To finish offmy two-part birthday trip to the Golden Triangle, my dad and I flew Lufthansas A340 first class from Frankfurt (FRA) to New York (JFK), which was my first flight featuringLufthansas new first class soft product (and with Lufthansa seemingly now restricting first class awards, perhaps also my last).
Continue reading: Review: Lufthansa First Class Terminal Frankfurt Airport (FRA)
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
"need some ambient music" <-- NO, absolutely f***ing NO! I don't need any noise in the background and I am very happy that there is no background music. Keep it like that!
The sole actual "exclusive" first class terminal in existence . All the other faux-pretend "lounges" are fake-nothings compared to this LH first class terminal .
Agree ... Only animal calls : howler monkeys , cat yowls , tiger growls , tropical jungle birds , and cascading waterfalls .
Fully agree!!!!
Please let it remain to be quiet.
The world has become far too noisy anyway. And then, being forced to listen to some muzak for me feels like torture.
What's with the references specifically to the United States? Are there any differences in access rules between those routes and GRU, JNB, SIN etc?
Going to challenge you a bit. If none of the food was memorable and the aesthetic is meh...maybe it isn't a 5 out of 5? I get the privacy and limo, but to me 5/5 means everything is perfect. End grade inflation! haha.
@ Andrew -- I don't disagree with the premise of what you're saying. I will say, we live in a culture where everyone expects five stars for just showing up, and I don't love that.
In an ideal world, my rating system would be that three stars is literally average, and then an equal number of flights, lounges, and hotels, are rated both higher and lower than that. But if I did that, people would flip a you-know-what, and think I'm being unreasonably harsh.
To me, five stars doesn't mean perfect, but instead, it means it's something special and exceptional. I do think the FCT is exceptional for the simple reason that it's a fully separate facility that completely skips the main terminal, and there's not another lounge in the world that does that in the same way. Admittedly the Air France La Premiere ground experience is way better all around, but that doesn't mean the FCT isn't special and remarkable.
@ Throwawayname -- That section was specifically to give examples, and I just mentioned that since the US is (by far) the largest first class market for the airline. The rules are the same whether you're going to the United States or elsewhere.
I feel like you're presenting a false dichotomy here though, because it's either background music or more than likely hearing your fellow passengers breathe, wheeze, talk, sniffle, fart, etc.. where in the utter silence every sound goes off like a grenade. Some gentle Bach is preferable to that. If you luck out and get the place to yourself, I agree silence is nice.
Ben - I'll continue Andrew's challenge. I'm sure you know that in Japan extremely good restaurants are consistently rated 3/5 which means you're getting exactly what you paid for and it was a good experience. Considering the amount of confusion over the years by your ratings, I think it'd be worth looking into overhauling how you rate things (and could have a slightly more detailed star system explaining how it works). I know I've seen memes about your ratings along the lines of "Plane blew up in mid-air and FA spat in my food, 5/5 stars". Please don't take this as a negative criticism, I appreciate what you're doing!
You can get some spa services at the FC lounge non-Schengen, but have to pay for it
Lufthansa FCT and FCL are like comfort food. Not groundbreaking or exceptional, but a solid and consistent choice. I love LH’s first class lounges.
I would love a full revamp of Ben's scoring system but his audience would be the problem. Imagine if every single delta-related thing gets 3*, where 3 means that all expectations were met and nothing was out of the ordinary... Although, on a second thought, Ben's comment engagement would explode.
Anyways, the Japanese system would be ideal.
Ben - just a heads up that they've now closed the LH Worldshop in the First Class Terminal indefinitely. I was just there earlier this week and was disappointed to see that. They've also closed the one in the Munich satellite terminal.
great review! glad to know can fly to GER in F and use FCT. bucket list item for me. aber spargel ist immer weiss oder?
"Ambient music"? Absolutely not! There is enough noise pollution from all those "important" people who think that everybody else needs to be aware of their phone calls.
An underrated feature of both the FCL a the FCT is the fact I've never seen barefoot fatsos lounging on couches or chairs, or dumping their bags on empty chairs/couches.
I do agree with you on the 3 star problem. Most would see 3 stars and run, but I agree with you, 3 should be totally acceptable/average. Anyway, just poking fun!
Do you know whether when transiting FRA the on onward flight has to be on the same ticket in order to access the FCL?
So for example SFO-FRA in F (award ticket) then FRA-XXX (award or paid) in B or Y.
Does the FCT still have the special bottled water bar with different types of still and sparkling water?
My favorite part of this lounge was that if you rented a car you could drop it off at the front and they would take it back to the car rental center for you. I purposefully booked a 12 hour layover once to drive the Autobahn using the 99euro deal LH offered to rent a Porsche (and it included gas!). Then I returned the car to the front of FCT so I could then chill in the lounge for a few hours before my next flight.
There is something so pleasant about landing in Germany or Switzerland in the morning after ~10 hours overnight in First. The cool, crisp morning air from ZRH's outdoor deck or the FCT walk is a magical signal that you're entering a calm, civil place. I've done one day EU trips just for that feeling-- do Germans have some long unpronounceable word for it?