Lufthansa 454 Frankfurt to San Francisco Scheduled - 09:50am – 12:20pm, 11 hr 30 min flight Delayed Departure – 10:40pm, offloading some luggage due to no-appearance Arrival at the gate – 12:40pm Business Class, Seat 21C Food – Lunch, Mid-flight snack, Dinner Equipment – Airbus 380-800 Whole experience started with connecting flight from Graz, Austria in C (E95), which was on-time, but C class on intra-European flight is not so much different from Y, apart from better food and the fact that seat next to you is empty, and of course, that you are among very first deplaning. In FRA, immidiatelly went to C terminal-Senator lounge, where all LH flights on A380 depart... there is separate boarding area for economy passangers and first/business passangers, who enter the plane basiccaly from the lounge... there are two lounges, Senator and Business and when they announce boarding the connecting doors between both open and you board the plane from business lounge. Boarding was very smooth and C cabin on A380 is indeed huge, second largest in the sky with 98 seats, and our plane was full... in all three classes. We boarded the plane directely into C cabin, which is above main deck... After boarding, pre-departure drinks were offered. Had some delay, due to the fact that some passangers did not show up, but their luggage did and they had to off-load it. Captain came on speaker three times, so we new what is the cause of the delay... So, we left FRA with some 40 minutes of delay, but on-time arrival to SFO was announced due to good weather. I must say that service on board was fantastic, very tasty food, we were offered three-course lunch (three main choices), mid-flight snack (sendwich, fruits or cake - I had cake and fruits...) and also dinner (choice of cold or hot one). Lunch service took over two and half hours, but given the fact that the C cabin is huge this is no suprise... But it was very tasty, I had some classical german veal with some noodles and carrots... I was offered drinks many times during lunch and dinner. Serice was very attentive, but could be a bit more attentive during the flight between both meals, as I had to fetch the drinks fromt he galley... Hard product is not so great, as seat is not too comfortable and it is hard to sleep in. But, LH will fit all big planes with new C class in next months, that should bring full-lie seats also to C, so this part of experience should improve... (will continue...)
After arrival to SFO, lines at border immigration were HUGE... as three planes from Asia arrived just before ours... it took one hour to get thru immigration, but just minutes to get luggage and get thru customs... I wish that immigration would be better organized and quicker at SFO (and also in some other places...)... no priority immigration of F or C passangers though...
No, I dont think so... Not for now, at least... took a flight back from SFO to FRA with UA 900 (B747-400) in C, upstairs, very good experience in my humble opinion, hard product much better than LH, soft product maybe just a niche worse, if at all... maybe I had been just lucky with the crew, but I would took UA on 747-400 instread LH on A380-800 anyday.
Is this an ad for Global Entry? The best $100 I spent (which I did before UA offered to reimburse the fee)!
Nice report-- thanks for sharing. I just took this flight this week and the business class seats have not yet been upgraded. I agree with you; they are uncomfortable and hard to sleep in. Lufthansa just started the Christmas menu-- which was fantastic, with a bag of Christmas cookies as a bonus. And of course, the service was 5 star!
Netherlands Privium members can apply for Global Entry but that costs a pretty penny and is limited to NED citizens IIRC
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