Hello, My name is David and let me write a brief introduction about my second flight report here. I have already reviewed the Frankfurt to Luanda route on the a330 and thought I'd leave out the intra-European flight. However since my next flight is still 2 weeks away and I was getting bored, I decided to give this a shot too.
I arrived at Schwechat around 3:10 pm with plenty of time to spare, my journey began at the Austrian business class check-in counter. Even though my luggage was a bit overweight the purser didn't seem to see it as a problem and let it through, I guess those are the advantages of being star alliance gold. What a nice bloke he was.
At this point, Schwechat was starting to get a bit congested, since all the Austrian long-haul flights were leaving in about 2-3 hours, served by the 767 and 777 aircraft. I scanned my boarding pass through the "priority' check-in lane where a security agent told me that this line is only for business class passengers and that I'm not entitled to use it. of course, if I weren't entitled then the gate wouldn't let me through to the check so I calmly explained this to her. She said she'll go get someone, but by the time she returned I was already in the lounge and through security.
I then arrived at the business class lounge, it's not very big or glamorous, but it's run by Do and Co which also do the catering for Turkish, Austrian and newly British airways. I have found that the catering they provide is consistently great. The only annoying thing was that I arrived at the lounge at about 3:25 which is too early for dinner and too late for lunch. oh well, in the meantime I had some dessert and waited for the dinner spread which first arrived at about 5:30.
For my early dinner, I had some chicken risotto, Austrian pretzel bread, mango mousse and a coke. I also had some salad later.
The lounge had great big windows which allowed for some decent spotting. I saw Austrian a319's, 767's, a320's, e195's in both the old and new livery.
At about 5:40 I decided it was time to head to the gate to catch my flight, I arrived at gate F21 10 minutes later with time to spare. at this point Vienna was a mess, there were scores of people blocking the way and the flow was really off. At the gate, there already was an orderly line to get to the aircraft, I always feel kind of bad when I get there later than everyone else and still get to board as the first.
Flight information
Flight number: LH1241
Flight time: 1.25 hours
Aircraft type and age: Airbus a320-200, registration D-AIUH, aged 3.1 years
I was greeted by a friendly flight attendant at the forward door who directed me to my seat, 6B. Even though I actually reserved a window seat I somehow good Reebok to a middle seat, ugh they're the worst. I managed to take a picture from the window before my seatmate came.
Legroom on board
Cabin on the a320
The service on this flight was bad, as is the norm on these short European flights. I got am egg and salami sandwich which I elected not to eat. It smelt really bad and the salami was really dry, the tea was decent though. My seatmate sitting in the aisle seat was studying for a Lufthansa pilot acceptance test, I wanted to start a conversation with him but decided not to since he looked to be really into it.
I then paid a visit to the lavatory which was a very standard a320 affair. There were no amenities except the facial tissues.
We then landed in Frankfurt on runway 25C at 18:05, 5 minutes ahead of schedule, however, the plane only came to a stop 10 minutes later as the taxi to the A gates takes quite a while. I then asked the crew whether I could visit the cockpit. they phoned the captain and he kindly permitted a visit. I personally prefer Boeing cockpits but I liked this modern a320 cockpit, The captain gave me some info on the aircraft, saying it was one of the newer members in Lufthansa's fleet at only 3 years old.
D-AIUH on arrival
I then started my long trek to the Air Canada maple leaf lounge through Frankfurt am Main.
