A truly private experience?

By: Ben Schlappig

Published: August 6, 2009

11 comments

on Tuesday I booked an award ticket for my mom to fly to Germany tomorrow in first class on Lufthansa to visit some friends and relatives for a week. I booked her on the always-convenient Lufthansa nonstop flight from Orlando. When I was making the booking a couple of days ago, the flight showed as being “F8,” which means they had not sold any first class seats yet, given that this is an A330 with a total of eight seats in first class.

Now it still shows as her being the only passenger booked in first class, with about 24 hours to go till the flight. Earlier today I told her that she might have the cabin to herself, which I figured was the ultimate experience, but she responded “well, I hope someone else books then.” To say that I was utterly confused would be an understatement, but she said “I don’t want two flight attendants looking after just me, that would be weird.” Hmm, I guess she almost maybe sorta kinda has a point. Having a cabin to yourself is nice when you’re traveling with someone else, but it might just be a bit awkward if it really is just you being taken care of by two flight attendants.

Of course in the meantime I’m hoping none of those darn business class passengers try to upgrade at the airport tomorrow! 😉

And, while it doesn’t really have anything to do with this post, I love the Lufthansa brand video (minus the cheesy, stereotypical, odd German dad with his son at 2:30):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrLCob4ch60

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Brian Guest

August 10, 2009, 10:10 am

I was once the sole passenger on a CO 737-800. The flight (BOS-EWR, last flight of the day) had been delayed several hours and because I knew that from email flight status updates, I didn't show up at the airport until an appropriate time for the new departure. Turns out everybody else had arrived approximately on-time and were re-accommodated on an earlier, delayed, flight. The airport staff was pretty grumpy about my late arrival, but the in-flight crew was fun to hang out with all by my lonesome. :)

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lucky New Member

August 8, 2009, 6:22 pm

Great stories, folks! :) While I'm not sure who is singing, the music is "Symphony of Angels" and can be downloaded for free here: http://www.lufthansa-usa.com/mp3/symphony_of_angels.mp3

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Kiwi Flyer Guest

August 8, 2009, 2:48 pm

A few years ago I was the only passenger in First on Singapore Airlines from Tokyo to Singapore. The service was amazing and there was far too much food & drink on offer. Not only did they have all the western meal options (with spares in case of problems) but they also had the kyo kaiseki meal too.

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Pat+ Guest

August 8, 2009, 2:31 pm

I did fly LH F alone, on the 747. I had two FAs just for me, and of course the purser stopped by to introduce herself and let me know that I she'd be at my service should I need her. The FA did everything just like if she had a full cabin to attend to -- I was impressed. She setup the carts, the flowers, the linen, everything -- except that the carts stayed by my seat :) She was sad food would go to waste so she offered to give me the complete 'mini-towers' of appetizers and desserts. So I ended up eating three appetizers and desserts... needless to say I wasn't hungry for breakfast later. It was a very enjoyable experience, and it wasn't too ackward because it was a night flight -- after dinner I just went to bed and didn't bother anyone until breakfast! The only thing that felt a bit weird was seeing wine opened just for me -- I didn't want to drink too much so I wasn't comfortable sampling wines, although I would have loved to. Upon landing the FA lead me to the bus downstairs--a long articulated bus just for myself. I arrived at the F lounge and realized the FA hadn't returned my BP, so they didn't want to let me in :/ I insisted that they look me up and after the agent did find me in the manifest, she did finally agree to greet me in. This was my closest experience to being on a private jumbo jet. I didn;t see one single passenger all the way.

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theflyingpinto Guest

August 6, 2009, 8:45 pm

I hope your Mom has a great flight, and nothing wrong w/ having the cabin to herself;-) My mom came to Rome with me on a trip I was working and on the way home had FC all to herself...another time on a domestic flight she was the only pax in FC, w/ me as her only FA...kinda fun! And yet, another time my husband, 1 yr old daughter at the time, and I were flying home from BOS, when we got to the airport, we were early enough for a flight we could have gotten on that only had middle seats available...meaning 1 yr. old on lap for four hours...or we could wait two hours for an "empty" flight. For us? easy choice, we waited and had the entire airplane to ourselves, three of us and four FAs;-) Good Times!

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