Review of Lufthansa flight Munich → Brussels in Business

introduction

I was looking forward to trying out a regional jet flight in Europe! I’ve never experienced this before and wanted to see how this compared to the U.S., and it really was a superior experience!

check in and security

I arrived at the airport around 5:00 am for my 7:05 departure time.

Lufthansa operates out of Terminal 2 at MUC, so be sure to utilize that terminal. Though, if you do end up going to the wrong terminal, there is a way to walk between terminals underground.

I forgot to take pictures of the check in hall, but it was empty at this time of the morning, and it’s very hard to miss all of the Lufthansa check in counters.

I quickly checked in and printed my boarding passes and made my way through security. Security was surprisingly easy and efficient. There was a separate line for business class and gold track passengers, and I was through security within about 5 minutes. 

the lounge

Once through security, I made my way to the Senator Cafe located near gate G28. Only to find that it was closed. It is apparently only open on Monday- Friday and as today was Saturday, it was closed. I was really looking forward to using this lounge and reviewing it, but, such is life.

There is a senator lounge located just across the hall from the cafe, right near gate G28.

Upon entering the lounge, you are greeted by a sign on the wall, indicating the Senator Lounge.

Once inside, you’ll find the vast open seating area. And as you head to the end of the lounge, you’ll find a backlit photo of an A350!

There is some food and drinks on offer, including water, sparkling water, juice, beer on tap (because it’s Bavaria), and a coffee machine. 

To the left, you’ll find some breads including croissants and pretzels, as well as basic hot food items such as eggs, mushrooms and tomatoes. There’s also some museli and some cold cuts of deli meats and cheese on offer.

Thr lounge also featured showers near the bathrooms, which is a nice service offered.

boarding

I made my way over to gate G81, which was about a 10 minute walk from the lounge. I was able to get a picture of the aircraft from the level above before heading downstairs towards the G gates.

Just like German efficiency, we began boarding right on time at 6:35 am. This CRJ-900 has small overhead bins that can only store smaller personal items, so all larger carry on bags were tagged by the gate agent prior to boarding. I mean, they literally came around to everyone in the gate area and tagged our bags and let us know that we could collect them at the gate in Brussels.

cabin and seat

The cabin on the CRJ-900 is arranged in a 2-2 configuration with no middle seats.

It should be noted that on most intra-European carriers, business class and economy class seats are the same. It’s the same pitch, width, everything… the only difference in European business class is that they block off the middle seat, or in this case, The aisle seats were blocked off, though the flight attendant told me when I boarded that I could choose either seat to sit in. I chose the window, of course. So, although my seat assignment was 5D, I sat in 5F.

pre-departure

At 7:00, the captain came on to welcome us onboard and let us know that we would be “taking off heading west and then begin a right hand turn towards Brussels”

At 7:01, a Pre-Departure Beverage of a bottle of water was served.

the flight

At 7:05, the captain announced that boarding was completed and that we would be pushing back shortly.

At 7:10, we began our pushback.

At 7:20, we were taking off on runway 26R.

At 7:25, we reached 10,000 feet. It should be noted that there is no WiFi or other form of in flight entertainment on board.

At 7:28, the meal was served. It appeared to be cold cuts with a croissant, served with a rose apricot jam. It was all plated.

A minute later, another flight attendant came around to offer something to drink. She informed me that the coffee maker was not working but she could offer us anything else. I went with a Coke Zero, which was served in real glassware. Though, it was a really small glass.

At 7:47, a flight attendant came around with. Box of chocolates. The nougat was delicious.

arrival

At 7:57, we began our descent into Brussels.

We touched down on runway 25L at 8:25.

We then began our taxi to the gate, which was very quick, and we arrived at gate A27, at 8:29 am, for a slightly delayed arrival of 4 minutes behind schedule.

During our taxi, the flight attendants asked us to remain in our seats after we parked at the gate, so that we can all allow time for our tagged bags to be removed from the aircraft. Which I thought was kind of smart. There’s no rush to get off the aircraft if you have to wait for your bags anyways.