|
On the Plane Lufthansa's flight crews were pleasant and courteous. Attendants were always professional and willing to please. Seats We lucked out because Lufthansa has recently converted most of its business class to recliner beds. They are not totally flat but close to it. In reading about various airlines, we had come across Seat guru (a site with airplane seating plans by different airlines) and were hoping that we would get the new Lufthansa seats on the Vancouver to Frankfurt leg of the trip. We had also investigated reviews of different airlines' business class features. Interestingly, Lufthansa's new seats were sometimes panned by what were presumably well travelled business types because the seats (1) could not be fully extended without removing luggage from the recessed foot wells; (2) when extended, made it difficult, if not impossible, for people in window seats to get to the aisle. These two limitations were true but were not big issues for us. Overall, the seats were fabulous. It
was a real treat to be able to lie almost flat and lying on my side was
very comfortable. There was ample
seat and leg
room and storing some carry-on luggage under the seat in front was a
snap due to the large storage wells. With business class seats you typically have personal screens for watching the news and videos, sometimes projecting out of the arm rest. The Lufthansa screens were in the back of the seat in front, actually in a separator wall between each row. We had a option of 18 programs (movies or tv shows) to watch. The movie choices weren't that great but we watched two enjoyable movies. The seats also had wireless Internet using
FlyNetŪ .
A website with promotional items for Lufthansa was the free part and you
could pay for real access with a credit card. However, when boarding the
plane in Frankfurt we were given a voucher (userrname & password) for 30
minutes of free time and used them to check up on e-mail from 35,000
feet. Eating on china instead of plastic is one
of the perks of business class. Lufthansa whets the appetite by
presenting a menu and the meals generally have a choice of several
appetizers, entrees, and deserts. Quite classy and makes you feel
pampered. Plus they offer all the booze you can drink, but you should stick to water since flying can be dehydrating and alcohol only makes it
worse. That's the theory... We found that the meals varied, some better than others. There's only so much you can do with mass-produced pre-packaged meals and even heating all parts of a meal seems to be a challenge that's not always attainable. On the Ground Frankfurt's airport and Lufthansa's business class lounge Frankfurt's airport qualifies as one of the worst we've experienced. On the flight to Berlin we were in Terminal One (near Gate A1) and it was incredibly smoky. Even though from recent trips we knew smoking was still common in Europe, exposure to it in an enclosed space was a bit of a culture shock. The worst was the business class lounge near Gate A for departure to Berlin. The room was packed (imagine one huge long room with a low ceiling), the air was literally blue and heavy with stale smoke, and there were only a few empty seats. We left immediately in search of clean air, but none was to be found anywhere. We ended up sitting at the junction of 3 corridors hoping to get relief from the large open space, but it was minimal. Every so often what seemed like a cloud of smoke would waft by. On the trip home the business lounge near the international departure gate had marginally better air quality. We managed to find seats in a small non-smoking section near what appeared to be the only food and drink area. It was a bit of a joke as the huge smoking area was separated from us by a wall divider about chest height. Maybe Lufthansa's first class lounge is better, but this business lounge was pathetic. From a quick glance around the smoke-filled box-like room, there were no sofas or padded arm chairs, only cheap and flimsy chairs, the type you might see stacked in a school auditorium. The only available food was cold snacks such as peanuts, pretzels, cellophane-enclosed crackers, cream cheese inside little containers - think of the small pods for margarine or jam in fast food outlets. Our experience with the chintzy food was a disaster. The cheese container that Peter opened has a bug inside it. I kid you not ! A wee brown creature with antennae! It really put us off having even the peanuts! Also, there were no spoons, only plastic stirring rods and no knives, even plastic ones! The fruit juice came out of a dispenser instead of tins or bottles. The only good thing was that besides the usual supply of soft drinks and booze, they had champagne. After the stomach-turning encounter with the cheese, I had several glasses. Lounge comparisons The only other international business class lounges I've experienced was on my 1998 trip to Saudi Arabia (KLM business class), which had stopovers in Amsterdam coming and going. The KLM business class lounge in Schiphol was much nicer, albeit a bit hard to find. There were sofas and padded armchairs and nooks and crannies offering some privacy. Most of all, there were many food stations offering a variety of tasty hot snacks. The Air Canada Maple Leaf lounges in Vancouver (and everywhere else in Canada) make the Lufthansa lounge in Frankfurt appear all the cheaper. All Maple Leaf lounges have sofas and armchairs, smaller sections that offer a sense of privacy, and hot snacks. On the way to Berlin, at lunch time soup, Chinese noodles with beef and vegetables, and spring rolls were available. Moreover, the Maple Leaf lounge and entire airport is smoke free as are all Canadian airports. Departure Processes in Frankfurt A note about departing for Berlin from Frankfurt. I'm used to departures in which the airplane is boarded in an orderly fashion: generally business class and the disabled and people with small children, then economy class by row number (last rows first). Not so here. Boarding for Berlin was chaos. The one-and-only call came and we all jostled to the gate like a herd of steers. Those of us fortunate enough to have e-boarding passes got to use the unmanned gate by passing the boarding card through the machine. The others were stuck in a slow-moving line handled by Lufthansa staff. The process on the return trip - departing for Vancouver from Frankfurt - was similar but worse. There were many more people and long lines where you had to show your boarding pass and passport to get into the departure gate area. But they had separate boarding for business class passengers, which partially prevented a repeat of the gate stampede of all passengers that occurred on the incoming leg of the trip. Security Security measures at all airports visited on the Berlin trip (Edmonton, Vancouver, Frankfurt, and Berlin's Tegel) were not as rigorous as our experiences travelling to Hawaii (2004) and certainly not to security coming home from our Sept. 2001 Swiss vacation post-9/11. Screening consisted of the usual processes, but not once did we need to turn on the camera or laptop computer. Upon arrival in Berlin and picking up our checked suitcase, security consisted of the customs man saying, "Welcome to Berlin" and pointing to the exit doors. The most stringent screening occurred upon arrival back in Vancouver when our winter boots set off the beeper and we had to remove them. All in all, a routine and painless experience. Summary Travelling can be very tiring, so flying business class takes then edge off and makes it more bearable. We hated Frankfurt's smoky airport and Lufthansa's sub-standard business class lounge in Frankfurt but thoroughly enjoyed the Lufthansa flights with their new sleeper seats. The problem with flying business class is that it's far too easy to get used to!
|
I
sampled the champagne and it was so-so.