Frankfurt to Hong Kong

Background: Lufthansa started flying its B747-8 aircraft down to Hong Kong on March 31 2013.

I had arrived on a flight from London Heathrow (to see the review, click here), landing at Frankfurt Airport 1915 and then was bussed into the terminal by 1930. From there it was a few confusing minutes working out where the on-going flight was departing from, mainly since the electronic screens with flight departures only went up to flights departing until 2150. Eventually I worked out I should head for Zone Z (non-Schengen) and went through a security check.

The lounge: on a previous occasion flying down to Asia with Lufthansa, the lounge experience had been disappointing. Things have changed, however, with the opening in October 2012 of the new Lufthansa Pier A at Frankfurt. Arriving after security, there is a rotunda area for shops selling practical goods, luxury ones, and another great shop selling Leica cameras, Sennheiser headphones and technology accessories – the sort of place a business traveller could browse in for hours, and then walk to the lounge.

Pier A Lufthansa Frankfurt

The lounge is reached either by lift or by escalator to the first floor. The view then opens out onto a huge modern lounge, split into several areas including a smoking room, a sleep area with bed/chairs, a work area, a quiet area, and even some cubicles for those wishing to make phone calls. Nearly every chair has a power point by it, there is sympathetic lighting, views out onto the runway and free high-speed wifi.

Frankfurt Airport Pier A Lufthansa

The food and drink selection includes both hot and cold, soft and alcoholic drinks, and a decent selection of food, again, both hot and cold, including lots of fruit options. What made it for me was the hot dogs, though, complete with bread buns and a choice of gherkins, fried onions, sauerkraut, and ketchup and mustard. I wasn’t particularly hungry, but when in Frankfurt….

Unfortunately a fellow passenger in a neighbouring chair had discovered the joys of Skype through her laptop without buying a handset or headset, allowing us the pleasure of hearing both sides of her conversation. Even supposing you don’t think this is inconsiderate, it takes a strange sort of person to not mind everyone overhearing a personal conversation between you and a loved one, over many minutes, when presumably the absent party has no idea that several complete strangers are party to their every utterance. Luckily she left after a while, and all was peace once again.

Boarding:  There are no boarding announcements in the lounge, and the dual screens showing departures were so full with departing flights that the Hong Kong one on 2205 only appeared at 2110, though the gate number was already on my boarding card. A sign next to the screens said that we should look at the boarding times on our boarding cards to find out when we should be at the gate. My gate showed as Z62 which according to the screen was a 9 minute walk – very precise. I suppose after a while you’d get used to this, but not being able to see my flight on the screen, yet knowing my boarding time was only 20 minutes later made it a little difficult to relax.

I left the lounge at 2120 and walked to Gate Z, the distance shortened by moving walkways. The new Pier A has an additional 11 aircraft positions for fewer apron departures and four additional A380 positions at Frankfurt Airport (as well as the five new lounges: two Senator Lounges and two Business Lounges and a First Class Lounge, in total extending the current lounge space at Frankfurt Airport by 4,660sqm to 16,460sqm). Unfortunately, I think the design of the pier is flawed, at least from a passenger point of view.

Along the length of the pier are the gates, and it means that groups of passengers queuing for their flights block the exit from the moving walkways, which can be quite alarming when you get to the end to be met by a crowd, knowing other passengers are right behind you and just as unable to stop their progress. When I got to Z62, a similar thing was happening, except as we waited for 20 minutes, without announcements, hundreds of passengers in two queues blocked the entire area. The B747-8 takes 467 passengers in Lufthansa’s configuration, so there were quite a few of us. Periodically battery driven vehicles would try and make their way through the crowds beeping their horns, and new passengers would gather near the front of each queue, causing further stress. Eventually the business and first queue was called forward, and we moved towards to automatic gates where we scanned our boarding passes and then walked onto the flight. In summary, the boarding needs looking at: it’s a mess.

We then walked towards the aircraft there were signs for one door for business and first, and another for economy. In fact if you are sitting upstairs in business class you can take either door, since the economy one leads you to the foot of the stairs, while the business and first means you have to walk through the lower deck business class once on the plane. To see a seat plan, click here.

This is a three-class configuration, with 262 economy seats, 92 business and 8 first class seats. Those 92 business class seats are distributed with 60 on the main deck, and 32 seats on the upper deck, with the lower deck being 2-2-2 and the upper deck being 2-2. To see a previous review on a special flight from Frankfurt to Washington DC click here.

The stairs are wider than on the B747-400 – I think because the wardrobe area at the top of the stairs has been removed – and have attractive lighting. I was sitting upstairs, which I’ve read is preferable for all the normal reasons you get on the upper deck of a B747 (400 or this 848-Intercontinental version) – it feels like you are on a much smaller aircraft.

Lufthansa new business class

First impressions were that there wasn’t much storage space for putting books, shoes etc…. There is a small space which pops open beneath the magazine rack under the IFE screen. This is where you will find the amenity bag and the bottle of water. The amenity bag has flight socks, ear plugs, toothbrush and tooth paste, eye mask and some lip salve.

Lufthansa new business class 2

There is also a space under the footstool, though this cannot be used until after take-off. The windows seats have large bins, and my neighbour in the window seat after first putting his bag in the overhead locker, sat down, opened them and got back up and put his bag in one of them – you couldn’t do this if it was a full size bag, though.

We were offered Champagne, juice or water before take-off, and my jacket was taken. The service was very friendly and professional, though it was several hours into the flight before they stopped talking to me in German.

Best seats: On the upper deck I’d avoid the ones at the back of the cabin, and probably the ones at the very front. I liked row 85 where I was (85C), but whichever row I was in I would choose a window seat because I’d rather take my chances jumping over the person inside me than relying on my neighbour making it across. You also get more storage as described above.

Lufthansa new business seat

The service is from the front and the back simultaneously, so if you’re sitting in the middle, you’ll be waiting a little longer for your meals and drinks, though on the upper deck it’s not very long.

Another point against the aisle seats is that because of the way the seats are laid out, to reach empty glasses or rubbish on the centre arms of the seats, flight attendants have to lean over the person sitting in the aisle seat, and when they do, they step into your space and more often than not onto your feet. It happened to me four times in the first hour, once with my shoes on, then after that when I was wearing only flight socks.

I’ve flown dozens of different variations of business class over the last 20 years, but this seat took a lot of getting used to. The plus is that it is fully-flat, and so an improvement on the lie-flat seat it has superseded. But as you know, choosing to go with a V formation has not been particularly well received (to see some of those reactions, click here.)

The issue of playing footsie with your neighbour isn’t the point – there is a divider between your feet, but if you lie on your side and your neighbour is lying facing you there’s every chance your knees will meet in the night. What’s more, if you are in a window seat there is no space to stand between the seats, and so you have to take a giant step over your neighbour to the aisle and if you don’t make it you’re going to be having a lot of nighttime apologies.

What’s also strange is that the 15-inch IFE screen isn’t really facing you when you sit in the seat, and so you have to pull it out a little from the back of the seat in front, but if you have anything in the magazine rack below, then you’ll have to empty it to do so. The choice of entertainment was good.

There is a reading light which comes out of the seat around shoulder height, and then another overhead light. The table comes out of the arm of the seat and folds out, and is slightly larger than a laptop. It vibrates slightly if you work on it using a laptop, and because it slides in and out, I found it kept moving towards me as I worked, until I jammed it at its furthermost position, which was too far away to be comfortable, but at least stopped it moving around while I was trying to type. The tables are also difficult to extract from the arms and unfold – I didn’t have any problem, but you wouldn’t believe the noise as everyone tried to do it prior to the meal service.

Food and drink: the menus were given shortly after take-off, and it follows:

Appetizers:

  • Slices of braised beef shin with five spice jelly and fresh orange segments
  • Buffalo Mozzarella cheese on salad served with wild garlic dressing
  • Smoked fillet of tuna with olive cream, pesto flavoured potato salad.

Main courses

  • Panzarotti filled with tomatoes, accompanied by leaf spinach and walnuts
  • Fried king prawns with black peppercorn sauce, accompanied by pan-friend vegetables and steamed rice
  • March special: delicate lamb stew with lemon and Parmesan sauce, white bread dumplings
  • April special: flavoured prime rib of beef, leaf spinach and polenta

Desserts

  • Grana Padano Cheese, Provolone, Cabozola, Crema de Balsamico, sun-dried tomatoes, toasted pine nuts
  • Panna cotta with white chocolate, strawberries and basil oil.
  • Fresh fruit.

Champagne: Duval Leroy Brut

Red:

  • 2008 Chateau La Raze Beauvallet, Medoc Cru Bourgeois or
  • 2008 Chateau La Roque de By, Medoc
  • 2010 Two Vines Shiraz, Columbia Valley Vineyards, Chateau St Michelle, USA

White:

  • 2011 White Troika, Ihringer Weissburgunder, WG Ihringen, Germany
  • 2011 Bramito del Cervo, Chardonay, Castello della Sala, Italy.

The bed reclines with the press of one button to a 1.92-metre bed, and it was easily long enough for comfortable sleep. The seat cushion is very firm, though I didn’t mind that, and the arm rest closest to the aisle could be lowered to create more room. I’d read that the new aircraft is much quieter than the B747-400 and I’m sure that’s true, though I’ve always found the upper deck pretty quiet in any case.

I had no problem sleeping for several hours, and was woken only by the breakfast (or brunch) service taking place around me. I woke up and was given the option of eating, which I took.

Brunch

  • Elderberry yoghurt with almonds
  • Edam, cream cheese with vegetables, rolled fillet of turkey ham, cooked ham. Cherry tomato and carrot stick
  • Scrambled egg with chives, fried pork sausage, roasted potato cake.

I went for the cold option, which was light but all I needed, and several cups of tea. By then there was only 50 minutes until landing, although in the event because of congestion at Hong Kong we circled for 15 minutes before landing, though we were still on time. From there after a long walk we took the shuttle train to immigration. I cleared immigration quickly, and my bags were already on the carousel waiting for me.

Verdict: This is a clear step up from the lie-flat seating, and I was impressed by many aspects of it. The V-configuration has clearly had a lot of thought put into it, but it’s a strange choice. The seat is fine – it is the B/E Aerospace Diamond seat, but once you’ve chosen that seat you have options in how to configure it. KLM, for instance, has chosen a slightly staggered version, while JAL and United chose other ways, but only Lufthansa has gone for this “V” and it means you risk bumping into your fellow passenger when sleeping, and having to negotiate access to the aisle the rest of the time, so I suppose it was chosen because you fit more seats into a given amount of “real estate” on the aircraft. Still, for regular flyers with Lufthansa, the new seats will be a welcome change, and the service was attentive and assured.

To see a review of the return flight on the main deck, click here

Tom Otley

  • Departure time 2205
  • Flight time 12 hours
  • Plane type B747-8
  • Configuration 2-2-2/2-2
  • Seat width 19.7in/50cm
  • Seat length 77.9in/198cm
  • Seat recline 180 degrees

Contact www.lufthansa.com