octagonairways

Lufthansa Business Class

FRA-DEN

747-400 (Old Business Class)

Unfortunately, due to a four delay in the arrival of our United flight from Newark, we learned that we would not make our connection from Washington D.C to Denver. This required a complete rerouting. Unfortunately, the most convenient option involved flying through Frankfurt and Denver on Lufthansa’s old business class.

With a short connection time and two flights arriving and departing from completely different terminals, we had quite a haul to get to our flight to Denver. This resulted in absolutely no time to visit the lounge. Booking this flight last minute also resulted in incredibly inconvenient seating. I was sitting in the middle seat of the last row of business class in the forward cabin.

As soon as I stepped aboard, I realized why so many people avoid flying this plane. The configuration is truly cringeworthy in comparison to Lufthansa’s 747-8I as well as the other Lufthansa Group airlines. Don’t get me wrong, this is still a HUGE step up from economy and I am thankful to be able to here, though if you are going to spend the money I think there are much better cabins to spend it on.

I found my seat, where there was a new Lufthansa amenity kit, which we did not have on the outbound flight. I personally found the seats incredibly uncomfortable just for sitting in. 

Boarding was completed quickly, at which point the door was closed, we pushed back and the safety video was shown. Our taxi was quick and we were airborne very soon.

It took about thirty minutes for the beverage service to start, at which point the cabin crew came around with a drink cart. This was soon followed by taking lunch orders and then distributing them. The flight attendants were incredibly efficient while still being friendly. 

I was not able to eat the main course, so instead had a salad. The salad was among the worst I have ever had on a plane, slightly below the quality of United’s. If flying Lufthansa in business class, I definitely recommend bringing your food, as I guarantee it will be better.

After the meal service, I took a walk around the plane. While there is a single business class seat in the nose, it is in the middle and is basically sitting by itself in the middle of the cabin, so I do not necessarily recommend that seat.

This was one of Lufthansa’s oldest 747, so both did not feature the new first class nor did it have the current economy seats. Instead, it had incredibly old economy seats that obviously had a space cut out for the tv. Due to that modification, the economy cabin actually had both nicer cvs but also larger ones than the business class cabin.

Once I was back at my seat, I reclined it fully. This was my first time in an angled seat, ad I found very hard to relax in. I would personally have a very hard time sleeping in it. I made the mistake of turning the massage function on, which was basically a disguised name for a scoliosis-inducing bubble.

I also highly recommend bringing your own entertainment, as the Lufthansa selection is not good.

The rest of the flight was very typical, with the flight attendants coming through with a drink service every hour or so. However, the flight attendants did not come through the cabin besides that.

Before landing in Denver, the flight attendants came through the cabin with the pre-arrival snack. I did not partake in it, but my family said that it was not very special.

Within about 30 minutes after that, we commenced our descent into Denver. The consisted of the flight attendants collecting all glasses and trays, before coming through again with a trash bag.

The captain then asked the flight attendants to take their seats, and we touched down on time into a snowy Denver airport.

The crew made a welcome announcement before pulling into a gate.

Advice: Sit next to the door if you are flying into Denver, The Lufthansa and British Airways flight arrive at the exact same time, which are both 747s, this causes complete chaos and two hour waits at Customs and Immigration.

Conclusion:

Lufthansa business class in the old configuration is a perfectly fine way to get between the US and Europe, though you will have a uncomfortable seat and bad food for a price you could pay for a much better experience on a different airline. However, I personally thought the flight attendants on both flights were incredibly nice and genuinely cared.

Austrian Airlines

Airbus A321-200

VIE – SPU

Seat: 1F

Boarding commenced a couple of minutes after schedule, mainly due to the overbooked business class cabin. I was among the first aboard, and was instantly reminded of Lufthansa’s cabins in similar aircraft. They are actually the exact same, minus the colors. Unfortunately, business class inside of Europe is a rip-off in comparison to First class in the United States. There is simply a blocked middle seat, resulting in the same as economy, but there is guaranteed to be no one next to you. Personally, if you cannot get the bulkhead, I would book economy in the future. Fortunately, we were able to get the bulkhead.

Surprisingly, there was no service at all before the plane took off. The cabin boarded on-time and soon the door was closed and the jet way was retracted. While Austrian does have TV’s in their cabins, the flight attendants still manually perform the safety demonstration.

Directly after takeoff, the flight attendants came through and very efficiently distributed lunch to all business class passengers. I chose not to partake in the lunch service, but heard that the meal was utterly terrible, despite being one of the few airlines to have food consistently catered by Do&Co.

After the meal service, there was a short drink service before commencing our descent. The views coming into Split were AMAZING though. It was a smooth descent and we touched down in paradise right on time.

Conclusion:

This flight was incredibly standard and nothing out of the ordinary. The lack of service before departure was disappointing though not a big deal in any sense. I would only book intra-europe business class if the middle seat was very important to me. For the price premium, I honestly do not think that it is worth it.

It’s always a great pleasure to board a plane and turn left, or in my case turn right through the front door. I had never flown Lufthansa business class, so I was naturally very excited.

Lufthansa Business Class

ORD – FRA

Departure: 4:15pm

Arrival: 5:00 am

Boeing 747-800

I was greeted and helped with my bags as soon as I boarded the flight, a little surprise for business class. My first impression of the seat was comfortable but odd, as you will be playing footsie with your neighbor because of the v layout.

The IFE was at a weird angle for the layout of seat. You can adjust the position of the screen as soon as the plane takes off.

The captain announced our unusually short flight time of six hours, usually an 8-hour flight. We sat on the ground for quite a long while but eventually started rolling down the runway. As soon as we were airborne, the flight attendants notified us that the seatbelt sign would be illuminated for most of the flight, as the winds were very strong.

In a few minutes the purser and flight attendants came around passing out menus and taking drink and food orders.

I forgot to mention earlier that they did offer pre-departure beverages and a towel service and I chose orange juice.

I decided to have a look around the IFE movie choices. If you speak English and are very young similar to me, there are not many choices at all. I decided to watch Despicable Me: 2. As this is my first trip report, you probably do not know that I have 17 allergies, yes, 17. I notified the purser of this concern as soon as they started taking dinner orders. The purser was extremely nice and offered me the leftover caviar from first class. I later looked up this caviar and discovered I was given almost $200 worth of caviar…in Business Class! For the rest of my meal I had the salad without the meat. Dinner gradually finished, the lights were dimmed and the seatbelt sign was switched on. The seatbelt sign did remain on for the rest of the flight, however, the flight attendants did allow passengers to get up and move about the cabin. I personally think they did not switch the seatbelt sign off so they would not wake the passengers. I soon decided to walk the length of the cabin, as I did not get any sleep. I did however, get a chance to try out the new lie-flat bed and agree with most people that it is very comfortable. Unfortunately after the lights were turned off, they did not come on till later. I decided to have a look at the nose camera while all of my family was sleeping. It was very cool as soon as we were lining up for runways, but at the time not helpful because of the dark night. I took a look outside and was surprised by a huge amount of stars. As soon as the lights came on, 4am, 1 hour before landing, I took a look at the amenity kit. It contained, Slippers, Earplugs, Toothbrush, Eye Mask and Cream. The business class bathroom also contained extra amenities such as mouthwash and warm towels.

The breakfast service started very soon after the lights came on. The breakfast was very good and not disappointing by any means.

Soon after, we were on track for landing. WE did have a last minute runway change. The flight arrived 2 hours early, so the Frankfurt airport was completely empty.

This report is the first in a series of a trip to Croatia.

United Airlines 737-700 First Class Jackson Hole to Chicago

Austrian Airlines 767-300 Business Class Chicago to Vienna

Austrian Airlines A321-100 Business Class Vienna to Split

Austrian Airlines A321-100 Economy Class Dubrovnik to Vienna

Austrian Airlines 767-300 Business Class Vienna to Chicago

United Airlines 757-200 First Class Chicago to Jackson Hole

United Airlines

Seat: 3F (First Class)

JAC-ORD

737-700

Boarding commenced right on time and I was towards the middle of the pack in boarding, despite using the priority lane. There was a short queue on the stair truck before I reached the top. I soon got settled into seat 3F and familiarized myself with the seat. United does not usually operate ex-Continental planes to Jackson, so I had not been in this version of United First Class before.

The entertainment controller was located to the left of the seat on the side of the armrest. It could not be moved, which resulted in an inconvenient positioning. Flight attendants soon came around to take pre-departure drink orders. I ordered a ginger ale which was served in United glassware.

Our pushback started on time and we had great views of the Tetons on taxi. We had to wait for the flight to Houston to takeoff before we could though.

We were airborne soon and service commenced. It took an unusually long time for the seatbelt sign to turn off. The entertainment system turned on about 30 minutes into the flight, later than usual. The direct TV is complimentary for first class passengers. The crew soon came around with breakfast, though I declined the offer. The breakfast consisted of cheerios and a croissant. The rest of the flight was pretty average and nothing out of the ordinary. After about two hours we began our initial descent into Chicago coming and doing a circle over Lake Michigan.

We eventually touched down on the super far out runway(I forget which one this is) and began our ten minute taxi to the gate. We arrived at gate C17 (I think) where we exited the plane and into the terminal in Chicago. This was a pretty pleasant flight on the whole.