Lomapaseo

considering the food and drink served in F class I doubt he had his mask on for the majority of the flight

TravelBug1314

Thank you for a wonderful trip report. So jealous of you. Out of curiosity, were these revenue flights or award flights. Very inspiring.

I loved the McDonald's ending and the penguin photos for your daughter was a nice touch.

Hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday season.

jbar91

Thank you for allowing us to live vicariously through you!

YYCCL3

Thankfully, my liver will be having a much needed rest over the holidays.

Yes, the Emirates flights were on a revenue booking. Don't think you get CD on redemptions anymore if I'm not mistaken.

You're right, I definitely had my mask off a lot of the time on the flights. I kinda wish I kept track of it. Believe it or not, there were plenty of periods where I wasn't eating/drinking; and I almost always put my mask back on when an FA approaches to interact. My ears have recovered now anyway, so all good!

It's been allowed all along, and I even know several people personally who have done it on separate tickets on different airlines - but I don't know of anyone else who's done it with checked luggage which was the real pleasant surprise.

Separate tickets - the JL flight was a BAEC redemption, and the EK flights were on a revenue (paid) booking.

Duck1981

Good that there are also other travellers who enjoy a good Lounge Champagne -> Inflight Champagne -> McDonalds combination

Great TR and nice to see locations I visit often (DXB as my old expat place) and VIE (as my dad lives in Upper Austria).

Merry Xmas

Captain Canuck

Thanks for posting the great trip report here ! My wife and I are doing the TYO-DXB in EK F in October and it was nice to get a prevue of the trip (though hopefully some lounge options available by then).

CC

RRROOO

Thanks again for your storyboard!!! I enjoyed reading and viewing. Happy Holidays to you!

RRR

**

Carfield

An excellent report, especially when you are "stuck" in Hong Kong!
It is sad to see how deserted NRT is! I am surprised that they don't even keep one store open past 6pm given that there are still three flights departing at those hours.

Thanks for sharing again!

Carfield

SFO777

Wonderful report YYCCL3 with great pics and narrative. JL and EK First look as solid as ever. Loved your Chick-Fil-A and In-N-Out fixes at LAX. And that WestJet meal looks positively gourmet compared to US3 offerings these days.

glasman19

WOW! What a read YYCCL3! DOM 2000 remember that vintage well. Love the MickeyD’s ending photo.

YYCCL3

I decided to pop the return trip into this same thread, completing around the world in F with a nice break over the holidays with family.

With an early flight the next morning, I began my journey with an hour ride in First Class on České dráhy the night before. Had a decent meal of schnitzel, potato salad, and Czech wine.



Stayed at the Holiday Inn Prague Airport for the first time which was completely uneventful, just a comfortable place to sleep.

I have trouble sleeping lately so I was at check-in not long after they opened at 5 am. There were only a few early flights in the Schengen terminal so it was a breeze to get through security and up to the Erste Premier Lounge. I had a light breakfast and a couple of cappuccinos in the lounge before heading to the gate 20 minutes before departure.








LH1403 PRG-FRA
Aircraft: Airbus A320neo
Seat: 3A
Flight time: 0:41

As I got on the aircraft close to the end of the boarding process, I noticed that a group of El Al flight crew that had been in the lounge with me were occupying several seats in the C cabin. One of them was sitting in my seat. You'd think that a pilot who's presumably flying all the time would know the difference between window and aisle seat....

Unfortunately they forgot to load catering on the outbound flight from FRA, so there was very little on offer. Like, barely anything. The cabin crew was very apologetic and did the best they could.



We had some nice sunrise views over the typical European winter low cloud.



Thankfully the beverage cart was fully stocked.



We landed on 25R at FRA so had a view of the almost back to normal airport.



One of the El Al pilots literally shoved his way past me in the aisle as I was retrieving my rollaboard from the overhead bin. Also, the El Al captain got up from his seat before the brakes were on at the gate. Not sure if this is a cultural thing or just general entitlement. Never seen uniformed crew this rude before, on duty US3 staff excepted.

Next, it was a walk over to the First Class Terminal to avoid the security and passport control headaches of using the general terminal. I only had about 40 minutes to actually sit in the FCT but it was still well worth it, especially since FCL B is still closed.



I had another cappuccino while my passport and COVID paperwork were checked.






Not too early for a nice glass of Ruinart NV whilst waiting for departure time.



I'd estimate there were about 15 passengers in the terminal this morning.



After retrieving my passport from the private passport control officer downstairs, it's time for a very short ride over to our aircraft in a hybrid Porsche. The ride was very short as our plane was in the closest gate to the FCT. I think I was sitting in the car for 1 minute total. I shared the car service with the passenger in 1A.



It is always a treat to be dropped off right outside these magnificent machines. Worth the walk over to the FCT just for that in my opinion.



LH454 FRA-SFO
Aircraft: Boeing 747-8
Seat: 1K
Flight time: 10:56

Ahhh, here we are onboard. Last few times I was flying LH F was during the height of COVID so there were no roses. Was very nice to see them back.





A nice champagne on offer today. Heidseick Blanc des Millénaires 2006.





My penguin gets settled in for the long haul flight.





D-ABYQ waiting to depart shortly for LAX.



Europe's winter blanket dissipates over the coast of the Netherlands.



Time to start eating.











I switched over to an Italian red with the beef.





My penguin had a tour of the plane after lunch. The crew had a lot of fun with her and my daughter just loved the pics. How many penguins have got to fly a 747-8 at FL340?!











After a break from food I had some dessert and another cappuccino. Most pax in F were sleeping at this point and it was completely dark over northern Greenland, except for a bright moon.









Over northern Canada the sun came up again and there were beautiful views. Here's Great Slave Lake.



More food - mezze platter!



Jasper townsite area in Alberta and immediately south. I've done a lot of trips in these mountains and could pick out many recognizable peaks and landmarks.







The FCT was very generous to me in terms of ducks, so I brought them out for a photo on our flight.



Almost done eating... mini burgers now. And of course more champagne.





Here's Mount St Helens.



The flight attendant encouraged me to have some dessert. I was getting really full at this point, but I enjoyed the warm plums with ice cream.



A nice view of Crater Lake this morning.



Shasta Lake in California looks lower than I'd expected given all the recent storms.



And here we are about to touch down on 28R in San Francisco. Very enjoyable flight. In my experience LH F is always solid. And this crew was great in terms of both service and friendliness.



During my layover I really wanted to take a shower, so I visited the AMEX lounge. Unfortunately, I was informed that the showers had been closed again due to Omicron, which was a bit disappointing.



I didn't have any food but took a photo of the hot buffet which looked acceptable.



I had a few drinks (wine & other) to pass the short time.



The wine tasting station looked interesting.





I had a chance meeting with fellow FTer jlisi984 towards the end of my lounge stay. It's a small world!

AC8648 SFO-YYC
Aircraft: Mitsubishi CRJ-900
Seat: 3F
Flight time: 2:19

Ah yes, time for the final flight of the day. I'm ready to be home now. We had a great view of the B748 that had brought us over from Frankfurt.



I was sitting on the wrong side of the plane to get views of the Bay on departure but this wasn't too bad either.



The flight was less than half full. There was only one other passenger in J minus. I call it J minus as the forward lav was inop, so I had to go all the way to the back. Not a big deal on this day though, as you can see there were very few pax anyway.



I was offered a hot meal but I really didn't feel like eating anything else as it was late on my body clock and I'd consumed so much on the flight from Frankfurt. So I settled for an Air Canada classic - jumbo KitKat and several glasses of this Chilean red, which was surprisingly good for a regional flight. I was impressed !





The sun is going down as we cross the Canadian Rockies and start our descent to YYC. Here's one of the massive open pit coal mines in south eastern BC lit up.




On arrival at YYC I was the first person off the aircraft and after an extremely long walk to CBSA, it took me literally seconds to get through. I was "randomly" selected for arrival testing, I say "randomly" because the officer circled my picture on the kiosk receipt when I said I'd come in from Europe and not only SFO. This caused me to be directed to a different line at the exit to groundside. I'd already been registered in advance so the arrival testing process only took a few minutes and I was home in my condo 40 minutes after wheels down. I received the arrival test results 40 hours after the sample was taken, which, pathetically is quite good compared to other ports of entry in Canada. And I only know because I kept checking the website every few hours. I still haven't been notified by text or email yet... Hopefully this utterly absurd scheme is scrapped soon, but politicians can never save enough face!






Thanks for reading along, safe travels !

SFO777

Great finish to an amazing RTW. Good to see that LH First was solid, both the FCT and inflight. Too bad that you didn't have more time in the FCT. And kudos for your penguin getting access to the cockpit and even at the controls! Very nice.

YYCCL3

I'll have more time in the FCT in a few weeks so I'm not too sussed about it ;-) Hoping to throw La P into one of these trips in the near future, your trip reports make it look awesome!

Yahtzee

The penguin is what I needed this morning.

Great photo of Crater Lake.

GregWTravels

Great TR Thanks for sharing.

What are the rules? Do you have to stay isolated until you get a negative result?

I'm a Canadian living in the UK, and it is so weird hearing about what my sisters are experiencing in Ontario versus the rules here in England.