I've reviewed Lufthansa first class many times before, though it has been years since I've reviewed their A380 first class. Our flight was departing from gate D9 and was scheduled to depart at 3:50PM, though the inbound flight was delayed, so the departure time was rescheduled for 4:15PM. Fortunately they turned around the plane pretty…
Continue reading: Review: Lufthansa First Class A380 Houston To Frankfurt
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Agreed. Lufthansa service is very consistent. All the planes always had two wings without exception.
The best part of this review was reading you are spending time with your dad. That made me smile.
I flew Lufthansa First twice in August and while the service was ok, they remain way behind JAL ,Cathay and Singapore. I liked the food in the First terminal in Frankfurt but prefer to pay first with the other carrier that I mentioned above due to far better experience. (Although haters like Stanley or Julia flying on points in BA Premium Economy may disagree)
How distressed does that woman clutching her pillow in the picture on the IFE screen look?
Clearly her orange juice wasn't fresh enough...
Lucky,
Just curious - what do you think is the best way get from the US East coast (specifically New York) to Europe on miles? I've noticed that almost all of your transatlantic flying is from somewhere out west.
I've seen decent redemptions on Air France/KLM recently, but the pricing is variable. American's availability is spotty, and Delta's is spottier. I don't know as much about United. A lot of the NYC-Europe market seems to have been impacted by low cost airlines recently.
Can you put a small blurb about what your dad thinks or something interesting that he observed for each part of your trip report? I think it would be interesting to get the perspective of a non professional traveler.
Have there been any rumors of LH upgrading their first class product? I agree the IFE is week compared to what's out there. It will be interesting to see what the IFE is like on the new 777x J product. Hard to imagine they would want a better service on J than F.
How are they doing in preparing the beef-fillet? Was it edible? It's hard to imagine, as there are no frying pans (or the beefer) allowed in an aircraft.
LH isn't bad as far as the european carriers go....but how it has attained a 'five star' rating by Skytrax, i'll never know.
Yes First class is pretty good, especially the FCT in FRA. But Air France's is much better.
Yet - most of the fleet has Business Class cabins without direct aisle access. Not to mention their european 'business class' short haul product which is basically economy with an upgraded meal and an empty middle seat. And their Business Class lounges are simply 'meh'.
I'm sure it took all the restraint in the world,not to answer oj may not taste fresh after using glasses wiped with used hot towels from the welcome aboard reception and spitting on the pulp.
What the heck is "fresh" orange juice? Orange juice that isn't stale?
Or were they wanting OJ that wasn't made from concentrate, meaning "fresh squeezed?"
Lucky always talk about the importance of having and using the WiFi. Nice to see that on this flight, Lucky wants to spend all of the time with his dad.
Never understood the point of foolish Endre reading this blog if he supposedly buys only first class tickets. Oh wait, he buys it with his Monopoly money. Was it money colored in using Crayola? No haters here, just that everyone (I am sure OMAAT staff as well) just find Endre to be annoying. Yes, everyone finds Endre to be annoying.
Can you explain how this isn’t just a good business class product? You keep saying BA first is just a good business class but I don’t see anything spectacular about this either
From the sound of your review, you basically ate and slept for most of the journey. How did you spend time with your dad? I only ask because my dad says I should spend more time with him but if you have some secret where sleeping on a plane is spending time, then please share it
Good review. Regarding the seared steak. Lufthansa used to have electric frying pans on board. They used them to sear steaks, and make the scrambled eggs. I've seen them.
Last seven first classes I took ( ANA.JAL.KE.OZ.TG,LH) LH, TG were the worst.
Put too many seats in first class(747-8I)VS KE, food was mediocre at best.
To me LH is very over rated airline.
bedding was nice..
"Julia flying on points in BA Premium Economy may disagree"
Aw, that might be funny if it were actually true. I mean, it's about as true as your comments about flying paid first on CX. So...not really true at all lol
Little by little, LH is cutting F here and there, e.g. This wine list is so cheap that it's only a matter of time and they will offer Mondavi Coastal... All A330's are being reconfigured without F and A340's slowly replaced by 3-class A350's. I wonder whether there is a future for LH first class altogether.
My wife and our 1yo daughter, we just flew LH first class ORD to FRA. I must sadly say they have no on the ground service in Chicago, no baby food, bibs or diapers on board (nearly all Asian airlines have those in economy!), and again nobody to escort you in FRA to their lounge (LH please learn from Asians...), which is even more important while traveling with baby.
I agree, the wine list is very poor for first class (not premium at all). My everyday wine is even better (I am living in Europe). Champagne is fine, still Premium.
Example :
Miraval Rosé 2017 12USD
Hardys HRB D668 Chardonnay 2016 25USD
Fieuzal 2008 white bordeaux, 30USD, probably less "en primeur" few years ago.
Food look simple (not better than a J class Singapore Airlines "boot the cook")
IFE is ridiculous...
This is premium experience ? really ?
Amuse bouche for my flight was 1/2 of egg roll or spring roll...
Denny's and LH sharing same white plain plates....
Denny's has better representation with main dish than LH's Halibut n rice .
I'd rather have my own caviar than flight attendant scooping different portion for whatever reasons...
Bedding was nice....
Wow, Yong dislikes LH first so much, he/she had to post about it twice...but hey, glad you enjoyed the bedding.
@Chris - Singapore has a new "Boot the Cook" program? Does that we can kick the cook if the food wasn't good enough?
@Duck Ling - I'd say Air France's first class terminal is only better in that they pick you up from your plane. In all other respects, they're practically equal.
@Robert - Not all Asian airlines have spectacular ground services in the US either...
Loved the review as usual Ben. Although I’d kill to fly Lufthansa first, it does look like it’s getting a bit past its sell by date compared to some of the other first class experiences. However probably worth it to see some of the passengers who insist on living up to the hype of travelling Lufthansa First and rubbing their own egos. Lol. 🙂
Flew IAD-FRA on 1st paid ticket, the flight was worse premium experience ever; there was no resemblance to reviews I’ve read. Very disappointed and never again.
@Robert - "no baby food, bibs or diapers on board " You expect the airline to provide those things for you? I hope you were smart enough top bring your own. There are so many possibilities when it comes to these things there is no way they could stock every option someone might want. You take care of your child and let the airline take care of you. (hopefully)
@ Aaron - that's my point. LH is a strong four star airline, no better than AF. I just cannot for the life of me understand how they were given Five Stars by Skytrax. First and economy is nothing exceptional, pretty par for the course as far as the non ME/Asian airlines go. And their Business Class is generally poor. In terms of seating anyway. I just don't get how they can be considered in the same league as the other five star airlines - SQ, QR, NH, JL etc etc.
Nice review, Ben!
Every time Ben writes an LH review I came to reed the reviews, because I know I will found many "wannabe snobs" that love to criticize LH F and LH J (even when this is a F review).
"I’d rather have my own caviar than flight attendant scooping different portion for whatever reasons…" Was that for real??!! hahahahaha
"I must sadly say they have no on the ground service in Chicago, no baby food, bibs or diapers on board" Who really expect that the airline gives you your baby´s stuff??
"nobody to escort you in FRA to their lounge (LH please learn from Asians…)" Is there anybody outhere that thinks that he or she is so important to walk alone to the F terminal??
That's a decent business class product, but nothing more. I'd be appalled to pay international first full fares for a seat in the middle section. Completely exposed and you'd have to make a conscious and awkward decision to raise the "privacy" (LOL) shield.
Catering looks boring. And while they claim you can order a la carte as you please, you're still talking about the cart rolling down the aisle and them coming around with chocolates. That's not how truly flexible meals work; that's how you pressure people into following the crew's time table.
Had this not been a Lufthansa flight, you would have torn it to pieces. BA First looks better than this subpar, uninspired, product.
Thank you Lucky for the interesting review. I wish we had heard more about how you felt about each appetizer and your dad's beef. The chipotle shrimp looked and sounded good but as a Texan I am suspicious of any airline claiming to be able to deliver non-chewy shrimp much less some that is seasoned with chipotle!
Any thoughts on what type of plane LH might be flying from Austin direct to Frankfurt starting in May (which I am unreasonably excited about)? Are they phasing out first class on all or most of their planes, like United is?
Lufthansa FRA-SFO on A380 was my very first intercontinental flight in First. I'll never forget it, what an experience.
Since then I've experienced even better levels of service, but the first will always feel special.
I suggest you use a plug in which makes live the links to successive articles to the other trip reports in the series as they are published
This is a good product for what you pay for. A lot of people here demanding privacy but willing to pay as little as possible / award tickets.come back to the ground people.
Excellent review, Ben! I’m glad you got to spend quality time with your dad.
Even though I have yet to fly in any premium cabin, your post and the comments here mostly sum up my opinion of Lufthansa. My first ever long-haul international flight (and first time outside North America) was SFO-FRA-HEL and a later return trip RIX-FRA-SFO, for an orchestra tour almost exactly two years ago (we were touring Finland and the Baltics). SFO-FRA and FRA-SFO were on the A380 (old livery), FRA-HEL was on the A321ceo (old livery), and RIX-FRA was on the A320neo (new livery). I don’t understand why the stop in FRA when you can actually fly AY SFO-HEL nonstop in the summer. I think the conductor is loyal to LH because I looked at itineraries from earlier tour years and it seems like the orchestra always uses LH on the European tours. The orchestra staff chose seats for us, and put us all in a block of economy seats located at the back of the lower deck, which kinda sucked. Also, all of our individual seats were random (I ended up stuck with a middle seat on both legs to Helsinki when I wanted a window seat). I had pretty high expectations of Lufthansa coming in, but this flight was kind of a letdown. The entertainment screens on that plane were TINY, low-resolution, and unresponsive. I wanted to enjoy the tail cam but it was super blurry like you said. It crashed a couple times during the flight (even though it did work again after each crash). Also the entertainment seemed to have a decent selection, but the interface was terrible and hard to navigate (e.g. movie titles were mostly words in a list view with tiny thumbnails), and the design (e.g. colors) looked dry and boring compared to, say, Turkish, Singapore, or Emirates. Also, no remote except for some clumsy panel built into the arm rest. There were no AC outlets, just a very weirdly placed USB under the arm rest. The seat and cabin looked like it had been neglected for many years. There was no boarding music (seems like LH just doesn’t do it) and no mood lighting, which kinda bothered me especially when I tend to get afraid of heights. Also, there wasn’t any interesting or unique touches to the safety video or cabin design or anything in the experience that felt like the airline’s country (unlike, say, Qantas or KLM) but I’m honestly not sure what you could do with Germany. Crew was average (but one did let me go up to take pictures of the spiral staircase on the way there). Meals were average, no menu, just oversalted chicken or pasta in a tray surrounded by some other average things. At least I had flown them before they replaced the hot omelette in a tray thingy with the horrible sandwich for the second meal (breakfast). The short-haul European flights, I passed by Euro business, and sat in seats that I wanted to get out of after 30 minutes. No entertainment, no snacks, very tight legroom. Wasn’t awful, but just very forgettable. I’ve seen reviews of other Lufthansa planes following the trip. Unless I have to fly them due to the convenience of nonstop or something, or unless I want to get on a 747-8 before it’s too late, I don’t think I’ll fly Lufthansa again.