Riesling from my JFK-FRA flight, however, I went with the 2000 Schloss Johannisberger Riesling trocken, Goldkapsel, to accompany my appetizers, which was good but seemed to sparkle less on the tongue than it had the first time I tried it on my JFK-FRA flight. On hindsight, I should have stuck with the Californian Chardonnay.

While I dined, I saw for the first time what the FA does when turbulence threatens to send wine bottles on the service stand behind row 82 flying. The FA positioned himself aft of the service stand, standing between me and the wine bottles. When the turbulence got a little more severe, he repositioned the wine bottles, wedging the unsecured ones between the secured ones and the screen.

For the entree, I was torn between all three of the non-vegetarian options, but since I was flying a German airline, decided to go with the veal which was offered with Spaetzle - a german specialty made from dough. (Can someone tell me what Spaetzle really is?) With the veal, I asked an FA whether there was a recommendation. She suggested that a tasting was the best idea. I declined to make her go through all that work, since I had tried all three reds (Bordeaux, Burgundy and an Italian wine) on my previous flight, and asked for the Greek white wine instead: 2000 Amethystos, Constantin Lazardis, Weingut, Macedonia. At first blush, the Amethystos was unspectacular, but later on in the meal upon appropriate aeration, it developed more flavor.

The veal was not as good as the guinea fowl from my previous FRA-SIN flight, but it was good enough. For dessert: mozart tart and chocolates, accompanied by decaf cappucino. The mozart tart was again tasty without being particularly memorable. Chocolates were Godiva quality, but slightly less sweet, which is fine by me. Cappucino did not come with the big head of foam that I consider vital to a successful cappucino. I also tried some Grappa, but it was so intensely strong, it was redolent of rubbing alcohol, so I left most of it alone.

It may be due to the late hour of the flight, or jet lag, that caused my taste buds to be half dormant, or perhaps Singapore catering is simply inferior, but overall the meal was nothing to rave about.

Dinner: 3/5.

I finished my movie soon after dinner ended, and went to sleep. Along the way, we had passed up the western coast of Malaya, and left southeast Asia near Phuket, Thailand. We crossed the Bay of Bengal, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. I slept very well and woke up over northern Afghanistan and walked around the plane a bit. Economy was packed full and business was virtually full. This was the maximum-business configuration, with three cabins of C and two of Y on the main deck.

A service flaw remained through much of the night: there was no cabin attendant upstairs. If I had rung the bell, no FA would have come. All I needed was water, and there was a basket of it right outside the upper deck closet, so I was able to help myself whenever I wanted more. I watched Black Knight, which was funny, and midway through the movie, decided to test the midflight snack service. Again, there wasn't any, but the FA offered and I accepted cheese and crackers left over from dinner.

Now a word about the upper deck F toilets: Lufthansa's toilets are gorgeous. They are very large, are equipped with sensor faucets, floor-to-ceiling mirrors, and most remarkably, a window in each toilet! I love the window concept for the many... umm... possibilities. The less prudish among FTers will surely think of several before the end of this trip report.

Our path would further take us over Ashkabat, the Black Sea, the Ukraine, southern Poland, northern Czech Republic and into Germany. Once the movie finished, I tried to go back to sleep, but to no great success. The woman behind me was coughing a lot and I'm not comfortable sleeping with sick people around me. But at least I was tired enough to catch some periodic shut eye.

This month's audio selection on channel 2 including Borodin's Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor. I was quite taken with the melody during all my flights, and have since ordered a CD.

Still in total darkness over Poland, breakfast was served. I commend the cabin crew for not turning on any of the cabin lights during breakfast. Instead, they worked by the reading lamps that the dining passengers had turned on.

Breakfast

Buffet
[i]Freshly squeezed orange juice
Fresh fruit
Yogurt, Cereal, Muesli and fresh milk
Bread, rolls, toast, croissants, muffins and danish pastries with butter, diet margarine, preserves and honey
A variety of cold breakfast specialties including air-dried beef, port-salut, emmental and cream cheese

Entrees
Scrambled eggs will be freshly prepared at your request accompanied by your choice of smoked turkey julienne, shiitake mushrooms or chives
Stir-fried white turnip offered with chicken skewer

or

Last Minute Breakfast
Coffee or tea
Freshly squeezed orange juice
Croissants

The orange juice had a surprisingly large amount of pulp, which I liked a lot. The fruit was a good tropical variety, and the muesli was generous in portion. I had earl grey tea with breakfast. The cold breakfast specialties were very salty, but the sharp Emmental cheese is one I type that I like a lot. I had the white turnip entree, which is a not-uncommon local Singaporean breakfast dish. It came with eggs stir-fried in and was quite good (if pedestrian) with a few dashes of pepper.

Breakfast: 4/5

Toward the end of the flight, the FA comes by with a bag of two wines for me to take along - upon inspection, these are the Riesling and the Greek white, the two that I had with dinner. Great job!

Landing was uneventful, and I disembarked behind the gentleman who had switched seats with me. He was carrying at least four bottles of wine with him! I suppose the FAs were really grateful that he had changed seats with me, and since I had been the beneficiary of the seat change, I did not at all begrudge him his wines.

Intangibles: 4/5.

Flight total: 23/30.

Upon arrival, I still did not know the name of the plane, so I asked a gate agent stationed at the neighboring gate to go look for me. After a bit of explaining what I was looking for, she obliged, and came back with the answer. Then it was off to a lounge for a shower and to kill 5 hours waiting for my next flight: to New York at 10.30am.

But which lounge to use? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

...to be continued...

[This message has been edited by Buster CT1K (edited 09-06-2002).]

[This message has been edited by Buster CT1K (edited 09-06-2002).]

[This message has been edited by Buster CT1K (edited 09-06-2002).]

[This message has been edited by Buster CT1K (edited 09-20-2002).]

[This message has been edited by Buster CT1K (edited 06-28-2003).]