In my last post, I reviewed the Lufthansa First Class Terminal. I won’t repeat myself here, but I can sum it up by saying that it was easily the most impressive ground experience I have ever had. The level of service and the attention to detail rivaled that of a truly excellent hotel such as…
Continue reading: First Time In Lufthansa First (With Two Celebrities): Review Of LH450 from Frankfurt to Los Angeles
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
My US-based iPhone never has any trouble connecting to LH or EY internet (both provided by T-Mo).
I have never had that problem since tmobile I think lucky has an att or verizon phone because they lock them down... it must be the reason why.
Oh wow. I love Sia. I'm assuming that she didn't have any champagne, being clean and sober for several years now. On her interview with Howard Stern, she talked about how one of her earliest stipulations for travel was to have a lie flat bed on flights over 8 hours. Boy, she's got that now!
I adore Sia and being born in 82 can appreciate Courtney Love both for her music and her late husband's music which I grew up listening to (indeed still listen to on xm radio's lithium channel).
You are one lucky duck.
"We somehow got to talking about United, and one of the flight attendants said she wished she could work for United because it was so young and hip. I was a little confused, and then I realized she was joking. She followed up with: “They’re ancient!” It’s more or less objectively true that longhaul United and American premium cabin crews are generally quite old, so I couldn’t disagree!"
So it's OK to have a problem with crews age but not if they are gay? Would it be OK if a straight person said they don't want to work with gay people. Sorry the Kentucky clerk doesn't sound so unreasonable suddenly when "open minded" people reveal their hidden biases.
why the helł do you feel entitled to report on the drinking habits of another passenger? I guess I can't refer to a blog post as "unprofessional", so I'll go with tacky and lacking integrity.
Probably no one guessed Sia because they have never heard of her, I certainly have no idea who that is. But I don't really keep up with celebrities.
I think those old flight crews prefer the term "senior". 🙂
I love the contrast in writing styles between you and Ben, especially in your flight/hotel reports. Great review...
@Credit -- I can't really understand how my mentioning another person's comical remark on someone's age can be compared to denying someone a marriage license that they are legally entitled to. One involves a person's view on something in an individual capacity; the other involves state level deprivation of a right conferred by the federal constitution. Maybe I'm just confused.
@Chris -- I said she and her husband were "uneventful" cabinmates inasmuch as they only drank water and tea and slept. Sorry you find that tacky and lacking integrity.
@Michael -- Thanks!
Hi-good report and I am older than dirt and not offended by the "age" comment. I find that you get better service with the OF crews :). As to whose drinking what if you are in public you are fair game Dude unless you're peeking in their windows.I've flown LH a couple times in various classes and it's ok. I enjoy your trip reports Matt and with practice you will get better
@credit
It sounds like you're trying to justify anti-gay bigotry with your absolutely bizarre comment. There was nothing wrong or offensive about that flight attendant's observations. United's FAs do tend to be older...and miserable and cranky.
@Rand
Dirt calls me grandpa.
@Matt
Wonderful trip report. I spent the past few days looking forward to each highly enjoyable installment.
Hey this is my friend matt...
He has this great credit card, which I also happen to have. You should get it too, it's great. Oh did you see my note saying I get money for you applying? Sweet as bro. Get on the bus, Gus...make a new plan, Stan...
Ps. The citi prestige isn't as generous for us down under.
Great review, but I agree that repeating the LH FA's snide comment about the average age of UA cabin crew seemed petty.
@andrew So we should just tap our way down the creditcard hallway with our white cane. Ben discloses "all the time" his benefit from credit card signup. Who cares if he benefits? It helps those of us who are'nt as smart as you. Get over it Dude
Okay I don't want to appear mean but can we have some of the basics please? I'm more interested in whether or not this was a paid flight or some sort of redemption. Which was it? I don't care very much about some called Sia. I had to Google to be frank.
Courtney Love is a sub-celebrity but Sia is so cute, she is very talented, has an amazing voice and as you said, she was very kind. that makes the perfect celebrity. 😀
man, you always get a lot of haters when you post.
i specifically was waiting for this post when you told us who the celebs were, so i'm glad for the post!
@Bill that is funny and I agree but I didn't care enuf to post it. Courtney is a little passe and I had to google Sia too
Sia -who I had to Wikipedia- and Courtney Love?!? I feel like I was misled when you said "celebrities." How about "people involved in musical entertainment."
Matt you are a lawyer. Do you refer to people's age, sex, race in your briefs when making arguments about things they did. You referred that they were young. Why not tell us their race? To say someone said something comically doesn't excuse it's presence in the blog. If i have a friend who is screwing things up all the time and I say comically "you are so gay" does it make it ok. Discrimination hides behind humor when it's not accepted by society to "test out" the grounds about pushing limits.
Anyway I like playing devils advocate. So don't mind me.
@credit You are on the wrong forum go back to MSNBC and CNN and find out if aliens really grabbed MH370
I would be a little afraid of Courtney because I'm afraid I might blurt out, OMG, I love Live Through This! and she might want to shoot me or something since it was probably painful to make...but I love Live Through This. It's brilliant. OK, I'll go away now. I'm always afraid to take pix of celebs, in fact, I never do, but I think you handled it fine.
P.S. All those people who think Courtney and Sia are not big enough for them...I would ask how famous YOU are?
@Andrew the website doesn't pay for itself, and the ad disclosure on the front page seems pretty clear to me. Certain other travel blogs are a lot more obnoxious with the cc links imho.
Matt - been enjoying the trip reports! And I've learned a lot more about champagne. It is funny how long haul crews on US carriers tend to be much more senior than foreign airlines. Of course, I've had absolutely fabulous flights with crews old enough to be my grandparents, so more an observation than a complaint.
Thanks for the detailed review, Matt. You mentioned in another post that you might be visiting the Air France lounge at SFO (now that it is accessible with Priority Pass). Any chance we could get a review?
@Sean -- it's hard to want to leave the Centurion Lounge in SFO but I'm happy to review the Air France lounge next time I'm there.
I'm another one in the: "Who the heck is Sia?" camp. I thought that was Singapore airlines.
The definition of "celebrity" seems so stretched these days...
This basically mirrors my impression of LH First exactly. The mains weren't amazing, the IFE is horrendous (embarrassing that United really outdoes them on this point), but the caviar is divine, the cabin is gorgeous, the ground service in Frankfurt is top notch, and it's quite the comfortable seat/bed. Luckily I had Laurent Perrier Grand Siecle on my flight which was a fantastic option. Jealous of the cabin mates you had on your flight 🙂
On a totally random note, in lieu of the horrible entertainment I found I was able to intermittently stream a few shows on Netflix by using a US-based VPN network to mask my web traffic. Obviously against the T&C of the internet and it doesn't always seem to work but can be handy for one or two shows before sleeping.
Matt, did you try making any outbound calls using the air phone in the first class galley? I tried calling my Dad during the flight but the FA and I could not get it to work.
Btw I had the same problem with the internet. I paid for it but it never worked lol. I have T-Mobile
I left Rome at 6am on an LH A321, arrived at Frankfurt but the plane parked away from the terminal so a staircase was brought over and some buses for passengers. Then I see a Porsche pull up next to the plane. As I was about to exit, the FA in the forward galley told me my VIP transport was waiting. I walked down the stairs and the driver was standing there with a sign saying Lufthansa VIP. Meanwhile all the other passengers were crowding the bus just staring. Right before I entered the car, I looked up at the cockpit and I saw the captain give me a thumbs up haha. The driver kindof got lost and we went around in a circle to try to find the lounge, which I didn't mind because I got to video document what looked like a good portion of the LH fleet lol. He said he was an "intern".
When I was waiting in the lounge I met this hilarious older German guy. When ended up being driven together in the S-class to the plane, then went up an elevator to the jet bridge. There was a long line of business class passengers crowding the bridge in our way (guess we were a little late) and the driver was escorting us through. I remember him saying over and over again "pardon us first class coming through". There's me some little 25 yr old wearing a top hat and carrying all this Louis Vuitton luggage heading to LA, they probably thought who the hell is that lol.
When I entered the aircraft I passed through the galley and I saw the FA (who was very senior, maybe late 50s) standing next to my seat (2k) and greeted me by last name and pointed to the champagne already poured and macadamias. I was like WOW.
During the flight the funny German guy (keep in mind he was like 300 pounds, big guy) sat on my ottoman and we had all the food services face to face. He made me laugh so much that I almost spit out my wine a few times. I literally didn't need to get out of my seat to get more wine. I just reached over and grabbed it from the center bar unit lol. He got up with a bottle of cognac and his glass and started walking around the first class cabin trying to offer it to other passengers omg (all 8 seats were occupied).
This was an awesome moment for me, as the flight was concluding, we were passing over Las Vegas on a clear day and I let the senior FA know, she sat down on the ottoman across from me for about 10min and just stared out the window and we talked about Vegas. She had never been. Once we were at the gate at LAX, I was taking my time getting all my stuff together and all the other passengers were gone, just me and the senior FA. We were talking about her career with Lufthansa, she flew on the DC-10 and 707s. She said in her 30+ years with LH she had never seen such a young person fly solo in international first class. She eventually left the plane or to the back but I had the whole first class and lower business section to myself. I hung out for a few minutes and took pictures of everything...
Never heard of Sia, except when referring to Singapore Airlines 😀 (have heard of but wouldn't recognise Courtney Love either)
Good review though, agree looks like a decent overall experience, as long as one remembers to load up the tablet/laptop with plenty of entertainment in advance!
PS you're welcome to my caviar, not my cup of tea at all!
So do they change the champagne often? Is there a way to know what will be on a given flight?
Nice review!
LOL to the folks who remark that they don't know who Sia is. She's one of the hottest artists now and was the musical guest on SNL a few months back. Not a celebrity? Please. Google is your friend, people. I just don't understand why someone would ask, "Who is Sia?" when the answer is, quite literally, right there at your fingertips.
Sia is a person's name? Some kind of reality show person? Is that a first name or a surname?
OMG Sia! As soon as you mentioned her I wondered if we'd get a frontal shot or one from the back. And those people who really need to comment to let us know they don't know how to use google... really?
Great series of trip reports Matt. Don't let the complainers get you down.
As an aside on the whole "old people" on United kerfuffle, here's a little bit of insight.
On US mainline carriers, FAs are unionized. No surprise there. Since US carriers are unwilling to pay their FAs a reasonable wage, the unions have given up asking for actual money, instead demanding that their most senior members get to work the "best" routes. That means that the FAs on US carriers' international flagship routes are the employees with the most seniority and not, necessarily, the best employees the airline has. Of course, the very most senior employees get to work international First and Biz cabins...even if they're not totally focused on customer service.
On European mainline carriers, the FAs are also unionized. Again, no surprise. But these European FAs aren't afraid to strike and shut down the airlines they work for. As a result, they're in a position to negotiate for important things, like money and non-rev travel. Since they're making money and getting to travel when they like, there's less incentive to maximize "benefits" like international route assignments. The net result is that the unions give the companies more flexibility in who they assign to various routes, enabling airlines like Lufthansa to put their "best" FAs in international First.
As you'll probably note, I've not talked about Gulf and Asian airlines, whose staff are not typically protected by unions and who are generally let go when they're not perky and pretty enough. That's a whole other Oprah.
I don't understand why the IFE seems so bad? I just looked online at the selection and while its no Emirates or Etihad in terms of selection it seems very adequate for a trans-atlantic 8 hour flight. Can you give some reasons on why you didn't like it?
I came here a lil' late.. Having a laught at the "Who is Sia?" Crowd.. Well, she is a singer that has a youtube video with 1 BILLION views 🙂