Review: Lufthansa First Class Munich to Los Angeles

To Sicily For The Weekend

More from this series:

• To Sicily for the Weekend: Introduction
• Review: Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge Vancouver
• Review: Lufthansa First Class Vancouver to Munich
• Lufthansa First Class Lounge Munich Review
• Review: Lufthansa Business Class Munich to Budapest
• Review: Hilton Budapest
• Review: Platinum Lounge Budapest
• Review: Lufthansa Business Class Budapest to Munich
• Review: Lufthansa Senator Lounge Munich
• Review: Air Dolomiti Business Class Munich to Catania
• Review: Air Berlin Economy Class Catania to Munich
• Review: Sheraton Munich Airport
• Review: Lufthansa First Class Lounge Munich
• Review: Lufthansa First Class Munich to Los Angeles

Lufthansa 452
Munich (MUC) – Los Angeles (LAX)
Tuesday, May 28
Depart: 3:55PM
Arrive: 7:15PM
Duration: 12hr20min
Aircraft: Airbus A340-600
Seat: 2G (First Class)

When it comes to award availability, Munich to Los Angeles is just about the holy grail of routes, given that it’s almost never available for award redemptions. So I was kind of excited about finally flying this route up front.

We further lucked out given that we had the new first class product, which a bit over half of the A340-600s in Munich seem to have. The cabin is virtually identical to the one on the A330-300 we had on the outbound, so I’ll limit the cabin pictures.

I have high expectations of service in Lufthansa first class, though I could tell immediately this was an exceptional crew.

My seat, 2G

Once settled in we were offered pre-departure beverages. I ordered champagne and water, which were accompanied by macadamia nuts. My champagne glass never got more than half empty, which I find rare for pre-departure service.

Pre-departure champagne and water

I was then offered pajamas, slippers, and an amenity kit.

Pajamas, slippers, and amenity kit

The boarding process was efficient, and within about 20 minutes boarding was complete, despite a full flight.

There were three other passengers in first class, and they were all rather interesting, to put it mildly. Seated across from me in 2K was a 20-something LA hipster/broheim who was wearing big headphones and having a conversation on the phone about how he was looking forward to having  a “jam sesh” when he gets back home.

Seated in front of us in 1D & 1G was an older couple (well, at least the husband was a bit older). During boarding they were rather thrilled to find out the flight had Wi-Fi. They mentioned to the flight attendant that they were excited about that since their outbound flight didn’t have Wi-Fi. The flight attendant asked what plane they flew on the way out, and they said “oh, private.” Well of course. I actually Googled the guy after the flight and found out he has been a pretty high up executive at many major companies, including a major airline that’s no longer in existence and that Kanye West and Kim Kardashian named their baby after.

Before departure the captain came on the PA to inform us of our flight time of 11hr25min, which was almost an hour under our block time, so he predicted we’d be landing in LA about 30 minutes early.

Our taxi to the runway was quick, and once there we were number two for takeoff behind a bmi regional plane.

They’re alive!

I’ve gotta be honest, the A340-600 scares the $&^% out of me during takeoff. While it’s a much more powerful aircraft than the A340-300, it has some of the most gradual climbs of any plane out there… at least it feels that way.

Airshow after takeoff

Airshow after takeoff

Airshow after takeoff

About 10 minutes after takeoff the two first class flight attendants began setting up the bar up front, while the purser came around the cabin to distribute the menus and welcome everyone aboard.

Cabin after takeoff

Menu and wine list

Service began, as usual, with a warm, scented towel followed by the amuse bouche.

Warm towel

Amuse bouche

The lunch menu read as follows:

And the wine list read as follows:

Lastly, the drink list read as follows:

Tables were set using the new setup, which includes the individual salt and pepper shakers and olive oil. The bread basket had both garlic bread and pretzel bread, so I was on cloud nine.

Table setup

And as is usually the case ex-Germany, the butter was even stamped with “First Class” on it — I’d expect no less, of course!

Butter with class

As I said earlier, the flight attendant working the aisle was particularly spectacular, and addressed me by name at every interaction with a smile. She first came around with caviar and insisted that be served before the appetizers so that my tray doesn’t get too full, while most of the time it’s served together.

She offered me a generous portion of caviar with all the trimmings.

Caviar

Next she came through the cabin with the appetizer cart, from which I selected salad and tomato and mozzarella.

Salad and tomato and mozzarella

Meanwhile my friend had all the appetizers.

Full set of appetizers

The next course was some sorbet.

Sorbet

And then for the main course I selected asparagus with hollandaise sauce, parsley potatoes, and ham. It was actually tasty, even though the portion was probably four times bigger than it needed to be.

Asparagus main course

Next the cheese and dessert cart was rolled around.

Cheese and dessert cart

I selected the mousse and ice cream with strawberry dessert, which was really great.

Cream cheese mousse and ice cream on rhubarb ragout with strawberries

Meanwhile my friend had the white chocolate and pineapple crumble, which he enjoyed as well.

Toasted white chocolate, pickled pineapple, and curry crumble

I also had a bit of cheese to finish off the meal, along with a glass of Bailey’s.

Cheese and Bailey’s

Lastly I was offered some pralines.

Pralines

The service throughout the meal was truly exceptional, and the flight attendant was a gem among gems. After lunch I requested turndown service, which was promptly taken care of.

Turndown service

Turndown service

This flight featured Wi-Fi, so once in the comfortable fully reclined position I decided to get caught up on a bit of work. Wifi for the entire flight costs €20, which seems like a pretty good deal. I worked for a c0uple of hours, and about halfway through the flight decided to go to sleep.

In bed position

I woke up a bit over 90 minutes out of Los Angeles, shortly before the pre-arrival meal service began.

Airshow upon waking up

Airshow upon waking up

After changing out of my pajamas the meal service began. The menu read as follows:

I love how Lufthansa names things, including this menu. It’s simply called “Mexico.” The flight attendant rolled around the cart so the service was buffet style, where you could point at what you wanted and it would be plated for you.

I chose all the cold options, which included bell pepper and tuna with creamy pine nut sauce, a wrap with prawns, guac, and tortilla chips,

Cold specialties

I wasn’t especially hungry so skipped the hot option, though my friend had the poulard wrapped in bamboo leaf.

Poulard in bamboo leaf

For dessert was a chili flavored chocolate tart, and I had a coffee along with it. I know I’m unsophisticated and will be called all kinds of names for saying this, but chili flavored desserts are just about the only ones in the world I don’t like.

Dessert

As we began our descent the purser once again passed through the cabin to thank each passenger for flying Lufthansa. Our descent was smooth and direct, and we touched down at LAX on runway 24R about 30 minutes ahead of schedule. That translated to a pretty long taxi to the gate, though we were still early. While immigration queues were long, thanks to Global Entry we were through in a matter of minutes.

This was an extremely pleasant flight, possibly one of my best yet with Lufthansa.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned, because I have several reports I’ll be blasting through in the coming weeks.