This series covers a two-week vacation to Europe that will feature stops in SOF, BEG, TIV, LIS, ARN, and ATH. For background and planning, please refer back to Part 1. As a reminder, the routing for this series is:
Part 1 – IAH-IAD [UA 373, Boeing B767-300ER, Economy] – http://flight-report.com/en/report-13577.html Part 2 – IAD-MUC [UA 106, Boeing B767-400ER, Economy] – http://flight-report.com/en/report-13623.html Part 3 – MUC-SOF [LH 1702, Airbus A321, Economy] – You are here Part 4 – SOF-BEG [JU 123, Aérospatiale/Alenia ATR 72-500, Economy] – http://flight-report.com/en/report-13675.html Part 5 – BEG-TIV [YM 201, Fokker F100, Economy] – http://flight-report.com/en/report-13699.html Part 6 – TIV-BEG [YM 202, Fokker F100, Economy] – http://flight-report.com/en/report-13726.html Part 7 – BEG-LHR [JU 380, Airbus A319, Business] – http://flight-report.com/en/report-13820.html Part 8 – LHR-MAD [BA 522, Airbus A330-300, Business] – Coming soon Part 9 – MAD-LIS [IB 3118, Airbus A321, Business] – Coming soon Part 10 – LIS-LHR [BA 499, Airbus A320, Business] – Coming soon Part 11 – LHR-ARN [BA 780, Boeing B767-300ER, Business] – Coming soon Part 12 – ARN-BEG [JU 411, Airbus A319, Business] – Coming soon Part 13 – BEG-ATH [JU 512, Airbus A319, Business] – Coming soon Part 14 – ATH-IST [TK 1850, Boeing B737-900ER, Economy] – Coming soon Part 15 – IST-ATH [TK 1843, Boeing B737-800, Economy] – Coming soon Part 16 – ATH-FRA [A3 830, Airbus A321, Economy] – Coming soon Part 17 – FRA-IAH [UA 47, Boeing B787-900, EconomyPlus] – Coming soon
Tourist Bonuses:
Sofia – Part 4 Kotor – Part 6 Belgrade – Part 7 Lisbon – Part 9 Sintra – Part 10 Stockholm – Part 12 Athens – Part 16
This report will initiate the intra-European portion of this series. This will be 14 segments that zig-zag around Europe from MUC to FRA. I was actually surprised to map this out and find that it only adds up to 8,700 miles (14,000 km), which is just a little bit longer than my longest flight (BOS-HKG at 8,000 miles or 13,000 km). LH is the only carrier that operates MUC-SOF, with 3x daily service at 8:55, 15:30, and 19:15. As I mentioned in the last report, I picked the IAD-MUC flight in order to arrive in time for the 8:55 flight, which lands into SOF at 11:50 so that I would get a half-day in SOF on arrival. For seat selection, I couldn’t pick seats for my LH flight and got randomly assigned 28A, which was fortunately a window seat.
Pre-flight:
After deplaning in MUC, I had about 45 minutes until boarding was scheduled to start so I headed towards the LH Senator Lounge. Entering the lounge, I’m greeted and my boarding pass is scanned. It flashes red (as it should) so she manually registers my TK card information. She didn’t notice that my TK FFP was not attached to the ticket and instead blamed UA. She directed me to the Senator side of the lounge and told me to stop by the counter to get re-issued a LH boarding pass that would have the gate and boarding information for my flight.
The lounge was already filling up since the first round of international flights was leaving. I stopped by the buffet for a Franziskaner and some breakfast. The food/drink offerings in the Senator Lounge were much better than anything stateside. This lounge has been extensively reviewed by others, particularly Numero_2, so check out those reports for more photos of the space. My breakfast offering.
Documents. If you notice, the LH boarding passes don’t list the actual departure time, they only list the boarding time.
A strafing shot of the seating area near the entrance of the lounge as I head to my gate.
We head towards the high-numbered H gates.
My flight to Bulgaria was leaving from a special area that was enclosed by glass since it is non-Schengen.
My A321 waiting below. I like how they use 2 jet bridges on an A321.
Boarding had already started by the time I got to the gate, so I just filtered into the normal boarding queue.
Boarding pass gets scanned and down the glass jetbridge we go.
Our twin LH A321 in *A special livery. Another LH A321 in *A special livery was sandwiching us on the other side.
I gave a “Grüß Gott” boarding which was returned with a “Guten Morgen” from the FA at the end of the jetbridge. A Bulgarian girl was in the aisle seat of my row so I didn’t take a picture of the seat, but here is the seat pitch (better than UA long-haul!). The middle seat would remain empty.
Seatback pocket contents.
Safety card for this A321.
There was a very boisterous group of 30-40 German school kids heading to SOF on a trip that occupied the forward portion of the Y cabin. The backside was about 60% load. Overall, I would say the load was around 75%. This flight was originally supposed to be operated by an A320 when I booked the ticket, but got swapped to an A321 a week before the flight. We push back on-time and the safety video plays.
An unusual pairing of a LG B737 and CA A332.
As we taxi to the runway on this foggy morning and the rain begins to drizzle, a LH A321 lifts off.
This high-visibility X3 B738 certainly won’t be lost in the fog.
We pull up and get de-iced before departure, which delays our takeoff time a little bit.
We wait for this A3 A320 to land before aligning on to the runway.
As we head down the runway, we pass a LH CRJ-900.
Even though it is very foggy and drizzling rain, we still get nice aerial views of MUC.
We soon reach the Bavarian countryside before crossing through the clouds.
As we level off, the FAs came through offering food. The choice was “lemon cake” or “cheese sandwich.” I took the cheese sandwich. As I was taking this picture, the FA that had just served me saw me taking the picture and made a comment in German with a laugh. I think she found it amusing that I was taking a picture of the little sandwich with a DSLR. It was nice to see some personality from them since Germans are often assumed to be “cold.”
This was immediately followed by the drink cart. Coffee for me.
A picture down my row since my seatmate left to use the bathroom. An older A321, but cabin is still clean with slightly stiff Recaro seats with good pitch.
After trash was collected, a second pass of the drink cart was made. So more coffee.
I passed out for the rest of the flight until the cabin was prepared for arrival. Breaking through the clouds into a rainy SOF.
We touch down right on time despite the delays departing due to deicing in MUC.
The first glimpse of SOF’s Terminal 2.
There was a classic Eastern European airplane graveyard in the corner that was hard to spot. I only caught this Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Tu-134 (?) rotting away. FB replaced Balkan Bulgarian Airlines in 2002 as the national carrier.
This 4U A319 won’t be going anywhere anytime soon without a right engine.
A cute little RO ATR42-500 in ST special livery taxis by.
“Welcome to Bulgaria.”
W6 A320 lifting off and a LY B763 taxis in after landing behind us. I’ll admit that I’m surprised to see LY serve SOF.
Picture of the cabin deplaning.
Entering the terminal, the signage is well marked in Bulgarian and English.
At passport control, there was no wait and a very friendly agent greeted me with a smile and enquired the nature of trip to Bulgaria. She flipped through my visa stamps before stamping my passport and welcoming me to the country. The friendliest immigration officer I’ve come across in Europe. Since Bulgaria is in the EU, its passport stamps look the same.
Old-school CRT monitors in the baggage claim. Unless your flight is “on time,” good luck knowing what the other notifications are…
The bags were already circulating by the time I got there. I grabbed my bag, cleared customs and stopped at the ATM to pick up some lev (лев). I then head off to the metro, which provides fast and cheap access to the city. Just follow the signs on the ground.
The metro station is attached to the airport and is the terminus of the major east-west line through downtown Sofia. There is no extra airport surcharge so you just buy a normal ticket from the vending machine for 1лв (€0.50), validate the ticket (it has a barcode you scan), and get on the train. There was a nice sculpture in the lobby for the metro station at the airport. The subway is clean and efficient. The trip to the city center takes 20-25 minutes and ~10 stops, but since this is the cheapest airport transportation I have ever seen, I’m not going to complain at all.
I’ll leave off this series here as I begin my stay in SOF. Tune into the next series for a tourist bonus of Sofia, a look at SOF, and JU’s Y service.
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Verdict
Lufthansa
6.3/10
Cabin7.5
Cabin crew8.5
Entertainment/wifi2.0
Meal/catering7.0
Lufthansa Senator Lounge non-Schengen - H
8.2/10
Comfort8.0
Meal/catering8.0
Entertainment/wifi9.0
Services8.0
Munich - MUC
8.2/10
Efficiency7.5
Access7.5
Services9.0
Cleanliness9.0
Sofia - SOF
8.0/10
Efficiency10.0
Access8.5
Services5.0
Cleanliness8.5
Conclusion
A standard LH service based on my previous experiences (back in 2007 was my last time on LH) with an on-time performance with decent crew and catering. Everything was done efficiently and the crew were very professional. The snack was okay for a flight of this length, no complaints.
Cabin comfort: This A321 is pretty old. The Recaro seats are stiff, but the pitch is good. It was bearable for a 1.5-hour flight. Having an empty seat next to me helped.
Crew: A friendly LH crew. They smiled and at least joked with me about the photography so they had some good humor to them. Efficient service and very attentive.
Meal and catering: A sandwich is what I remember from LH service so things don't seem to have changed. Something is always better than nothing. For a 1.5-hour flight this is okay, but not as good as other carriers. Two drink services was nice.
Entertainment: Standard seatback literature. No IFE or WiFi.
On-time performance: We left late due to deicing and landed right on time to the minute.
MUC security/access left at 7.5
0 LIKESLIKE TO THANK THE AUTHORTHANKS ! FLIGHT-REPORT LIKED
Maybe because it is the Irish flag and not the Italian one.... LOL, good call. The red and orange looked the same to me in my photo. My mistake, duly corrected^^ I was going to assume it was because of money laundering into Italy, but...
hopefully the kids were calm.... - Definitely not. They were probably high school students and spent a majority of the time of the flight yelling at each other and going around taking pictures of each other.
Connections at MUC seem definitely more enjoyable than in FRA. - A 1-hour layover in MUC is much less nervy than a 1-hour layover in FRA for sure.
The catering is basic for a flight longer than the usual 55 minutes LH hops to FRA or MUC. - My only experience with LH was MUC-GRZ, which was nearly 10 years ago and was catered worse than this (also much shorter flight).
And the commercial on cups is tacky. - I agree, but it is very common nowadays (not just in the US). Willing to sell ad space on napkins, cups, tray tables, IFE... anything for extra income...
You missed the best part of this SEN lounge : The spacious shower rooms.
The flight itself is a normal LH product. Too bad you don't speak German to reply something to the FA. ;) I'm afraid the LH sandwich is becoming smaller... :/
You missed the best part of this SEN lounge : The spacious shower rooms. - It was a choice of a shower or breakfast during a 45-minute layover, I chose breakfast ;) I probably could have used a shower, but waited until I checked into my hotel in SOF.
Too bad you don't speak German to reply something to the FA. ;) - Fooled them enough during boarding^^
I'm afraid the LH sandwich is becoming smaller... :/ - Other ones I've seen in FRs looked bigger (two halves instead of one), but the lemon cake they were offering was even smaller so I went with the bigger food item :)
Your flight to SOF departed from the exact same gate (H38) as my flight to DEL last year! The only difference is that they used both H37 and H38 for my flight.
There was a very boisterous group of 30-40 German school kids heading to SOF - Oh well, this reminds me of my class trip scheduled to take place in May. I'm not looking forward to flying with a group of 30 crazy 15/16-year olds down to SXF haha.
The seat pitch looks good, won't be able to say that about their 320neos in Y. The cabin looks well-maintained from your pictures.
Overall it looks like a pretty standard flight with LH.
Your flight to SOF departed from the exact same gate (H38) as my flight to DEL last year! - Very unusual. I thought my gate area was only used for non-Schengen European destinations based on the signage near the entrance to the gate area. Probably a long time ago, but did you remember how that was handled? Because I thought H37 was outside of this area and H38 was inside this area and there was a glass wall between them.
I'm not looking forward to flying with a group of 30 crazy 15/16-year olds down to SXF haha. - It can't be worse than flights to OKA where there are often hundreds of school kids heading to Okinawa on school trips ;) In the US, it usually more common to bus to domestic destinations, foreign school trips are very rare.
won't be able to say that about their 320neos in Y. The cabin looks well-maintained from your pictures. - I was surprised how old the plane was when I looked up the registration, so it definitely was well-maintained. It had the yellowish effect so I figured it was old, but not 1998 old. I saw the 320neos pictures and they look pretty tight.
Overall it looks like a pretty standard flight with LH. - Based on your LH reports and other's, I think so. I really didn't care for the cheese sandwich, but something is better than nothing!
I stopped by the buffet for a Franziskaner and some breakfast. - Ah, morning drinking, good time :-)
I gave a “Grüß Gott” boarding which was returned with a “Guten Morgen” - Well aren't you fancy using Bavarian greetings. I didn't know you spoke German.
Nice shots of FRA on takeoff. Impressive lineup there. I enjoyed my visit to the outdoor terrace there a few years ago.
It was nice to see some personality from them since Germans are often assumed to be “cold.” - well...she was kinda making fun of you, LOL. That could be construed as cold :-P
An older A321, but cabin is still clean with slightly stiff Recaro seats with good pitch. - That's a thing of the past now with the A320/321neos and the spaceflex cabins.
A cute little RO ATR42-500 in ST special livery taxis by. - That is frickin' adorable! I've never seen a prop plane in SkyTeam livery before...or any kind of alliance livery for that matter.
A standard LH service - Yep, you said it. This is probably the least exciting flight of all the intra-European stuff, but a solid, if predictable, performance by LH.
morning drinking, good time :-) - When in Germany, do as the Germans do ;)
I didn't know you spoke German. - Not really, but I still remember some from when I lived in Graz for several months.
I enjoyed my visit to the outdoor terrace there a few years ago. - Before or after security? I don't remember any signs from when I was walking around airside.
well...she was kinda making fun of you, LOL. That could be construed as cold :-P - Of course she was making fun of me, but I'll take that as being better than not saying a word to me the entire service like a robot.
That is frickin' adorable! I've never seen a prop plane in SkyTeam livery before...or any kind of alliance livery for that matter. - The ATR42 is the backbone of the RO regional network. I really wanted to do SOF-OTP-BEG on RO, but it just didn't fit my schedule.
This is probably the least exciting flight of all the intra-European stuff - I also slept almost the entire flight which made it very unexciting ;)
Great report, Michael. I realize I never saw this one in this series and enjoyed reading it!
I flew through MUC twice, and enjoyed passing through that airport a lot more than FRA if I can remember. I haven't flown LH in a long time, but it looks like they offer a decent Economy product.
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12 Comments
Why Italy is included, I don’t know.
==> Maybe because it is the Irish flag and not the Italian one....
LOL, good call. The red and orange looked the same to me in my photo. My mistake, duly corrected^^ I was going to assume it was because of money laundering into Italy, but...
hopefully the kids were calm....
- Definitely not. They were probably high school students and spent a majority of the time of the flight yelling at each other and going around taking pictures of each other.
Thank you for your comments (and correction)!
Connections at MUC seem definitely more enjoyable than in FRA.
The catering is basic for a flight longer than the usual 55 minutes LH hops to FRA or MUC.
And the commercial on cups is tacky.
Connections at MUC seem definitely more enjoyable than in FRA.
- A 1-hour layover in MUC is much less nervy than a 1-hour layover in FRA for sure.
The catering is basic for a flight longer than the usual 55 minutes LH hops to FRA or MUC.
- My only experience with LH was MUC-GRZ, which was nearly 10 years ago and was catered worse than this (also much shorter flight).
And the commercial on cups is tacky.
- I agree, but it is very common nowadays (not just in the US). Willing to sell ad space on napkins, cups, tray tables, IFE... anything for extra income...
You missed the best part of this SEN lounge : The spacious shower rooms.
The flight itself is a normal LH product. Too bad you don't speak German to reply something to the FA. ;)
I'm afraid the LH sandwich is becoming smaller... :/
You missed the best part of this SEN lounge : The spacious shower rooms.
- It was a choice of a shower or breakfast during a 45-minute layover, I chose breakfast ;) I probably could have used a shower, but waited until I checked into my hotel in SOF.
Too bad you don't speak German to reply something to the FA. ;)
- Fooled them enough during boarding^^
I'm afraid the LH sandwich is becoming smaller... :/
- Other ones I've seen in FRs looked bigger (two halves instead of one), but the lemon cake they were offering was even smaller so I went with the bigger food item :)
Your flight to SOF departed from the exact same gate (H38) as my flight to DEL last year! The only difference is that they used both H37 and H38 for my flight.
There was a very boisterous group of 30-40 German school kids heading to SOF - Oh well, this reminds me of my class trip scheduled to take place in May. I'm not looking forward to flying with a group of 30 crazy 15/16-year olds down to SXF haha.
The seat pitch looks good, won't be able to say that about their 320neos in Y. The cabin looks well-maintained from your pictures.
Overall it looks like a pretty standard flight with LH.
Have a good one, see you!
Your flight to SOF departed from the exact same gate (H38) as my flight to DEL last year!
- Very unusual. I thought my gate area was only used for non-Schengen European destinations based on the signage near the entrance to the gate area. Probably a long time ago, but did you remember how that was handled? Because I thought H37 was outside of this area and H38 was inside this area and there was a glass wall between them.
I'm not looking forward to flying with a group of 30 crazy 15/16-year olds down to SXF haha.
- It can't be worse than flights to OKA where there are often hundreds of school kids heading to Okinawa on school trips ;) In the US, it usually more common to bus to domestic destinations, foreign school trips are very rare.
won't be able to say that about their 320neos in Y. The cabin looks well-maintained from your pictures.
- I was surprised how old the plane was when I looked up the registration, so it definitely was well-maintained. It had the yellowish effect so I figured it was old, but not 1998 old. I saw the 320neos pictures and they look pretty tight.
Overall it looks like a pretty standard flight with LH.
- Based on your LH reports and other's, I think so. I really didn't care for the cheese sandwich, but something is better than nothing!
- Ah, morning drinking, good time :-)
I gave a “Grüß Gott” boarding which was returned with a “Guten Morgen”
- Well aren't you fancy using Bavarian greetings. I didn't know you spoke German.
Nice shots of FRA on takeoff. Impressive lineup there. I enjoyed my visit to the outdoor terrace there a few years ago.
It was nice to see some personality from them since Germans are often assumed to be “cold.”
- well...she was kinda making fun of you, LOL. That could be construed as cold :-P
An older A321, but cabin is still clean with slightly stiff Recaro seats with good pitch.
- That's a thing of the past now with the A320/321neos and the spaceflex cabins.
A cute little RO ATR42-500 in ST special livery taxis by.
- That is frickin' adorable! I've never seen a prop plane in SkyTeam livery before...or any kind of alliance livery for that matter.
A standard LH service
- Yep, you said it. This is probably the least exciting flight of all the intra-European stuff, but a solid, if predictable, performance by LH.
Danke!
morning drinking, good time :-)
- When in Germany, do as the Germans do ;)
I didn't know you spoke German.
- Not really, but I still remember some from when I lived in Graz for several months.
I enjoyed my visit to the outdoor terrace there a few years ago.
- Before or after security? I don't remember any signs from when I was walking around airside.
well...she was kinda making fun of you, LOL. That could be construed as cold :-P
- Of course she was making fun of me, but I'll take that as being better than not saying a word to me the entire service like a robot.
That is frickin' adorable! I've never seen a prop plane in SkyTeam livery before...or any kind of alliance livery for that matter.
- The ATR42 is the backbone of the RO regional network. I really wanted to do SOF-OTP-BEG on RO, but it just didn't fit my schedule.
This is probably the least exciting flight of all the intra-European stuff
- I also slept almost the entire flight which made it very unexciting ;)
I very much enjoyed reading it and will read your remaining ones as well :)
I flew through MUC twice, and enjoyed passing through that airport a lot more than FRA if I can remember. I haven't flown LH in a long time, but it looks like they offer a decent Economy product.
Thank you for sharing!
Matthew
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