Lufthansa New First Class FRA-KIX on 747-400
Trip: Auckland Marathon 2013
Date: October 30th, 2013

Here is my previous post on Lufthansa First Class Terminal.

I was just about done with lunch at the Lufthansa First Class Terminal when one of the personal assistants came over to direct me to my ride over to my flight. We went downstairs where a German military serviceman checked my boarding pass and passport before getting into the car as I would be flying out of the EU on this flight.

I was driven to my gate. This “gate” was quite substantial in that it had two walkways into the plane and a large elevator that goes up to the walkway. They had just started boarding business class so one of the ramps was completely full so we walked on the coach walkway into the plane. The stairs up to the first class cabin was just to the right of the entrance to the plane.

When I booked the flight, I saw it was F7 on expertflyer before they got rid of United award availability. This means there was only one person in the cabin and it turned out there was just one other person in the cabin. So for an 12 hour flight, it was just us two in the cabin, which was amazing. I was hoping to be by myself but can’t complain. By comparison, the FRA-NRT route was much more crowded.

One of the FAs said there would be one more female joining us so she sat both of us men in the front half of the plane so the woman could choose to be by herself in the back half. She was supposed to be an upgrade passenger from business. However, there was a mix-up with her ticket so she couldn’t upgrade. The FA guessed that it could have been the fare bucket her business class ticket was in. So there was just two people in the cabin!

This was one of the new-ish first class seats. The newest first class seats do not have the fixed bed beside the seat. The bathroom was filled with amenties, such as disposable razors, shaving cream, mouth wash, etc.

Unfortunately I didn’t note the champagne being served and I couldn’t tell if it was great or just pedestrian.

Needless to say, there was enough leg room. The first class amenity kit was just ok.

The first course was dinner. I choose the Japanese cuisine, like my Japanese cabin-mate. To start, there was caviar and I had two more servings of it. Next was sushi and miso soup.

Next was noodles with mushroom and spinach and what I believe to be fruit (I can’t remember and picture isn’t clear). The main course was beef with wrapped rice rolls (clearer picture later during breakfast) and miso soup.

For dessert, there was fruit with some other Japanese sweet pastries.

I have to agree with most of the other reviews that the screen in first class was not that great. It has a very low resolution so everything looks pixelated. It was nice to have a giant screen but I would have hoped for a better resolution.

Even though the hard product was amazing, I didn’t get much sleep. I managed to sleep for 3-4 hours, despite getting only a few hours the night before because of the 6am flight out of Dublin.

I choose the Japanese breakfast the next morning. There was rice rolls, soup, bread, small cup of fruit (behind rice rolls), and fish with some vegetables. It was pretty good but not very filling.

I took my time after we landed to organize all of my stuff and take some last minute pictures. I sat in another seat as mines was a bit messy. I also managed to get the female First Class amenity kit, which supposedly was new. I hope to review both amenity kits in another post.

After I got off the plane, I was escorted to the terminal. I told her that I wanted to check out other places in the terminal so I parted ways from the guide in the main terminal area. As I was flying coach out of KIX, I did not have lounge access.

Overall it was a great flight. I didn’t get much sleep but everything about the flight was great. However, some other airlines are offering the same special services as LH, like the personal car service to the plane. The First Class Terminal was a bit special but other lounges have similar services.

Now with the United devaluation, I would be hard pressed to use 110k miles to fly LH F to Europe.