Review of Lufthansa flight Frankfurt → Singapore in Premium Eco

introduction

Welcome, everybody, to another Flight-Report! Here, I will take you along with me to fly with Lufthansa in Premium Economy class, on the A340-300 from Frankfurt to Singapore!   

This review will cover the airport experiences in Frankfurt and Singapore, as well as the onboard hard and soft products.     

This was the final leg of a return ticket with SWISS (outbound) and Lufthansa (inbound), which I only paid 580 Euros for the economy tickets. Around two months before this flight, I bought an upgrade to Premium economy class for 170 Euros. Was it worth it? Read on to find out.

For each aspect of the experience, I will rate it on a scale of 1 to 10. The final score for the full experience is 73 out of 100.    

departure airport

Welcome to Frankfurt Airport!

I’ve just arrived from London Heathrow on this Lufthansa A320neo (D-AIJE), and I have some 4 hours to kill here at #Fraport.

As it was still during Covid times, Frankfurt airport was quite empty, and many of the shops were still closed. Unlike Zurich, the ceilings of the terminal in Frankfurt are quite low, making the terminal feel very depressing.  

Before arriving at the gate, all passengers had to go through a document check (for Covid-related documents, since the flight was under Singapore’s then Vaccinated Travel Lane, which required all passengers on board to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19). This was done so through a makeshift stand, and it had two lanes. Queueing here took over an hour.     

Soon, I arrived at my gate, Z69, which offered some pretty spectacular views of our aircraft         

DEPARTURE AIRPORT SCORES: 6/10

FLIGHT AND AIRCRAFT INFORMATION

Flight information

Flight date: 09/12/2021

Airline: Lufthansa (LH/DLH)     

Operated by: Lufthansa (LH/DLH) 

Flight number: LH778     

Route: Frankfurt Main FRA - Singapore Changi SIN
   
Scheduled Departure Time: 21:15 (UTC+1)     

Actual Departure Time: 21:23 (UTC+1)     

Scheduled Arrival Time: 17:00 (UTC+8)

Actual Arrival Time: 16:49 (UTC+8)     

Scheduled Flight Time: 12h45min     

Actual Flight Time: 12h26min

Aircraft information

Aircraft Registration: D-AIGZ     

Aircraft Name: Villingen-Schwenningen     

Aircraft Type: Airbus A340-313X*     

Hairdryers (if you know, you know): 4× CFMI CFM56-5C4     

Line Number: 347     

First Flight: 16/06/2000   

Aircraft Age (as of flight): 21 years 5 months   

Aircraft Delivered: 29/06/2000     

Seating Configuration: J30W28Y221   

*The A343 has since been replaced by the B747-8 on this route. 

pre-departure

Boarding

Boarding was done in groups. Business class passengers and Star Alliance status holders were called up for boarding first, followed by premium economy passengers.

Welcome Onboard

Once onboard the aircraft, two flight attendants positioned at door L2 welcomed the passengers on board. I walked through the business class cabin (in a very dated 2-2-2 arrangement) before entering the premium economy class cabin. I found my seat, 12A, and settled in. 

A blanket and pillow, a large bottle of water, a menu, as well as an amenity kit, was found at every seat. A young male flight attendant soon came over to hand me the paper menu, and served me a welcome drink. I chose to have two drinks: an apple juice and an orange juice. These were served in plastic cups - not exactly premium is it? 

He then came back to present to me some cheap wired earpieces, ones that I would expect from a 3-star economy product. How was this a 5-stars airline? (Back then LH was still a Skytrax 5-star airline)

PRE-DEPARTURE SERVICE GETS 6/10 

TAXI AND TAKE-OFF

We pushed back soon and the safety video was shown. Similar to sister airline SWISS, this was the definition of boring, and also features some of them creepy faces.    

Our aircraft soon aligned on the runway, and we took off at 21:23 local time for our east-bound departure towards Singapore. 

FLIGHT PATH

Now is a good time to take a look at our flight path. Our flight out of Germany took us over Czechia, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, the Black Sea, Turkey (now Türkiye), Iran, Pakistan, India, the Bay of Bengal, and Malaysia before our descent into Singapore. Do note that the image below is only my estimate, since my FlightRadar24 Gold subscription only allows access to one year of flight records.  

my seat

As we climb towards our cruising altitude, we can take a look at the seats.     

Seat Details:

Seat: 12A* (port-side window seat)     

Seat model: ZIMmagic     

Seat Manufacturer: ZIM     

Seat pitch: 38”     

Seat Width: 19”     

Recline: 8”     

Class: Premium Economy (W)     

Cabin: Premium economy cabin (right after doors 2)     

Seat Features:

4-way adjustable headrest 

Ladder-style calf-rest and foot-rest

Retractable bi-folding table stored in armrest 

11.7” HD touchscreen IFE display

Cocktail table 

USB sockets and Universal Power Outlets 

*Do note that the pictures are of other seats in the cabin, since the 21-seat cabin only had 4 passengers

Some thoughts about the seat:

Seat Comfort: The seat was generally well padded, and the calf-rest provided some additional comfort. 8/10     

Legroom: The 38” seat pitch is pretty standard for premium economy class, though since the seat slides forward when it reclines, the legroom does get reduced quite a bit when the seat is in a reclined position. 6/10     

Seat Storage: There is a netted seat back pocket in front of every seat. On top of that, there are also a handsome leather-ish pouch at every armrest, which stores the amenity kit during boarding. The storage for the tray table, however, didn't seem like it had ever been cleaned; there was food debris everywhere. 6/10     

Recline: Recline was pretty good, as expected for premium economy class. 9/10     

THE SEAT SCORES 7/10

DINNER SERVICE

Some half an hour after take-off, the dinner service started. My flight attendant came over and took my order for the main. The choice was between chicken breast with tomato rice and spinach, or some vegetarian lasagne; I went for the former.

Soon, the meal arrived, served on one tray in fine china, as well as a proper glass for the drinks now. 

Appetiser:
Mixed salad with Cherry Tomato and Mozzarella Ball accompanied by Italian Dressing   

This is the typical salad that Lufthansa serves on every flight, in every class. The elements were fresh, and were pleasant to eat. Still, it's slightly boring. 8/10

Main:
Chicken Breast in creamy sauce and Spinach Leaves with garlic cream served with Tomato Rice

The taste of the chicken was spot on, but as with all chicken breasts, it was dry. The spinach and tomato rice both tasted rather average. 6/10
 
Side:
Warm pretzel bun   

This had a very delightful taste, just a bit hard and dry. 7/10

Dessert:
Chocolate and hazelnut brownie     

The brownie was perfect taste wise, just the perfect balance between sweetness and bitterness. Only complaint would be that it was slightly dry. 8/10     

Beverage:
For drinks I went with a glass of apple juice. 7/10  

OVERALL, DINNER SERVICE SCORES: 7/10 

amenities

Amenity Kit

There was an amenity kit, or rather, amenity bag waiting at every seat during boarding. These bags are made of a rather plasticky material, and features iconic landmarks from Lufthansa's international destinations. I get that it would be fun for some to collect the different designs, but I can't help but feel the bag felt a bit too cheap. 

The amenity kit came with the usual suspects: socks, eyeshades, a refreshing towel, a hand disinfection wipe, a toothbrush, toothpaste, and ear plugs.  

The amenity kit scores 7/10

Blanket and Pillow

A blanket and a pillow was available at every seat. The blankets were large enough, and were made of a rather woolly material: very comfortable. The pillows were large, had real fabric covers, and provided decent support. 9/10  

Lavatories

Premium economy, although a separate class, was in the same cabin as the economy seats. Thus, premium economy passengers had to make their way through the entire length between doors 2 and 3 to access the economy lavatories. These lavatories are of standard sizes, and were kept clean. Would've loved to try the basement lavatories that can be found on the A340-600, the longer and more powerful sister of the A340-300. Lavatories score 7/10

OVERALL SCORE FOR AMENITIES: 7/10 

IN-flight entertainment

IFE System

Each seat came equipped with a 11.7” Panasonic HD IFE Touchscreen. It features a decent selection of movies, TV shows, music, and games. There was also an interactive in-flight map of high quality. 

The IFE system scores 7/10

Onboard Wi-Fi

Lufthansa's A340s come with in-flight Wi-Fi powered by Panasonic Avionics. The prices, however, were quite steep, and I did not make use of the Wi-Fi.     

Onboard charging     

Each seat comes with some USB-A charging ports, which charged my phone quite quickly. There were also Universal Power Outlets, which come in handy with laptops. 8/10  

OVERALL SCORE FOR IFE: 7/10 

SLEEP

I put my seat into the fully reclined position and went to sleep. It was comfortable enough, and I managed 4-and-a-half hours of sleep.

^Reclined position compared to the upright position

SLEEPING EXPERIENCE SCORES 7/10 

spectacular engine views

From my seat, I had some quite splendid views of engines number 1 and 2.

^Sunrise over north-western Iraq

^Views over south-eastern Iraq

BREAKFAST SERVICE

Around 2 hours before our arrival in Singapore, the breakfast service started. Once again, this was all served in fine china on a single tray.

Main breakfast item:
Scrambled Eggs with Chicken Sausage and Leaf Spinach

The scrambled eggs were rubbery and quite flaky, which wasn't the most satisfying to chew on. The sausage was alright, although really small. The spinach was completely drenched in butter, making it extremely greasy. Not a great breakfast item. 3/10

Breakfast sides:

Fruit cocktail with Curd Cream and Muesli Crunch: This was sweet and light, and was very pleasant. 8/10

Cold bread roll: This one was cold, dry, and rock hard. 2/10

Orange Juice: Typical orange juice, but still enjoyable. 7/10

BREAKFAST SERVICE SCORES 3/10  

cabin crew

Our flight attendant:

The young German chap was very friendly throughout the flight, and was very hardworking. He had a very good attitude. 10/10 for him.

General service speed:

Premium economy cabin was very empty, so the service was lightning fast. 10/10

General service attitude:

From what I have noticed, all the crew members on board this flight were friendly and professional. All of them were polite when addressing passengers and seemed to work hard to fulfil their customers' needs. 10/10

CABIN CREW SCORE 10/10  

Approach and landing

I soon started seeing the familiar Southeast Asian clouds, meaning we were about to start our descent into Singapore.

To avoid a thunderstorm that was happening at Changi Airport, we extended our approach, turning south to circle over Batam (Indonesia) for around 15 minutes before descending once again towards Changi.

We were soon lined up with runway 02L, and touched down at 16:49 local time, 11 minutes ahead of schedule.

^Reverse thrust in action

It was a brief taxi to the gate, where we de-boarded.

^One last look at our aircraft

arrival airport

^Changi Terminal 3 - Shared area between Departure and Arrival passengers. I was at this exact spot on my earlier SWISS flight to Zurich.

Immigration:

After taking an escalator down, I arrived at the Arrivals hall. Here, I had access to the E-gates. After around 5 minutes in queue, I was through and officially in Singapore. Immigration scores 8/10

Baggage reclaim:

I waited for around 15 minutes by the luggage belt before the belt started moving and the luggage came. It wasn't long before my bags arrived, undamaged. 7/10

ARRIVAL AIRPORT SCORES: 8/10

MY FINAL RATINGS

Airports

Airports Experience: 8/10

Hard Product

Seat Comfort: 7/10

Sleep Comfort: 7/10

In-flight Entertainment: 7/10

Aircraft Cleanliness: 7/10

Aircraft Comfort: 10/10

Soft Product

Dinner service: 7/10

Breakfast service: 3/10

Amenities: 7/10

Cabin Crew: 10/10

OVERALL RATING: 73/100

conclusion

So, that was a look into my experience in Premium Economy Class onboard Lufthansa's A340-300 from Frankfurt to Singapore!

This was definitely not the most spectacular of flights I've ever had, as quite a few elements of the experience were quite average and rather underwhelming. Would I recommend you go for it? Well, if the price is right, then yes, the extra space over economy will definitely be appreciated. Would I pay the full price for another flight in Lufthansa's premium economy? No. It's not premium enough for its usual price tag.

If you made it so far down, thank you so much! I really hope this review, as well as all my future reviews, can help you decide how you want to travel in the future. 

Travel safe, and goodbye for now.