docpepz

Hi everyone

Here is my trip report for the above looooong halfway-round-the-world routing.

Enjoy

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-fo...d.main/154489/

alex0683de

I'm not a member of a.net, so I can't comment on your thread there, but I have a bit of advice if you have to repeat the trip again:

If you route SIN-MUC-GRU on LH, you get to fly in their A340s with PTV and a much more comfortable 2-4-2 seat layout (infinitely preferable to the 3-4-3 layout on the 747), though you do have to contend with fairly long layovers at MUC each way. However, MUC is a much nicer airport than FRA to connect through anyway, and with all that time you could even head into the city for a few hours to sightsee or have a beer or two at the Hofbräuhaus.

Oh, and you also get KF miles all the way.

EDIT: Oh, and I forgot to add - frequent LH flyers see a noticeable difference between FRA-based crews vs. the MUC-based crews. The latter are much nicer and far more attentive.

Gaucho100K

Wirelessly posted (Nokia N97 / Palm TX: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/Palm-D050; Blazer/4.3) 16;320x448)

surprised to read LH's performance was so bad...

nomad1974

+1. Though I can't help the feeling the OP was negatively predisposed to LH even before stepping on that plane.

"The retail offerings at FRA are the worst of any major airport in the world I think."

Hardly. I find them quite adequate. Plus the prices are some of the lowest, at least in Europe.

"...Well I was Star Alliance Gold so I just took the chance, thinking that the worst that could happen is some fat, unpleasant German flight attendant (I won’t call them stewardesses here because it would be an insult to SIA stewardesses to put these LH cabin crew in the same category as them) would throw me out and make me go to the back of the Y queue..."



"Alas, there was a fat german flight attendant at the door of the aircraft when I got there, but she told me to head down the aisle to my seat 28A. (Phew – no scolding and no VHY ARE YOU IN ZE FIRST KLASS QUEUE?!)"

etc etc etc

caelus

A while ago on the a.net forum I have read a similar Trip report written by a Singaporean who commented on the size of a aussie FA on a Qantas flight, he even went as far as making a quite offensive joke on her figure too:

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-fo...d.main/141120/

It seems to me that Singaporean are very insensitive when it comes to such topics, they won't hold back on insulting them, i dont know, is overweight a criminal offense in Singapore?

tfjim

The OP lost me at "I detest alcohol". What's the point of reading further after I saw that?

a.netters seem to revel in the arcane details of air travel; take off time, block time, load factor, yada, yada. I tend to think FT is more of an overall experience trip report kind of place; ground service, food, drinks, service on board, interesting anecdotes, some destination information.

This is clearly a report aimed at the typical a.net reader, they sure seemed to think it was scathingly awesome. Not worth the bandwidth if you don't really need to read it.

camsean

Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed trip report.

The real moral of the story is that everyone sucks except sq. I guess it's a sort of weird nationalism.

I agree that a.net is a different market than FT. I'm plane nerd too, but there is something a little odd over there, in that the criticism often extreme. To be fair though, not all the comments over there are positive either.

anat0l

The OP is from Singapore and I don't know what kind of Singaporean they may be but I'm going to take a guess anyway, because if I'm wrong then my prejudice will be no more than that of the OP anyway.

Firstly, being fat in Asia? Don't really want to do that, unless you're a pregnant woman. Well, you can "do it" but expect to get "teased" (at least in Western cultures we know it as being "teased"). Asians tell the truth and nothing but the truth, and "insults" as we know it about someone's weight are not unusual.

Next, Singaporeans are fairly elitist. They like to compare and boast how rich they are, how smart they are, how good they are looking (there's that weight thing again) and so on, then apply the same thing with their kids. They also boast that they are probably the best nation in speaking and writing English in Asia. The report style written is very typical of hyperbole. Not entirely unusual though if it were "translated" into an Asian language. So it may not be that the OP is actually serious in the words. I mean, go look up 'detest' in a thesaurus or dictionary. It's the 'correct' word but the wrong degree of usage (unless the OP honestly detests alcohol....interesting anyway).

Singaporeans are not afraid of saying anything at all, even if it hurts someone. It only matters when it hurts them or someone close to them (e.g. mother, father, etc.) Come to think of it, a lot of people hold that view for many Western cultures too.

CMK10

Can you imagine what would happen if the OP had flown say SIN-SFO on a UA 747? His horror upon seeing the old cabins? The lack of ANY hot food at the RCC at SFO?

Paint Horse

Don't hold back, tell is what you really think. Let it all out. You will feel so much better.

docpepz

Thank you all for your comments, good and bad.

camsean, re your comment The real moral of the story is that everyone sucks except sq. I guess it's a sort of weird nationalism. that's untrue. Nothing nationalistic at all. I've had my fair share of unsatisfactory flights on SQ. But comparing just these two flights: SQ326 SIN-FRA and LH506 FRA-GRU, it is evident that the SQ flight was far far far superior to the LH flight.

A few years ago, the Qantas longhaul product was deplorable, much like LH's current 744 product. The QF cabin crew were not known for providing any form of good service, the food was terrible and QF was just not known for being a trend setter within the industry.

Fast forward to today, and QF has one of the best inflight products on the A380, the best premium economy product, world-class F and J lounges in SYD and MEL that put SQ's lounges in SIN, including that much-hyped private room, to shame.

I flew QF from PER to BNE in April and was blown away by the level of service, both in terms of the food served, as well as the warmth, friendliness and attentiveness of the cabin crew.

I wouldn't hesitate to say that QF probably has a Y product that is comparable to SQ. If it's SQ's old products (the older 777s with no AVOD and the 12-year old J class product) then QF beats SQ hands down.

However, this trip report was comparing SQ's 77W and LH's 744 longhaul products. What was so positive about LH that was worth a mention? The fact that we departed and arrived on time?

anat0l.... I don't think it was necessary to bring out generalisations of Singapore or question my command of the English language. English is my first language and the only language I can communicate with at a native speaker's level. While writing the report, I most certainly was not thinking of the contents in some other Asian language and doing a like-for-like translation into English. My Chinese sucks, FYI.

And yes, I do detest alcohol. Whenever I consume alcohol, I feel ill and get terrible headaches. Perhaps it's too strong a word - yes, and I exaggerated for effect.

To everyone, thanks for all your comments once again, good and bad. If I've offended anyone, I offer my apologies but I have not taken any of your comments personally.

Happy travels!

AGSF

OP clearly went into the LH flight with his mind made up that he was going to hate it. He knew full well about the lack of PTVs, the food, the seats, the crowds, etc. He admits he did it for the miles. It would be one thing if you had different expectations, or you chose it over AF or BA because you thought it would be superior. In any case, I should add, your offensive comments had no place in any trip report.

So, why complain? How can you compare a trip on a new 77W to a 744 that you clearly knew hadn't really been updated since 1991? Honestly, you have nobody to blame but yourself for the experience. You knew what you were getting yourself into. Lufthasa doesn't claim to compete with Singapore Airlines's service standards or aircraft in economy.

Maybe I should write a trip report comparing Swiss First from Zurich to JFK with United First from JFK to Chicago?

EDIT: Looks like the trip report has now been deleted. Not a huge surprise.

SR 103

He probably would have DIED!

I think the OP was trying to be funny, but he just comes off as whiney, hard to please traveler. In reality he may not be, but he had already made up his mind when he booked his tickets back in Singapore that FRA-GRU was going to be the worst flight he has ever taken.

anat0l

To be fair, the OP may have written 'fat', where as some of us Westerners who could not honestly hold back in description might say something along the lines of 'rather portly'.

Now apart from the euphemism, what's the difference?

HIDDY

Good report docpepz.

Okay some of your comments are a bit OTT but my recent LH flight in J wasn't exactly the best so I can imagine back in Y couldn't have been too great either. I was tired after flying in to FRA from BKK the same morning that we flew onward to EZE so I suspect you must have been pretty tired as well so not in the best frame of mind to judge an airlines product..........Although I do think LH have cut back too much on food quality as have a few others recently.