BACKGROUND Lufthansa flies direct from London Heathrow Terminal 1 to Munich’s T2 seven times daily (except on Mondays). The route is understandably an important one, connecting the UK’s main gateway airport with Lufthansa’s southern hub at Munich, which in turn has a strong domestic and short haul onward network. My flight, LH4753 aka "Münster", departs from LHR daily at 1110 to arrive in MUC at 1400 local time.
CHECK-IN I arrived at Heathrow T1 by tube (Piccadilly line) and made my way to check-in zone K, which is shared with Lufthansa’s Star Alliance partners, for example Air New Zealand, SWISS and Bmi. There was a slight problem with the self check-in terminals, but at that time in the morning there was hardly any queue at the desks and it was probably quicker to have the staff check me in than do it myself. Absent mindedly I’d neglected to check the weight allowance for hand luggage. As a word of warning, Lufthansa only lets you take 7kg onboard, any more and it’ll have to be checked.
THE LOUNGE I used the priority lane, again it wasn’t at all busy and I was airside within five minutes. I made my way to the shared Star Alliance lounge which is tucked away in one corner of the terminal, you’ll pass it if you’re heading to the higher-numbered departure gates. The lounge was much as I remembered from a previous visit, with its neutral colours and abundance of seating. I’ve come to appreciate that the different areas serve their respective purposes fairly well, and I chose to sit in the bar stool area due to its close proximity to the buffet (well stocked at that time with soft bacon and sausage rolls, toast and muesli), and one of two flat-screen TVs showing Sky News.
BOARDING Gate 76 was called at 1045, a little behind schedule but not enough to worry me greatly. Gate 76 is quite a walk from the Star lounge, I’d certainly allow at least ten minutes to avoid any panicked rushing. The queue when I got there was quite long, consisting of all those people sensible (or boring) enough to wait at the boarding gate. There was no priority boarding for business class, but it was by no means a large plane so waiting in line with economy was no bother. I was in my seat and settled by 1115.
THE SEAT I was sat in 5A, a window seat in what was at that time the last row of the business class cabin. I say "at that time" because the curtain partitioning economy and business is moved according to demand (to see a seat plan for this plane, click here). The business class rows, with their adjustable width and 34 inch pitch, actually extend as far as Row 7. So in this case, two rows of lucky economy class passengers had a little more legroom.
The middle seats in this 3-3 configuration (ABC-DEF) are unsold, and instead the space is occupied by a rather useful table. The seat itself has plenty of legroom, more than enough to allow me to stretch my legs under the seat in front, and the width would have been more than adequate for most. Incidentally, the width of these Lufthansa chairs is adjustable as the middle armrests themselves can be moved by a couple of inches. The 20 degree recline was nothing special, but it did allow me to get a little sleep. There was no IFE, which is to be expected on a short flight, and no overhead screens either. Instead the cabin crew offered magazines for entertainment, and the English-language offerings consisted of Time and News Weekly.
WHICH SEAT TO CHOOSE? I tend to favour a window seat for the views, especially on a morning flight like this when I can actually see something. But in terms of legroom I’d go for seat 1C. The bulkhead immediately in front of Row 1 doesn’t extend out of the aircraft wall as far as seat C, so for the extra long of leg, it’s certainly the best choice. There’s also the added benefit of being one of the first off.
THE FLIGHT By 1130 we still hadn’t pushed back, putting us at least 20 minutes behind schedule. The captain made an announcement explaining that “slot reorganisation in German airspace” was causing a delay at our end, and he anticipated a wait of around one hour. The cabin crew was quick to distribute drinks. Much to everyone’s relief he soon made a second announcement just a few minutes later to say everything had been sorted, and we eventually pushed back at 1150.
Half an hour into the flight a light meal was served, consisting of what appeared to be smoked salmon, but was probably gravad lax (to be more precise). There was also a feta salad, some kind of cured pork in a tomato salsa (which tasted great in a warm roll), and a summer fruits dessert. It was all of a high quality, and above all tasty and satisfying. Drinks including champagne were free.
ARRIVAL We landed at 1440 local time. While this was 40 minutes late, we’d actually managed to make up quite a bit of the time lost at Heathrow. I was off the plane within ten minutes of landing, and down on the tarmac there was a bus to whisk us away to the terminal.
As I was connecting on to Tallinn, I followed the signs for transit passengers and I didn’t have to wait long for my passport to be checked. I was soon airside at Munich Airport and hunting for Lufthansa's newly refurbished business class lounge (to read the review, click here for the next leg of my journey).
VERDICT A delay of 40 minutes which fortunately didn’t cause too much disruption to the rest of my day. Otherwise, proper business class service and with seven departure times there are flights to suit anyone’s schedule.
PRICE A mid-week return in May, from Lufthansa’s website, starts at £499.
CONTACT lufthansa.com
Andrew Gough
