FIRST IMPRESSIONS I boarded the S-Bahn from Munich Hauptbahnhof station for the 45 minute transfer to Munich airport at 1230. A day ticket costs €10.80 and the train was not very busy so I easily found a seat. From the station it is a short walk through a central concourse to terminal 2.
I arrived at the terminal building by 1315 for a 1525 flight. On entering the large, bright terminal building there are a multitude of Lufthansa check in desks, with economy on the lower floor and an escalator up to the business and express bag drop desks. The bag drop queue was long and took my travelling companion around 15 minutes to clear.
From here I went straight on through security, which stretches along a wide corridor and was very quick and efficient, however there was nowhere to comfortably remove my toiletries, laptop (shoes on) and belt ready to pass through. From here I went up one further level to passport control and was airside by 1350.
LOUNGE I took an immediate left after passport control, past the heavily Camel branded smoking room, which appeared to be ineffectively containing any smoke, and on to the newly extended Lufthansa and Star Alliance Senator and Business lounges (for more details see online news 05/10/11).
I turned right into the Business lounge, past a set of lockers and the toilet and shower facilities into the long, wooden floored lounge. There was a large selection of international press available but no British newspapers. There were no boarding calls but a departures board is located on your right on entering.
The newly refurbished room is bright and clean and was very busy this afternoon. The walls are lined by cream leather sofas which were almost entirely occupied, with plenty of power points located at foot level. Down the centre is a row of tall tables with leather topped bar stools and a square table with lots of power points and bar stools at the back of the room. There is free wifi (on accepting the terms of usage) but it was clearly overburdened and slow as the room was full of tapping laptops.
There was a nice selection of pastries, snacks, fruit and hot Bavarian food available. The Bavarian specialities included sausages, Leberkäs mit Brezn (Bavarian meat loaf with a pretzel), goulash soup, fresh bread, sauerkraut and potato salad. There are two coffee machines for hot drinks as well as sparkling wine, a selection of Bavarian beers by the bottle and on draft and a selection of both alcoholic and soft drinks.
BOARDING commenced at Gate H32 at 1520 after a 15 minute delay was called. Gate H32 is a short walk from the lounge with plenty of seating and shops located nearby. There were two large racks for newspapers but both were completely bare. There was no priority boarding but the process was quick enough, apart from the delay waiting for a new bus to arrive. The bus transfer took us around the entire runway to the opposite side where the short haul aircrafts are primarily stationed.
SEAT I was in my seat of this A321-100 aircraft by 1540 with boarding completed shortly after. This aircraft, as opposed to the outbound leg, which can be seen here, was installed with the new, ultra-thin Recaro designed seating, configured 3-3 throughout. This new seating is currently being fitted across Lufthansa’s short-medium haul fleet (see online news December 15, 2010) There are five rows of business class, which each have a spare middle seat with a tray table stretching across the gap. To see a seat plan, click here.
In my opinion the new economy seats are not as comfortable as the old, thicker seats but offer lots of added legroom, especially for the knees as the magazines are stowed in a compartment above the tray table. I moved from my allocated middle seat 12E to the aisle seat 12D as it was spare, allowing me and my travelling partner to have more space. The rest of the cabin was full though, which was lucky.
FLIGHT We finally pulled off at 1545 and were airborne by 1555. Chicken wraps were promptly handed out at 1605. Lufthansa’s new food offering is clearly wrap centric with healthiness the obvious driving force. However this was not exactly what I expected and could best be described as a chicken stir fry in a tortilla. A full hot and cold drinks service soon followed at 1615.
We began our descent at 1715 for a 1735 landing, flight time of 1hr 40mins. We departed the aircraft by 1640 UK time via an airbridge. Following a long walk to security there were three staff on duty and the electronic gates were not working. However the EU passport queue was short as many customers had transferred from Canada so I was landside by 1640.
VERDICT Another quick and easy flight with no problems on either side, with the new lounge at Munich T2 proving nice if unspectacular.
Contact Lufthansa.com
Scott Carey
