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My monthly commute DUS-ZRH - via BKK, KUL and SIN. A status run on LX F and LH F

My monthly commute DUS-ZRH - via BKK, KUL and SIN. A status run on LX F and LH F

Old Mar 21, 2018, 12:34 pm
  #16  
 
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This is a great report; right mix of photos, facts and opinions.

I've done a few transits in ZRH from another European city to first class flight to the US. I feel like the trip to the E gates is much more complex than it needs to be; I must be making a mistake. My next one will involve an incoming flight transit from Warsaw. Would you advise going to the A FC lounge and then getting a ride to E?
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Old Mar 21, 2018, 4:13 pm
  #17  
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Thanks everybody for the compliments! I'll definitely try to post the remaining parts of the first part of the journey as quickly as possible (most of the texts have already been written, I just need to take care of the pictures).

Originally Posted by Yahtzee
I've done a few transits in ZRH from another European city to first class flight to the US. I feel like the trip to the E gates is much more complex than it needs to be; I must be making a mistake. My next one will involve an incoming flight transit from Warsaw. Would you advise going to the A FC lounge and then getting a ride to E?
Hm, that is actually not an exactly easy question to answer, as it is usually quite heavily disputed among FT members. There are those who say that the ride from the A lounge to concourse E is quicker than taking the Heidi Train, but somehow, I cannot completely confirm that. The new A lounge is still a bit closer to concourse A than to concourse B, which means that if you're arriving at concourse B, the time to go to passport control downstairs in the Airside Center will be about the same you'll need to get to the A lounge (the entrance of which is actually quite hidden on the gallery between two stores), and the time advantage to go there from concourse A is only minimal.

I would say, there are actually only two reasons to go to the A lounge first. (1), if there are large queues at passport control, you'll be through quicker when taking the ride from the lounge, otherwise, it makes no difference (and the length of the queues at the public passport control greatly varies by the time of day you appear there). I would say the Heidi train is even a bit quicker than the car ride from the lounge, but you'll still have to walk the length of concourse E. With no or short queues at passport control, I would say it'll take about the same time whether you'll take the train or the car ride (while you can never be sure to instantly get a car ride from the lounge). (2) is about the experience. If you like to be driven around the airport and particularly through an underground tunnel at an airport in a car, it's definitely worth it. Other than that, it's not much more than an ordinary taxi ride.

I would recommend you try the car transfer next time and decide for yourself. Speaking for myself, I wouldn't bother to go to the A lounge in order to get a car ride to E if I just want to get to E as quickly as possible (and haven't, except for the one exception described in this report), but as always, YMMV.
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Old Mar 21, 2018, 7:01 pm
  #18  
 
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Thanks, Bruce80. I think I'll try to go the A lounge - if only to check out how much it has changed since I was last there.
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Old Mar 22, 2018, 5:11 am
  #19  
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Originally Posted by Yahtzee
Thanks, Bruce80. I think I'll try to go the A lounge - if only to check out how much it has changed since I was last there.
It has changed completely, it's not even located in the same spot any more..
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Old Mar 27, 2018, 1:55 pm
  #20  
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Zrich to Bangkok on SWISS First Class

Even though my boarding pass said that boarding was scheduled for 17:45 local time (a very generous 10 minutes before departure), I made my way to the gate approximately 40 minutes before the scheduled departure time. Obviously, they print those very late boarding times on first class boarding passes only, as the gate area was already quite full when I arrived there.



Somehow, it seemed to be "new plane day", as the Boeing 777 waiting for us at the gate was SWISS' latest one which had only been delivered 6 or 8 weeks before.

Shortly after I had arrived at the gate, our flight was called, asking the usual priority guests (first, business, and StarAlliance Gold members) to board first. When everybody rushed towards the gate, I joined the queue after the first few impatient others had boarded.

The Flight

Flight: LX180
From: ZRH/LSZH
To: BKK/VTBS
Aircraft Type: Boeing 777-300ER
Registration: HB-JNI
STD: 17:55
STA: 10:35

Upon entering the plane, I presented my boarding pass saying "TWO KILO", and the flight attendant welcoming everybody told me where to find my seat (it's funny that they try to explain the way to the seat to someone announcing their seat with those words, on the Lufthansa flight, the reaction was "oh, well, then you probably know where you're going", but in reality, I don't mind). I was quite surprised to find that every other first class passenger (and the cabin was going to be completely full on that flight) had already boarded, despite the late published boarding time. Obviously, nobody takes this for real.

A water bottle and the amenity kit were already waiting at my seat, and shortly after I had settled in, a flight attendant came over to ask whether I would like slippers and pyjamas, and what size (even though I think it might be difficult for someone who takes LX F for the first time to correctly announce the pyjama size they need).





Due to the heavy load, the cabin was quite busy, and it took a while until somebody came over to offer me a welcome drink. I chose a glass of champagne, which was promptly delivered along with some herbed nuts. On my other LX F flights, they would usually serve an amuse bouche along with the welcome drink, and I feared they might have "enhanced" the amuse in favor of the nuts, which were ok, but didn't really match my taste.



Every seat on the 777 features three windows which feature a double-layer window shade (a transparent one and a completely opaque one) if you want to keep the sun or any light out. While it looks quite stylish, there's actually the downside of not being able to, for example, only lower the shade on the window where the sun is shining in and blinding you. Instead, you'll have to cut off any view to the outside world.



The 777 cabin on SWISS does not have overhead bins over the center seats while the cabin doesn't feel as spacious as it could, because the flight deck crew rest is located over the first row, considerably lowering the ceiling in that part of the cabin.



At some point, the welcome drinks were cleared and hot towels were distributed (which were desperately needed with all the dried herbs from the nuts sticking to our fingers).



After boarding was completed, menus were handed out and everybody received a personal welcome from the purser. The crew particularly pointed out that the "seafood festival" was still going on (while their other marketing channels were inconsistently calling it either "seafood special" or "seafood connoisseur experience"). I was a bit surprised, that the special was actually limited to the starter, and they didn't have any dedicated seafood main courses (except for fish, but one main with fish can always be found in their menus).

Actually, SWISS usually have one additional (traditional swiss) main course on board that is not published in the menu (and if they don't tell you it might be worth asking). Even though the seafood "festival" was going on, they explained that they were also offering fondue as the off-menu item. Even though I would really have loved to try fondue on a plane (however that might possibly work), I had already had this a few hours before in the lounge and decided to try one of the other options.













Additionally, every first class passenger received a WiFi voucher for 50 MB of free internet access, as well as a short guide on how to use the mobile phone roaming function on board the plane.



Finally, we pushed back a few minutes behind schedule. However, after being pushed back, we just stood on the taxiway for a few minutes, engines running, and nothing else happening. At some point, the captain came on the PA, telling us that there would be a slight delay, as the pushback vehicle had developed a technical fault and couldn't release the plane any more. Approximately 10 minutes (and a few sharp "bangs" from underneath the plane), the captain came on again to say that the maintenance crew hadn't been successful yet and that we still had to wait a few more minutes. Finally, they got the plane free, and we were off to the runway, where we departed with a delay of about 30 minutes.

After takeoff, the crew switched the cabin to mood lighting and started preparing dinner. While I'm not really sure whether I understand what exactly the mood lighting should be good for (they say it reduces jetlag, but I don't see much of a difference in terms of that when the light is switched on at once vs. dimmed to on during 30 seconds), the cabin atmosphere is actually quite cozy, particularly with all the different lighting options around the seat.





A few minutes later, a flight attendant came to lay my table and serve the amuse bouche that I had already missed during boarding. Obviously, the chose not to serve it on the ground this time (although I find that this is something that makes LX F special compared to most other carriers), while not having abandoned the idea at all.



What I also like about the 777 F cabin compared to the older SWISS First cabins is that you can push the table away from yourself all the way down, which makes it easy to get out of the seat during a meal (while this is technically possible on the A330, you need to squeeze through a really small gap between seat and table which makes it very probable that you'll spill your drink etc.).





On SWISS First Class, the starter is always served from a buffet trolley which is beautifully set up in the galley. Due to the seafood special, it had a very large metal bowl filled with ice an all kinds of dead sea creatures as the primary feature, while SWISS' signature balik salmon was, of course, also available. I asked the flight attendant to prepare my usual "little bit of everything":







When I had finished my plate, the flight attendant came around with the trolley again, and told me that I "needed" another helping. While I was actually not sure whether I would be able to manage all the food that was still coming, she basically said "we only have this on our menu once per year, so you really need to take another serving. Well, what can I say? While I had actually been sceptical about the quality of the seafood meal before (I mean, what kind of seafood do they grow in Switzerland? And then, it's cooked, chilled, and served on a plane), I really need to say that it exceeded my expectations by far. It was a bit too cold (but that's often a problem with seafood in Europe), but the quality of the items was top notch.

As the second course, I ordered the salad, which was too sour for my taste - unfortunately, this seems to be normal on SWISS, as most of the salads I've had from them had too much vinegar on them.



For the main course, I had ordered the fish (it was a seafood meal, after all), and while it was good, it was not outstanding. In the first picture, you can actually see one of the few drawbacks of SWISS' first class seat - it is really difficult to adjust the lighting for a meal, as your body might be throwing a shadow onto the table depending on your seat position.





As a function of having had too much of the starter, I decided to skip cheese (even though I was flying on SWISS), but ordered the dessert, as "Vacherin ice cream" just sounded too freaky to not try it - in the end, Vacherin is a relatively strong cheese, and I really wanted to try how it would do in a dessert. Actually, I have to say that it wasn't bad, even though the entire presentation and the mix of different flavours and textures were a bit over the top for my taste.



During the meal, the service became a bit chaotic, as one flight attendant from business class was obviously helping out (she was quite over the top as well and brought a considerable amount of unrest to the entire cabin). Later, I could hear the two FAs who were primarily serving the F cabin gossip about her in the galley, which is probably not the peak of professionalism.

All in all, the meal was quite good, as it usually is on SWISS. I have never really had any disappointment with their first class catering, and this flight was no exception. However, if anybody of you is a fan of really down to earth traditional cuisine, you should definitely ask for the off menu item on your next SWISS flight, as those options have been among the best food that I've ever had on a plane.

After dinner, I asked to have my bed made, and ordered a gin & tonic prepared from their relatively new "Breil Pur" signature gin, which I hadn't tried before. I have to say that the gin is "interesting", but not necessarily in a bad way. Manufactured from swiss herbs, it's just not what you usually expect from a gin. Actually, it tasted a bit like a blend between a traditional gin and Fernet Branca herb liqueur (particularly due to the clearly detectable taste of liquorice and mint), and it's definitely worth a try, though probably not everybody's cup of tea, pardon, glass of gin.



I slept practically all the way to Bangkok and woke up approximately one hour prior to landing. When the FA asked me whether I would like to have breakfast, I declined and only ordered a glass of orange juice and a cup of coffee (there's a coice between traditional filter coffee and Nespresso) which I had while still in bed.





Within no time, I needed to change from my pyjamas back into my street clothes, and we landed roughly on time in a warm and cloudy Bangkok.

Upon leaving the plane, we were greeted by quite an array of pick-up people holding up signs with different names on them. While I needed to make my connection onto MH (and would have had to pick up a lounge invitation from their transfer counter), I didn't really know whether the "Personal Assistant" service that the Lufthansa Group airlines offer at most of their outstations to their first class passengers would be able to help me (usually, they are there to escort you to immigration and baggage claim and hand out fast track cards). Anyway, I approached the young woman who was holding up a sign with several names (mine was among them) and told her that I needed to connect. She asked me to wait for a few moments and "to take a seat" - however, I didn't see anything to sit on, so I just stood to the side.

A few seconds later, she handed the sign to her colleague, came over to me, and asked me once again to "take a seat". There were actually a few golf carts parked near the gate, and when she got into the drivers seat of one of them, I took a seat on the back seat of the cart.



During the ride, I felt extremely embarrassed, as I was sitting there in plain view while she drove me across the terminal, radically honking at any person or group that was blocking our way. I received quite a few half angry half curious stares from other people in the concourse and wished I had made my own way across the concourse.

Verdict

Particularly due to their very good offers in first class, I have recently flown SWISS (which is my primary airline for shorthauls within Europe) quite a few times intercontinentally, and I have never really been disappointed. Even though I don't find the seats to be too comfortable in upright mode, I like both their 777 and A330 cabins in first class (while I'm absolutely no fan of the old A340 cabin which I got to try a few times when they replaced an A320 for an A340 on a shorthaul), and the food was also always very good to excellent. Their amenities are very high quality, and their amenity kit is probably the most expensive of them all if you take the retail value of the items contained therein (the four small La Prairie tubes would already retail at more than 70 CHF). The only observable difference between all those flights was actually the crew, which don't seem to be consistently excellent. On this flight, the crew were slightly above average, but I've had some of the best FAs you can possibly imagine on other SWISS flights.

The seafood thing (and probably the other three special food presentations throughout the year) are a nice gimmick, but I would say that it is overrated. It really seems more like a marketing gag than something to actually make a difference to the passengers, particularly as you cannot really plan your flight ahead due to the inconsistent timeframe which is not published until two weeks out.

Nevertheless, SWISS is definitely in the first half of the ranking when it comes to their first class product, and if the price is right, I would never hesitate to fly them again.
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Old Mar 27, 2018, 2:05 pm
  #21  
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The Cathay Pacific Lounge Bangkok

Originally, I had planned to get a lounge invitation for one of the Miracle Lounges (the contract lounges MH use in BKK), as I had read some very positive reviews particularly about their concourse D lounge. When enquiring about the procedure here on FT, I was recommended to somehow get an invitation card, as the admission process could get a bit complicated.

When we arrived at the West transfer counters (where MH is supposed to run a counter), the girl who was taking care of me tried to find the counter responsible for my concern, but she was obviously told that their counter was not (yet) open - which is a bit weird, as MH are flying in and out of BKK approximately every 2 to 3 hours. When being turned away by the people staffing the counters, she really appeared quite helpless and was obviously very grateful when I told her that I could use the CX lounge as well (even though I would have preferred one of the Miracle lounges, as they have showers contrary to the CX lounge). She then dropped me off at the entrance of the Cathay Lounge, which was fortunately just around the corner (it is located at the root of the G concourse).

Initially, I was a bit underwhelmed by the general appearance of the lounge. The ceilings are rather low, and the decor doesn’t look too fresh any more, let alone that the style of the furniture looks quite random.







However, if you can grab one of the armchairs by the window facing the tarmac, you have a (somewhat restricted) view of one of the runways, more or less exactly where the planes touch down, so I would actually give the lounge a thumbs up for the outside view.



The lounge itself consists of a small buffet area right behind the entrance with tables resembling a kiosk or a random bakery, and then a larger „living room“ that also contains the staffed bar. There is actually quite a lot of staff hanging around (which is quite typical for Thailand, I would say), but you never know whether they are there to just be there, to take orders, or whatever. The bar has a proper espresso machine, which seems to be important to some of you, so I should probably mention it.











If you go towards the other side of the lounge, it suddenly smells like a small side street in Wan Chai, as you are approaching Cathay’s signature Noodle Bar. While the tiles of the noodle bar look a lot like something you would associate with „Swimming Pool“, it actually looks and feels really authentic, particularly with the smell in the background.

Even though it was only around 6am for my body clock (and noon on every other clock), I decided to order a typical Hong Kong style breakfast with soup and dim sum. When you walk up to The Noodle Bar, you may order from a relatively limited menu containing a few different types of noodle soup, fried noodles and dumplings. After placing you order, you receive a pager to alert you when your order is ready. Actually, I was the only person ordering at the time and still received a pager. As soon as I had gone back to my table, the pager rang - but at least, the person I ordered with found that as ridiculous as I did.







My boarding pass for the onward flight to Kuala Lumpur showed a boarding time of quarter past 1 pm (for a 2:15pm departure), which I thought was probably unrealistically early. However, as I didn’t know how long it would take to reach the assigned gate, I decided to leave at 1 and explore the huge terminal a bit.

Verdict

This is, of course, no comparison to the typical European airline lounge. While the decor seems already a bit old and the lounge itself is relatively dark, they provide everything you might expect from an international airline lounge (the lack of showers is the only disappointment here), and even though the lounge is only average by asian standards, it gets the job very well done. I would have been quite curious as to how the MH contract lounge would compare. On the internet, there seem to be both people claiming the Miracle lounge(s) to be better as well as people preferring the CX lounge.
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Old Mar 27, 2018, 3:21 pm
  #22  
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Good way to fly to BKK.
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Old Mar 28, 2018, 12:59 am
  #23  
 
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Originally Posted by bruce80
Dsseldorf to Amsterdam in KLM Economy



The legroom was actually much better than the legroom in Helvetics E-Jets, and I guess paying those 10 EUR definitely paid off. Unfortunately, I was the only passenger sitting in the preferred zone who didnt have a vacant seat next to him (even though there were still two or three rows that were completely empty). Hence, my strategy seemed to have been right, but then it didnt work out in the end (and the guy next to me obviously also didnt think of moving one row back in oder to get both of us an entire row to ourselves).

.
People who dont move from Aisle seats to an empty row always annoys me. Hence I always choose Aisle when I can purely for this reason.

Nice trip report as well
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Old Mar 28, 2018, 11:38 am
  #24  
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Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur on Malaysia Business Class

When I turned up at the gate five minutes past the published boarding time on my boarding pass, everything was still closed and no aircraft was in sight, just as I had expected. I continued touring the terminal a bit, and arrived approximately 20 minutes later at the gate again, which was now open. The boarding process at BKK is different from the usual boarding process found at most airports throughout the world. Here, your boarding pass will already be scanned when you enter the gate waiting area, so technically, you are already on board. I’m actually not sure whether that helps with the actual boarding process later, as there is nothing in front of the jet bridge that would stop people from just rushing onto the plane all at once.

Due to the transfer counter being closed (or unavailable, or whatever), I was only in possession of my mobile passbook boarding pass, which I presented together with my passport. However, they could obviously not use that to board me, as they needed to retain the smaller part of the paper boarding pass. Hence, I had to wait for a few seconds until the second gate agent had printed a paper copy of my boarding pass. Interestingly enough, the printed boarding pass now said that I were „invited to the Louis Tavern lounge“ (sic!), while the Louis Tavern lounges have already been rebranded to Miracle lounge quite while ago.





Approximately 20 minutes before our scheduled departure, our plane arrived at the gate. At this point it was already clear that we wouldn’t be able to depart on time (not even FR is able to turn their 737s around in 20 minutes), but no information whatsoever was given by the gate staff.



The Flight

Flight: MH789
From: BKK/VTBS
To: KUL/WMKK
Aircraft Type: Boeing 737-800
Registration: 9M-MLF
STD: 14:15
STA: 17:30

Boarding for business class and oneworld status members was called shortly after our scheduled departure time, and I was quite surprised that they actually enforced priority boarding. Everybody had to show their legitimation at the door to the finger, and people who didn't meet the requirements were consequently held back. However, there seemed to be a lot of priority passengers on this flight (which would become completely full), so I still had to wait a few seconds in the finger.

Contrary to what I (and many others) who are primarily flying intra-European shorthauls are used to when it comes to business class, MH has 4 rows of "proper" business class seats in a 2-2 configuration which are separated from the main cabin by a fixed bulkhead. However, as this flight was completely full, I realized that there is actually one advantage of the European layout where they block a middle seat in a 3-3 configuration for business class, you are much closer to your seatmate, which, depending on who you are dealing with, may be good or bad. Still, those "real" business class seats offer a lot more comfort and legroom. However, if you really need lots of legroom, you should choose to sit in row 1, particularly on the port side (1A and 1C), as the legroom there is much better than in my seat in the second row.



While the seats themselves were really old and worn (due to the heavy cabin load, I didn't take any pictures of the entire seat), the legroom was good (even though I would have preferred not to have the footrest which restricted the option to fully stretch my legs while still sitting comfortably), and there was a small area to place a drink on the center armrest, along with ancient looking audio controls (no headphones were distributed, by the way).



The seat also reclines manually, which I didn't try, as there were people sitting right behind me.



After everybody had settled in, one of the flight attendants came around to offer welcome drinks. The choices were water, orange juice, apple juice or guava juice, both my seatmate and I chose guava.



Next up was a round of towels, which were probably supposed to be chilled, but were only "luke-cold", and they were of the same flimsy type that is also used on British Airways, for example (the latter even offer them in first class).



We pushed back roughly 30 minutes late and were soon on our way to Kuala Lumpur (or so I thought). The flight attendants came around to take meal orders, and when they started in the first row, I was a bit surprised that they were taking orders even though nobody knew the options. The guy sitting next to me was obviously a bit more experienced with the airline, as he grabbed into the seat pocket and pulled out a menu, which seems to stay there just like the onboard magazine. I was impressed that they were offering a choice of three main courses for a roughly 2-hour flight (even though I was surprised they didn't offer a vegetarian options, considering how many indian people live in Malaysia).











I should note that they weren't offering any alcoholic beverages on this flight, as they will only serve alcohol on flights that take longer than 3 hours. When they introduced this policy, it has caused quite an uproar on the internet, even though I don't really understand the issue people are having with that, but well.

I chose the chicken curry, which was served a few minutes later on a tray with the foil still covering the main dish. While it might help in keeping it warm, I really don't like this way of serving a hot main course, as you'll inevitably burn your fingers when trying to remove the foil.



All three courses were served on the same tray, and I chose some garlic bread to accompany the meal. For a 2 hour flight, the meal was quite substantial, contaning the main course, some salad and a relatively large dessert. Everything was served with Prik Nam Pla Thai chili and fish sauce, and even though I doubt it was meant this way, I used the sauce for the salad (it didn't look like it had any sauce on it - and the combination actually worked quite well).



The food was actually very good, much better than I had expected and the meal took at least half of the flight time. However, I should say that the tray table was actually not really clean (the entire cabin didn't look too clean, and I am not sure whether this was caused by the quick turnaround, or whether they don't keep their planes tidy in general.

After the meal, I visited the lavatory and was, once again, positively surprised that they were offering a variety of full-sized amenities here.



Soon after, we commenced our descent and the first officer announced our landing slightly behind schedule in a "slightly cloudy" Kuala Lumpur.

However, while we were descending, we had to circumnavigate quite an array of thunderstorm clouds, and I thought to myself "ok, so this is what they call slightly cloudy"?





The approach took quite long, and the farther we descended, the worse the weather became. At some point, we seemed to pass right through heavy thunderstorm clouds, and while the chopping of the plane was actually not all too bad (even though still in the category of "medium to severe turbulence"), I became quite concerned about how dark it would get outside the plane from time to time. Those were definitely not the weather conditions in which you should fly. At some point, we cleared the clouds, but didn't seem to be descending any more.

A few minutes later, the first officer came onto the PA again and said that they had abandoned their attempt to land as the weather was (obviously) too bad at the moment. We would be flying a large circle at FL80 which would take about 10 minutes, and, depending on the development of the weather, would then try another landing or divert to either Penang or Johor Bahru in order to refuel.

About 10 to 15 minutes later, he made another announcement that we were now actually heading to Johor Bahru where we would be landing in about 15 minutes. After he made that announcement, I was once again impressed how calm everybody remained. Never having had this situation before, I could imagine that in Europe, people would get quite upset about the delay and all the hassle accompanied with it, but nobody seemed to even sigh - even though it's definitely better to be delayed than to be a victim in a plane crash due to an unstable approach during bad weather, I'm not sure everybody would understand this.

Soon after, we touched down in JHB and were welcomed by the words "Welcome to Senai International Airport". We were assigned an apron position right next to a parked AirAsia A320, and somebody pushed a stair to the front door. The pilots explained that they now needed to order the refueling and get the papers ready for the continuation of our flight, and that would take about 45 minutes.

Considering that we were already running considerably behind schedule, I figured that it could get really close to catching my onward flight to Singapore (ironically, there's not airport that would get you as close to Singapore as JHB) and I decided to pull my plan B that I had factored in when booking the entire trip (as you can read in the introductory post), re-booking my KUL-SIN leg to the SilkAir flight at 9:45pm.

For quite some time, I tried to reach several Lufthansa hotlines (the general booking hotline, the FTL hotline and their Singapore office), but nobody would pick up. At some point, I was connected to someone speaking english, but the connection was really bad and she hung up on me. I then remembered that my ticket confirmation email had said something about a first class hotline, and I finally tried this number. Surprisingly enough, they picked up immediately. I shortly explained the situation and that I would not be able to catch my flight from KUL to SIN and asked to be rebooked onto a later flight. The agent instantly offered me the SilkAir flight, and I said "well, then I'll take that". She replied with something that still needed to be done at the gate in KUL which I didn't fully understand, and to be sure, I asked "OK, so you'll take care of everything now and ensure that I can take the later flight?" and the agent replied "That is exactly what I will do. Is there anything else I can help you with?" I was extremely keen on how easy and quick this went, and I definitely have to give LH a thumbs up for their idea to introduce a first class hotline (however, I don't want to imagine how I would have been able to handle this situation had I "only" been in business class).

The process of getting everything done for the pilots took much longer than expected (and they didn't seem to be happy about that), but still, everybody on board remained calm and nobody complained. The flight attendants were handling the situation quite well (even though there was not much to be handled), constantly offering drink refills, at least in business class. It took more than two hours until we were finally ready for the short 30-minute hop to continue our journey to the final destination in Kuala Lumpur.

Verdict

I have to say that I have some mixed feelings about this MH flight (which was my first on the airline). While I understand that they seem to be struggling quite hard to keep going, the condition and cleanliness of the seats and the cabin is definitely something they should improve. On the other hand, the service was flawless throughout the flight (particularly considering the special circumstances) and the food they were serving was really good. I will have the opportunity to fly one of their widebodies in summer and we'll see how that will compare.

The reachability of the Lufthansa hotlines left quite a bit to be desired, but once I got through on the F hotline, I was really surprised that they can offer such an uncomplicated way of helping out. Little did I know that the hotline agent had completely messed up while I was airborne again, and that's why the next installment will bear the title "Stranded in Kuala Lumpur".
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Old Mar 28, 2018, 12:11 pm
  #25  
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Stranded in Kuala Lumpur

Now, as you might guess, this is where it really gets exciting. At around 8:15pm, refueling of our plane was done and the seatbelt signs pinged back on. A few minutes later, we were on our way taxiing out to the runway, and were airborne after a quick rolling takeoff. We had just reached our cruising altitude of FL160 when our first officer announced that we were now abeam Malakka and scheduled to land at KUL at around 8:45. We touched down without any further problems at around 8:48, and got the first stand at the international part of the regional terminal. Getting off took a few minutes as it took relatively long to attach the jet bridge, but I managed to arrive at the people mover stop to the satellite terminal at around 9pm. The ride also only took a few minutes, and at around 9:05, I underwent the security screening process at MI’s departure gate. I don’t really understand why you have to to through security before actually be able to speak to anyone in charge, but well.

I walked up to the counter, explained that I had been rebooked onto their flight and still needed a boarding pass. The agent took my passport, checked her computer and then said that they couldn’t find me on that flight. I explained the situation, and she told me that I still had to pay a USD200 change fee (I thought that was probably what the hotline agend had been talking about earlier). I told her that was no problem and presented my credit card. She typed away at her computer, talked to someone on the phone and finally printed something on a pre-80s needle printer. She presented me with the printout (which was obviously a copy of my ticket’s dataset), circled the „220“ on the booking number (indicating that the ticket had been issued by Lufthansa) and told me that she was unfortunately unable to rebook me, as they only had access to SQ or MI tickets, but not to LH tickets. I told her that the agent on the phone had confirmed they would rebook me, but she said, obviously they didn’t.

I called Frankfurt again, and got the same agent on the phone as before. I tried to explain the situation, but she already seemed to know. She claimed that there „had been a misunderstanding“ (for whatever reason), and that she had thought I had already been in Singapore (of course, someone who asks to be rebooked onto a later flight *to* SIN because they cannot make their flight at KUL *must* already be at SIN, right?). I asked her whether she could do the rebooking right on the spot, but both she and the gate agent confirmed that it was too late for that, as the ticketing deadline for this flight had already been exceeded and they had started boarding. I asked for other options, and was put on hold. After several minutes on hold, I hung up and dialed the hotline again. I got the same agent on the phone again (obviously, the hotline is only staffed by a single agent) and she told me that she could rebook me for the next day. However, that would incur quite an expensive fare difference plus the 430 EUR change fee that was published in the ticket. As I didn’t have any other viable option, I agreed, and she promised me to send me an email confirmation soon after.

As I would obviously not be leaving KUL until the next day, I had to get somewhere to spend the night. When preparing for the trip, I had read that the Sama-Sama hotel that is located just outside the airport is also offering rooms in the international concourse, without the need to clear immigration and so forth. I found out that those rooms were located right behind the (recently reopened) MH lounge in the part of the terminal where the people mover stop is located, and went there to inquire about a room. The receptionist presented me with a list of different prices according to the length of the stay, and as I wanted to keep my body clock on european time, I selected a rate for 14 hours which would allow me to stay until noon the next day, which would translate to 5am european time. The rate for that was an astonishingly pricey 680 MYR (ca. 160 USD), but at least I had a place to stay for the night.

After arriving at the room (sorry, I didn’t take pictures here, as I was still way too pissed about how the LH hotline had messed up everything), I needed to take care about my flight to Dsseldorf from Zrich, as I also wouldn’t be able to catch that. As I had booked that on a non-flexible rate (I can very well live with the risk of something relatively unlikely like a diversion happening and therefore don’t care about booking refundable or revokable tickets, unless someone else makes me miss the flights as it happened in this case), I needed to purchase a new ticket that would take me from ZRH to DUS and also back to ZRH in April. „Fortunately“, that also only ran at 530 CHF, the same price that I had paid for the original ticket. All in, the entire situation would cost me quite a lot of money. Lufthansa is definitely going to hear from me about that, terima kasih.

In order to calm down a bit, I walked around the international concourse, and realized for the first time that you can actually access the round plant feature in the center of the concourse (which was already closed when I spotted the entrance, so I saved that for the next day).

I also realized that I had been rebooked onto the same MI flight that I had actually wanted to get on the day before, but in economy (business was obviously sold out), and while I don’t understand why they wouldn’t put me on an earlier flight in order to minimize the risk of me losing the connection again at SIN (and I cannot really imagine that every of the almost hourly SQ and MI flights from KUL to SIN were fully booked), I also realized that this would not entitle me to lounge access in KUL, when I still had to spend about 8 hours at the airport. I saw that there was a Plaza Premium lounge next to the SQ lounge on the balcony level of the satellite terminal, and went there to inquire about walk-up access. They said, no problem, we’re offering packages ranging from 2 to 10 hours, and you just pay when you arrive.

After getting everything set up for the next day, I returned to the transit hotel and took a closer look at the room. Considering that the price ran north of a 4-star-superior hotel in Germany even for a 14-hour stay, the room was quite underwhelming. While it had a really nice view of the apron (probably only surpassed by the dayrooms at the SWISS FCL E), it was rather small and only featured basic amenities, like toothbrushes, towels and a water kettle for instant coffee. However, I understand that a company that is focusing on people who are stranded on short notice like me or the odd long layover cannot calculate their prices like someone who gets regular attendance by tourists or business people, so I don’t think the price is too high. It’s just a different business model. Furthermore, every stay includes a meal, which I didn’t take. Other than that, the A/C was relatively loud and in the morning, some airport announcements could be heard, but there's actually not much to complain about.

After checking out of the hotel at 12 noon local time, I proceeded to the center of the concourse again to take a look at the „Jungle Boardwalk“, and to collect my boarding passes from the transfer desks.







However, when I walked up to the transfer desk, which is obviously shared by most airlines, I found four relatively young ladies sitting there and staring intensely at their mobile phones. After standing there for about a minute and coughing while nobody was taking notice of me, I decided to try my luck in the SilverKris lounge. When I went there and explained the situation, the attendant opened my booking, talked to someone on the phone, and then said something to me like „well, everything is alright, you are already checked in, do you have your BP on your phone?“ and I told her „I know, that’s why I’m here. I’m checked in, but I need to get a printed boarding pass“. She then told me something like „you need to wait another hour in order to get the BP“ (not sure whether I understood that correctly), and then she asked, obviously concerned that I would have to wait another 9 hours at the airport, „do you want to go somewhere?“. I didn’t really understand what she meant, but I just told her to never mind, and left the lounge reception. Somehow, nobody seemed to be really helpful on that day.

The Plaza Premium Lounge Kuala Lumpur

After having sorted everything out (or well, maybe not), I decided to head to the lounge. At the entrance, I stated that I wanted to purchase access, and they asked for my flight number. Once again, they seemed quite concerned that I actually wanted to stay there that long (which meant I would have to purchase the 10-hour package) and offered me to have a look at the buffet etc. first. That’s actually quite nice, they obviously don’t want to sell you a cat in a bag, as we say in German. I declined (I mean, I needed a place to stay anyway, and they were still a lot cheaper than the hotel), and they explained that my rate of 258 MYR (approx. 60 USD, which is not really cheap) included showers (you can also buy access to showers only at 32 MYR), a 15 minute massage (without any hint as to where to claim that, as there was not spa inside the lounge), all food and soft drinks as well as beer. Wine and spirits were on sale, however, with my stamp on the receipt I was entitled to receive one free glass of wine (which later turned out to be almost an all you can drink rate, as they only signed the stamp after the third glass of wine and happily invited me to come back for more). Furthermore, should I wish to leave the lounge during my stay, I should just present a sticker they put onto the receipt (which I don’t understand, as you have the receipt which also states the length of the stay, but that’s probably routine as they need an indication as to whether they have already registered someone’s boarding pass).





After settling down and checking out the buffet, I was actually quite positively surprised. While the furniture and the rest of the decor obviously wouldn’t mind a refurbishment, the lounge was spacious enough, featured great outside views and had a relatively good food spread, at least for a contract lounge.



They were offering two kinds of soup, congee, salad, made-to-order noodle soup and an array of hot dishes that changed throughout the day (although they didn’t really deserve the denomination „hot food“, as they weren’t properly kept warm). There was front-cooking going on, and that worked much better than, for example, in the SWISS Business and Senator lounges in ZRH.









The attended bar had a proper coffee machine, beer on tap and a selection of spirits, but I have to say that alcoholic drinks ran quite expensive, at 25 MYR (6 USD) for spirits and an astonishing 32 MYR (8 USD) for relatively bad wine.



During my long stay, the lounge filled and emptied quite frequently, and when it was full, there were hardly any seats left. I also found it quite astonishing that every time I went near reception (I left the lounge a few times in order to walk a few steps), there was a queue at the entrance. Either they really have a lot of airline contractors, or they are just extremely popular with walk-up guests or holders of lounge memberships. Actually, I have to say that this Hongkong based company was doing the job extremely well, particularly when compared to the average european contract lounge. While not great, the food was solid, there was at least a choice, and the space itself was nice enough to spend a long layover in (fortunately, I was able to work using the free wifi that was provided).

Verdict

Even though Lufthansa hasn't exactly covered themselves in glory in this situation, I enjoyed this (costly) break, and had I known about the disruption before, I would probably have arranged to spend the night and the following day in downtown KL (even though the express train is also not really cheap), as I really like Kuala Lumpur as a place itself. The primary downside to the change in plans was that I'm still waiting for my first flight on an A350, but I guess that is going to happen at some point in time anyway.

The hotel was ok (meaning it got the job of getting a night's sleep done), the lounge better than expected (though still not on par with, for example, the CX lounge at BKK) and I had the opportunity to catch some fresh air in the "jungle boardwalk". This had actually been the first major problem after exactly 400 lifetime flights, and I guess that this is what everybody who is pursuing this "hobby" needs to experience sooner or later.
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Old Apr 11, 2018, 1:03 pm
  #26  
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Kuala Lumpur to Singapore on SilkAir Economy Class

I left the lounge and proceeded to the boarding gate approximately 30 minutes before the published boarding time, and found the gate not to be open yet ("open" in this case means that the security check, which takes place at each individual gate, wasn't staffed yet, so I couldn't enter the gate waiting area yet). After a few minutes wait, the staff appeared and the considerable number of people who were already waiting in the concourse were screened and could then take a seat in the relatively spacious gate waiting area (at least spacious when compared to the waiting areas at SIN). Our plane was already waiting at the finger, and priority boarding was called only about 10 minutes later.



As there were obviously only a few people entitled to priority boarding (and I'm not even sure whether that was actually enforced), they called the rest of the bunch only seconds later, and I proceeded onto the jet bridge as one of the first passengers to board the flight.

The Flight

Flight: MI341
From: KUL/WMKK
To: SIN/WSSS
Aircraft Type: Airbus A320-200
Registration: 9V-SLR
STD: 21:45
STA: 22:50

As the business class cabin had obviously (or allegedly) been sold out when I were rebooked the evening before, they "downgraded" me to Economy, and I had assigned myself seat 14A. The orange-brownish colors in the cabin actually contrasted quite a bit to the corporate colors of SilkAir, and I'm not sure whether I like the cabin design itself. While it may be nice to have some spots of color in the cabin, the color scheme made everything look a bit outdated, even though the seats themselves looked relatively new.



Fortunately enough, the seats had much more padding than the seats that are now usually used on european airlines in their short-haul fleet (and were more comparable to the "classic" economy seat of the 1990s), however, I really don't like those adjustable headrests - even if pushed completely up, they are constantly too low to make me sit comfortably (and I'm "only" 6'2" tall), which has been a real nuisance on British Airways' old economy seats (and even the headrests of the new ones aren't exactly what I like).



The legroom was ok (actually a bit better than I expected) and about on par with what you would also find in Europe. Furthermore, I was lucky enough to have an empty middle seat next to me.





The plane was actually not completely full, and boarding was completed quickly. After everyone had taken their seats, the flight attendants passed through the cabin three times, each with a different newspaper (there was the "Straits Times", another english newspaper and one in chinese language), which I found quite impressive.

We were soon ready to go and pushed back 5 minutes early. The flight time was announced to be only 40 minutes, but we had a really long taxi out to the runway, where we departed around 10pm.

MI was offering some kind of in-flight entertainment based on the Bring-Your-Own-Device principle, meaning that you could connect to a WiFi network within the plane and stream all kinds of content (music, journalistic articles, and even entire movies) onto your own device. I only tried to use it for a very short time, and I am not even sure whether they provided an airshow of sorts - however, the content itself was much better than what I had previously encountered on similar services, be it on Edelweiss or Lufthansa.

After the seatbelt signs went off, the crew came through the cabin to distribute packaged refreshing towels and drinks. They were offering tea and coffee (from a kettle) as well as packaged orange juice and packaged water. I selected the water and received a tiny yoghurt-tub style cup of water.



While I understand the concept of giving out packaged drinks on such a short flight (for example, on Lufthansa, you don't get anything on the STR-MUC or FRA-DUS flights which are of a similar length), I really don't like these particular vessels, as they look extremely cheap and are also difficult to drink from. Compare this, for example, to SWISS where you receive a proper water bottle on their ultra short hauls.

Later, I saw the flight attendants going back and forth from and to the galley, bringing out soda cans - I guess, you could actually order any other kind of (common) drink, they were just not offering it in order to save time (which is understandable, as soon as the service was done, we already commenced our descent into SIN).

As we had already descended to a low altitude, the pilots announced that ATC had actually been able to squeeze us somewhere into the line of planes beaded for landing, and that we would land 5 minutes earlier than announced. However, after landing, we had a fairly long taxi, and arrived about 5 minutes early at the terminal gate. Coincidentally, we pulled into stand right next to D-AIMB "Mnchen", the second Airbus A380 Lufthansa has received about 8 years ago and which would take me onwards from Singapore to Frankfurt.



Verdict

There is actually not much to say about this flight, particularly as this was an extremely short hop on which not much is actually happening. I was impressed by the choice of newspapers they had (on both LH and LX you'd have to download your paper onto a personal device before boarding), and it was nice that they were offering a drink service on this flight, whereas this is definitely not the norm on intra-european ultra short-hauls.
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Old Apr 11, 2018, 1:38 pm
  #27  
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The Singapore Airlines First Class Lounge Singapore Changi, Terminal 2

After deplaning, I was left with about half an hour to spend before the announced boarding time for my onward flight to Frankfurt. I could just have gone over to the adjacent gate where our plane was already parked, but I decided to make a short excursion to the lounge, primarily for the sake of getting a printed boarding pass for the onward flight and in order to take a look at it for this report. Unfortunately, the walk to the lounge turned out to be quite long, but as I already knew where it was located (the reception is shared with the adjacent business class lounge that I had already visited two years ago), I didn't waste any time having to first locate it.

The lounge in terminal 2 is actually quite well hidden, as you'll have to go upstairs behind a few shops and then walk down to the end of the gallery towards the lounge entrance.





I was welcomed at the reception (who scanned my mobile boarding pass, which is actually just a PDF file with a PDF418 barcode on it as opposed to the usual Aztec barcodes within an email or a pkpass file you'll usually get with most other airlines - clearly, the email boarding pass is meant to be printed out instead of being used from a mobile phone) and invited to the first class section of the lounge (which is to the right, while to the left, you'll find the business class section).

I asked the receptionist whether they could print a "proper" boarding pass for me (I was really not comfortable with the improvised solution of presenting the PDF boarding pass on my phone), and instead of just printing one on an ATB printer (they obviously don't have one in the lounge), they asked me to first connect to the lounge wifi, then send the boarding pass email to a specific email address and that they then would be able to access that email from their office computer in order to print it. While this very circumstantial (and time-consuming process) was going on, they asked me to sit down at one of their assistance desks right next to the lounge entrance. I finally received a printed copy of my boarding pass (after some issues with the printer) and proceeded into the lounge.



The lounge was more or less deserted, including me, there were only five people inside. And while I understand that T2 lounges are not Singapore Airlines' primary lounges for their long-haul customers, I was actually quite underwhelmed. At least at night, the first class lounge is similarly dusky as the adjacent business class lounge, and the differences were actually only minor - for example, the seating seemed to be a bit more spacious, and then they have an attended bar (which was already closed when I arrived). Other than that, the amenities seem to be more or less similar, and I even think that food-wise, the business class lounge offers a more extensive choice than the first class lounge.



I don't really understand why they actually need to maintain two separate lounges for business and first class customers in terminal 2, as I think it would probably make more sense to just have one lounge for all passengers. I would definitely not mind going to the business class side instead.

One thing I don't remember them to have in the business class sections are these phone cabins with an armchair and some kind of old-fashioned phone on a side table (which cannot be seen in the picture, unfortunately).



However, I remember the business class side to feature some kind of phone boxes with payphones inside. While I generally like the idea of sealed-off phone cabins, this one seems to be quite exaggerated. Additionally, most people just don't seem to bother to actually go into one of those booths when placing or taking calls, which sometimes makes airport lounges noisier than a call center.

Just like on the business class side, the amenities provided in the bathrooms are quite impressive:





However, I really didn't have much time to spend in the lounge (hence the few pictures) and headed back to the gate area only approximately 10 minutes after entering the lounge.

Verdict

Like I already said, I find this lounge rather expendable. I mean, having an attended bar in a lounge is a nice feature, but of little use when it closes down already early in the evening. And just declaring a lounge as "first class" while not really providing more than in a business class lounge doesn't really help in terms of quality either. I really wouldn't mind if they closed this lounge in favor of a larger general lounge for both business and first class cabins, as there is hardly anything to distinguish between the two. And they should definitely improve the lighting situation.
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Old Apr 12, 2018, 3:59 am
  #28  
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Singapore to Frankfurt on Lufthansa First Class

After making the long trek from the lounge back to the boarding gate, I found an empty security line (just like at KUL, security screening takes place at individual gates), as boarding had just started and everybody was already crowding the way too small gate holding area.



Before I could proceed through security, my boarding pass was checked, and the staff seemed to be a bit confused about the boarding pass, asking me "why is there no stamp on it? Did you connect from another flight? Which flight?" I didn't really get the nature of the problem, but at some point, one of the people at the gate circled the departure gate number, the flight number, the seat number and more or less everything on the boarding pass, placed a stamp on it with an exaggerated gesture and handed the boarding pass back to me giggling - obviously, something that I didn't really get was quite funny about the entire process. However, I wonder how this would have been possible with a non-printed boarding pass (and I will definitely get a printed version for the return flight in order to avoid any hassle).

Security was quick as I were the only one to be processed at that time. When placing your items into the x-ray tray, you'll receive some sort of "receipt" which basically is a small plate with a number on it, and when you reclaim your stuff after the metal detector, they will check whether the number on your plate matches the number on the tray. While the idea is generally good, I doubt that it is really effective.

I pushed my way though the crowd in the holding area, and boarded the plane on the upper deck, where I was pointed to my assigned seat 1D.

The Flight

Flight: LH779
From: SIN/WSSS
To: FRA/EDDF
Aircraft Type: Airbus A380-800
Registration: D-AIMB "Mnchen"
STD: 23:55
STA: 06:10+1

When I arrived at my seat, I was once again the last person to board the otherwise full first class cabin. Due to the rebooking, only 1D, one of the middle seats, had still been available, so I was "forced" to sit next to a stranger in this very open cabin layout.



A few minutes after settling in, the flight attendants introduced themselves and offered me a choice of welcome drinks. I chose a glass of still water and a glass of champagne, which was served with LH's signature macadamia nuts. While I had already stowed my carry on in the ottoman at the seat, the FAs also explained that I could use a personal locker right behind the first class cabin (where I later put my coat and my clothes after dressing into the pyjamas).



Unfortunately, due to the full cabin with its open layout, I weren't able to shoot too many pictures of the cabin itself - however, I noticed that some of the cabin details looked a bit random and could probably have used a bit more attention to detail - for example, the floor looks a bit weird for a premium cabin (particularly the red and white evacuation stripes), other airlines seem to do better at this.



Also, the ceiling looks a bit strange, as they have some kind of air vents all along the ceiling, which are probably used by the humidification system they installed on their A380s (and as far as I know, they are the only airline to have this system). During the flight, I actually noticed that the air quality subjectively felt a bit better than on other aircraft, but the difference wasn't that great in my opinion as my eyes and throat still felt quite dry after the flight.

As other passengers were dressing into their pyjamas, I had the opportunity to take a few pictures around the open cabin.



What I had already been thinking about before the flight was how the light from the entertainment screens could possibly disturb other passengers, as there is nothing blocking the view from other seats onto the screen of a particular seat (which might also be some kind of privacy issue, as everybody else would be able to see what you're currently watching). However, this turned out to be absolutely no problem, as the viewing angle of the screen was so narrow (probably deliberately so) that I could hardly see what was playing on the screen of the person sitting right next to me in 1F. The screen on below picture is actually on and displaying something:



Shortly after, I also received my amenity kit, slippers and pyjama. Contrary to other airlines, Lufthansa distributes the two parts of their pyjamas separately which enables you, for example, to take a tops and bottoms of different sizes. Also, the bag containing the slippers contains a spare bag of the same size which makes it possible to wrap your shoes individually before placing them, for example, in the ottoman.





While we were taxiing out, I could hear that they were making an announcement on the lower deck, advertising last-minute upgrades to premium economy. People who were interested in upgrading should report to the cabin staff, however, they didn't state a price during their announcement. Shortly after takeoff (which was late), I went to the lavatory to also change into the pyjamas.







The lavatories itself are quite spacious, even though I somehow had the feeling that they were a bit more cramped than the ones, for example, on Emirates - even though they are basically using the same space. The selection of amenities in the lavatory is relatively wide, while the contents of the amenity kit itself are rather basic - in my opinion, the Lufthansa first class amenity kit is the weakest of all amenity kits I have received in first class so far (this is, of course, only true for the quantity of the content, the La Prairie cosmetics are still top-notch and probably the most expensive toiletries given away on an airplane).

After I returned from the lavatory, the amuse bouche was distributed by the flight attendants who were really good, as you would expect from Lufthansa first class. They weren't particularly polished, but their way of interacting with the passengers felt really genuine, and I definitely prefer that to the sometimes artificial and sterile interaction you might receive on airlines such as SQ. The purser also came by to introduce himself and hand out WiFi vouchers, telling us that they had started providing free WiFi for first class passengers starting in March.





Unfortunately, the lady sitting next to me obviously had some trouble with her nose and ears, and started distributing gobbed paper handkerchiefs onto the area separating our seats which was quite disgusting - definitely one of the drawbacks of the open cabin layout. However, the flight attendants cared brilliantly for her, checking back and asking how she was doing and whether they could bring her something to counter the problem every few minutes.

As we had reached our cruising altitude, the menus for the flight were distributed.























The cabin crew came around to lay the table and start dinner service with caviar from a cart. I selected to enjoy some vodka with the caviar and, after being asked wheter I wanted to have ice inside, were served a really huge glass of vodka along with the caviar.







Many people say that the caviar on Lufthansa is the best you can regularly get on an airplane, and I definitely have to say that the quality was much better than what I had received previously, for example, on Emirates, even though the serving itself was relatively small.

Next up were the starters, which were also presented on and served from a cart. On Lufthansa, it is actually customary to get all starters (as the portions are relatively small), and their presentation also encourages that. They used to have an tagre a few years ago, but have removed that ever since in favor of a larger plate containing the smaller plates.



As my main, I selected the fish, skipped the cheese and had the meringue tart as a dessert:





To accompany the dessert I chose the dessert wine, wich was unfortunately corked. I pointed that out to the flight attendant who said "oh, let's hope the other bottle won't be corked, as we only load two bottles of the dessert wine on each flight". However, the second bottle was fine.

Regarding the quality of the food, I have to say that it was really good, even though the food itself might not have been as fancy as what is offered on other airlines, but I guess that is exactly what Lufthansa tries (and manages) to accomplish - they want to provide a down-to-earth experience of high quality, and that reflects both in their selection of meals and the behaviour of their crew. They are perfectly able to provide this "feel like at home" atmosphere, and I can definitely understand why so many people are fond of Lufthansa first class.





After dinner, I decided to watch one or two short features on the entertainment system, accompanied by a glass of cognac and some pralins which had been distributed by the crew. As soon as the meal was finished, the crew came around to raise all the partitions around and between the seats (you could also do that by yourself if required), and I was very surprised how private the cabin suddenly felt. While the open layout of the cabin without partitions raised is often criticized, I cannot really see why anybody would complain when the partitions are raised, as for one, it doesn't feel cramped at all, and then the privacy is actually much better than what you would expect when seeing the cabin without the partitions. The privacy is actually better than on SWISS' A330 seats, as the partitions themselves are much larger.

The cabin went completely dark, and I decided to have my bed made. In terms of seat comfort, I also have to say that I find the seats on Lufthansa to be much more comfortable, both in seat and bed mode, than those on SWISS. I have never really been a fan of the seat cushions on SWISS' seats which are based on the Rockewell Collins Oasis (resp. Oasis 2 for the 777) platform and which, for example, can also be found on Thai Airways. However, the thick padding along with excellent bedding on Lufthansa made me sleep all the way until approximately one hour before landing in Frankfurt.

After waking up, I was asked whether I wanted to have breakfast which I declined and ordered a cup of coffee and a glass of orange juice instead. They still brought me a croissant and a piece of danish (which I ate), but as the cabin was still quite dark, I didn't take pictures of that.

As the crew was preparing the cabin for landing, suddenly everybody wanted to take pictures with the guy seated in 1K. I hadn't really "screened" the other passengers before, but while watching him, I thought that he looked vaguely familiar. At some point, he tried to set his watch to the local time in Frankfurt and had trouble doing so as the watch had obviously developed some kind of technical problem. The flight attendant, the lady sitting next to me and I tried to help him with ideas as to what he could do, and it was actually during that conversation that I recognized him by his voice - he was a former high-ranking german politician who had withdrawn from office more than 10 years ago.

We landed in a cloudy and foggy Frankfurt approximately 15 minutes ahead of schedule and I made my long way to the concourse A first class lounge after deboarding.

Verdict

I had only flown Lufthansa first class once before, and that was still on the Boeing 747 with the old (as in "ancient") first class product. On that flight, I also found the seats (despite their being completely outdated) quite comfortable, the food to be solid and the crew to be excellent. Actually, this was exactly what I experienced on this flight. The cabin product might not be the most recent out there, but it is still really comfortable, the food was once again very good and the crew did their job exactly how I like them to do it. Lufthansa seems to be providing a very solid product with few surprises (particularly no negative ones), and while nothing is really outstanding, it is exactly that what makes them outstanding. If asked, I couldn't say whether I prefer Lufthansa or SWISS in first class (even though I would prefer both to, for example, British Airways), so I would happily fly them again if the price was right.
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Old Apr 12, 2018, 10:27 am
  #29  
 
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Great trip report!!

How soon in the flight can you raise the dividers between the two middle seats? Can those be up for takeoff and landing? I'm surprised you didn't put it up during the meal service.
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Old Apr 12, 2018, 1:44 pm
  #30  
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Originally Posted by CappuccinoAddict
Great trip report!!

How soon in the flight can you raise the dividers between the two middle seats? Can those be up for takeoff and landing? I'm surprised you didn't put it up during the meal service.
That is actually a good question. As far as I know, the dividers must be lowered during takeoff and landing, but after that, you should be allowed to raise them.

I didnt raise the dividers during meal service, as I actually prefer an open cabin, at least when Im not sleeping. The problem about the middle seats is just that you might have a complete stranger relatively close next to you, which might feel a bit awkward.
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