Review of Lufthansa flight from Toronto to Frankfurt in Economy

Hi,

After a long break welcome to the fifth flight of this new series covering my late winter getaway to Cuba with stopovers in Munich, Germany and Toronto, Canada. The whole trip consisted of the following 6 flights operated by Lufthansa, Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge:

28.02.2020 - LH1613 - WAW-MUC
29.02.2020 - AC847 - MUC-YYZ
29.02.2020 - AC1876 - YYZ-HAV
14.03.2020 - AC1877 - HAV-YYZ
14.03.2020 - LH471 - YYZ-FRA - you are here!
15.03.2020 - LH1348 - FRA-WAW

but as the last flight has eventually been cancelled due to covid-19 pandemia and closing of Polish borders on the 15th of March, we've been offered a flight to Berlin instead:

15.03.2020 - LH178 - FRA-TXL

I didn't really have much time for the flight reports lately and the whole aviation crisis made me so upset I didn't even want to think about travelling and flying. When I'm writing this report, the situation seems to be worse again, but at least for the couple of months we are able to travel and fly again and, despite the stress and restrictions, it's worth the pain (when I finish this series I will describe this summer's trip to Greece).

STOPOVER IN TORONTO

But first let's get back to the 14th of March when all was just to begin. We arrived on an early morning AC Rouge flight from Havana having already been informed the previous day that when we reach Europe on the 15th of March, Polish borders will already be closed to air traffic. Nobody knew what was going to happen and we were anxious about our trip back home, but as our flight to FRA was scheduled to depart in the evening, we had a whole day to spend in Toronto. Air Canada information desk couldn't tell us anything more than we knew about our FRA-WAW flight that was cancelled. They sent us to Lufthansa desk that was going to open 4 hours before the flight to FRA, so we decided to visit dontown Toronto as the immigration officer told us we could do this normally, however many places of interst may be closed due to covid pandemia. So… welcome to Canada!

We took the so called UP (Union-Pearson) Express that for 12,35 CAD took us to the city center in 20 minutes.

Union station looks very nice both inside and outside

But it wasn't the station we came there for. It was the CN Tower that…was closed for a month beacuse of covid! What a shame. At least we were able to see how huge it is.

Wise people say that if you can not have what you want, try to get satisfied with what you may have. So we did. A nice lady (everyone we met in Toronto was extremely nice and helpful!) told us we can take a ferry to the Ward's Island that has a great view on the skyline. It was cold as hell as there were only 3 degrees Celsius compared to 30+ in Cuba, but we took enough winter clothes with us to be fine. The trip was great, even if the wind on the ferry was ice cold.

We didn't stay in the city for too long for two reasons: it was cold and we didn't know how we were going to make it back home from Frankfurt. So after a couple of hours we took the UP Express again and came back to YYZ.

We went to Lufthansa desk to discover that nobody knew what was happening in Europe, the staff, that was very polite and helpful, had no idea about the borders being closed. We asked then if we can have a FRA-TXL flight instead of the FRA-WAW (Berlin is very close to Polish borders so we could go home from there by train or bus). There was an option of a direct LOT flight that despite the restrictions was supposed to arrive normally to Warsaw the next day, but, as we were informed, LOT didn't agree to rebook us for this flight (shame!) and the Berlin option was the one and only. On the other hand I didn't want to loose my first (and perhaps the last) 747-400 flight, so I was fine with flying to TXL. We were rebooked without problems and once again all the Canadians involved were friendly and helpful.

THE FLIGHT

I was so tired after a sleepless night and this cold day in Toronto that all I wanted was to be flying back home as soon as possible. Luckily our 744 arrived on time and boarding started as scheduled. Despite being tired, I was thrilled to fly the classic Jumbo that, as I know now, disappears from the sky so rapidly.

We passed through the whole cabin as our seats were in the tail section.
Premium Eco seats

Economy class

While checking-in online I was able to choose the double seats in the very rear section of the plane that are normally blocked. This time the flight was almost…empty so maybe that's why they were available. Anyway it was a great choice as this seats offer plenty of legroom.

You may also have an access to many windows, so it was more than nice.

There were only 2 rows and toilet behind.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I heard "boarding is completed". FA told me it's probably because of the pandemia that many pax cancelled their reservations.

Let's have a look on the cabin. It looks old and, no doubt, worn out but is clean.

The seats are not so bad and the screen is OK as for an aircraft of this age (the cabin must have been retrofitted at some point).

After the safety demo, we were ready to go

Have I already told you I really enjoyed my seat?

As the flight was empty, take off was quite quick as for such a big bird.

The first thing to do after take off was to check the flight map that was quite modern and worked quite well.

There was a blanket and a pillow on every seat and as the pillow was of a very good quality, the blanket was terrible! It looked like an old curtain.

Not long after take off supper was served. There was a choice between beef and vegetarian pasta. After having a burger in Toronto I was ok with the pasta. First we were offered drinks and salty snacks.

Then the main tray arrived. The pasta dish and cheesecake were good, but the salad and the roll were unacceptable!

After the meal there was time for a movie and some sleep.

Breakfast was served when after crossing the Atlantic, we reached Irealand. I didn't expect much as the flight was relatively short (we had a strong tail wind so the whole flight time was supposed to be just 6:30) but this breakfast was more than poor.

We started our descent after crossing Belgium.

Landing

Nice to be back to Europe

The safety card of this 744

Cabin during deboarding and great view on our aircraft from the jetbridge

So were are back to Europe, yet still far away from home. The plan is to have breakfast before flying to TXL and try to search for some Berlin - Warsaw transport facilities in the meantime. To be continued soon. Thanks for reading!