For the return portion of our Good Morning Milan, Goodnight Moon trip, my dad and I flew Lufthansa’s Airbus A340-600 first class from Frankfurt to Boston. Before I talk about the flight as such, I’d like to talk about my very bad luck with Lufthansa first class seats actually functioning.
Individually this wasn’t a huge deal, but this was the second (or by some metrics third) flight in a row where something similar has happened. It sure makes you wonder if I’m just really unlucky, or what…
Lufthansa called me a day before my first class flight
I redeemed Air Canada Aeroplan points at the last minute for our Lufthansa first class tickets from Frankfurt to Boston. The cabin consists of eight seats, and based on the seats that were still available at the time of booking, I decided to select 2G and 2K — my dad wanted a window seat, so I selected seat 2K for him, while I wanted to sit as close to him as possible, so I selected the center aisle seat across from him, 2G.
The afternoon before departure, I got a call from Lufthansa… ruh-roh! That’s usually not a good sign. The friendly agent explained that the seat I had assigned was broken, and wanted to give me the choice of the remaining vacant seats. At this point picking were slim, so I was assigned seat 2D, the center aisle seat on the other side. Okay, that’s not exactly ideal, but whatever.
Fortunately once onboard, I discovered that seat 2G could actually be occupied, but it just had no electrical power, and couldn’t be used for takeoff and landing. That meant it could still be used inflight (so I could sit across from my dad while dining), while I could use the other seat when I wanted to recline.
Seat 1A was also broken, so the person who reserved that seat had to move across the aisle, to seat 1D. It’s kind of embarrassing that two of eight first class seats weren’t functioning.
What makes this worse is that the plane had actually been grounded for much of the two weeks prior to the flight, which makes you wonder for how long they had known about these issues. We were flying on December 16, 2025, on the plane with the registration code D-AIHW:
- On December 1, the plane flew from Boston to Frankfurt, landing on December 2
- After 11 days on the ground, on December 13, the plane flew from Frankfurt to Boston to Frankfurt
- On December 14, the plane was scheduled to fly to New York, but it diverted to Shannon due to a medical issue, and then returned to Frankfurt, where it sat for two days
So I don’t know when the seats actually broke, but for a plane that successfully operated a grand total of two flights in the past two weeks (minus the diversion), you’d think that there would be time for cabin maintenance, especially if they knew of the issue well before departure.
I wouldn’t think much of this situation, except…
While having two of eight first class seats broken sounds bad, I wouldn’t necessarily draw many conclusions from that. However, for my dad’s booked travel in Lufthansa first class, this was the third “strike” in a row.
Over the summer, my dad and I were booked to fly Lufthansa Allegris first class, though at the airport we found out that one of the three first class seats was fully broken, meaning one person had to be downgraded (and I’d say the handling of the situation was really bad, in terms of communication and attitude).
My dad’s last booked Lufthansa first class flight prior to that was in the summer of 2024, from Boston to Munich. The night before, he was informed that there was an aircraft swap, and that first class was no longer available. Fortunately we made the best of the situation, and managed to rebook him in SWISS first class, which I’d consider to be a win.
I suspect we’ve just had really bad luck, but I think we can all agree that it’s not a great situation when you have three flights in a row where first class seats don’t function as planned.
Bottom line
My dad I flew Lufthansa first class from Frankfurt to Boston, and the seat I reserved ended up being broken, along with one other seat in the cabin. Okay, that’s not ideal, but also not that bad, except for the fact that this felt like deja vu.
On the previous Lufthansa first class trip I took with my dad, a seat was also broken, and that situation was worse, since someone had to be downgraded, as it was the new Allegris cabin, with just three seats. And on the Lufthansa first class flight I had booked my dad on before that, he ended up being rebooked on another flight, because there was a plane swap that meant first class wouldn’t be available at all.
Are we just really unlucky, or does Lufthansa have a first class seat maintenance issue?
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