You WILL relax - NOW! (Lufthansa)

Member Name: gollygumdrops

Product:	Lufthansa
Date:	30/05/02 (2550 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Convenient, efficient

Disadvantages: Mean

Lufthansa wasn't my first choice of airline. I'm a British Airways kind of chick personally. Given the choice I think the British really do know how to fly. However whilst they know how to fly, they don't always know where to fly from. Darling, I don't do Gatwick, and Heathrow is soooo common. I'll pay good money to fly from a civilised airport, like Birmingham.

I can fly Birmingham to Detroit on BA, but it involves flying to Paris and back to Heathrow and that's not an expense I can justify on any level. Other choices are KLM via Schiphol, although that, often, due to code sharing, involves a transatlantic trip with Northwest (shudder). American via Chicigo O'Hare offers oodles of leg room, though not always a great price and tight schedules usually mean missing a connection on the return leg and getting shipped to Heathrow anyway. That leaves Lufthansa via Frankfurt Main.

Lufthansa is often cheaper than American by a noticeable amount, so I've made the trip a few times now. On a route specific point the only downside is a long wait at the terminally dull Frankfurt Main terminal on the westbound leg.

Lufthansa has new planes, newer on average than most other big carriers. Good news for the happy traveller as they don't have visible damage to the wings to worry about as they cross the Artic Circle. They do their level best to remind you at all times you are flying Lufthansa - the seats are a deeply unattractive grey with yellow piping. Nobody steals anything from Lufthansa planes. Leg room is similar to everyone except the lovely folk at AA for transatlantic flights.

Business class in Europe is, as always a waste of money apart from the flight flexibility. You are guaranteed nobody sitting in the middle seat, early boarding and disembarcation (is that a word?) and priority luggage handling, but it ain't worth paying 4x the price for. Transatlantic business gets you a b
igger seat, more space, better food and entertainment but not a flat bed.

They do all the same stuff as other airlines. They serve meals. Hot ones are your standard cooked on board beastliness, sandwiches aren't a strong point unless you like rye or tongue. Booze is free on transcontinental flights, but unlike BA they pour you a glass of wine or spirits from a bottle, rather than loading you up with sufficient unopened miniatures to keep you sozzled for a week and save you buying duty free.

So what's the service like golly? Er...well...'Germanic' is the best way to explain it. They serve you meals and drinks. On schedule. Exactly on schedule. Only on schedule. Other requests are taken, then reported back to the cabin commander who may grant your request after due consideration, or may come back and explain to you in some detail that your request is not on their list of requests and if you want to make a request you should request a request in advance.

But hey, they fly on time, and they have never lost my luggage.

In flight entertainment (excluding watching people make unauthorised, unrequested requests) is limited. No seatback video here. A video screen pops down from the overhead cabins and shows a couple of films and old sitcoms. No choice. However, they are Anglo American movies, you aren't subjected to German comedies. News programmes and sports updates are German sourced, but there are a range of audio channels so an English audio translation is available. All the cabin staff I've encountered speak excellent English, as well as native German.

The Frankfurt <-> Detroit flight has always been on a DC10. No cause for alarm, honest. This has an advantage. Back in cattle class the window seats are just two wide, so no 'middle seat dilemma'. You can ask for a window seat knowing that you only have to step past one person to get out, or opt for an aisle/window becau
se you can still see out without craning your neck.

For those frequent fliers Lufthansa is a Star Alliance partner so your miles are transferable to United, Air Canada or BMI amongst others, but not BA or AA.

I fly Lufthansa reasonably happily. I'd pay an extra £100 rtn to fly American, because those 2 extra inches really count (yes, your girlfriend was lying), but if I'm picking up the tab, I don't pay more than that as Lufthansa is a good, solid airline that does exactly what it sets out to do. Definitely no more than it promises, but no less either, and that's good enough for me.

Summary: