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Hello and welcome to the trip report of the most special trip that I have ever taken in my whole life!
I really managed to convince my father to take a flight to Berlin Tegel in the morning and back to Munich on the same day, to get to visit Berlin Tegel upon it's day of closure! That also meant that I would finally fly an Airbus A350-900 and that even on a flight within Germany! I am sure that this was one of the only possibilities ever to take a wide-body on a intra Germany Lufthansa flight since they deployed the B747 to Berlin from Frankfurt to catch up all the Air Berlin passenger that couldn't get anywhere after AB got bankrupt back in 2017.
Even though the trip wasn't cheap at all, mostly because I only decided to take the flights three weeks before and the prices started at 400€ r/t in economy!
Nevertheless, fasten your seat belt and enjoy reading the most special trip report I will ever publish!
Also, you'll get to see some beautiful shots of Berlin Tegel, so please enjoy. I would be really happy about feedback!
I will start this trip report right away with my arrival from Munich on LH1936. Seated on 12F, we smoothly landed on runway 08L and taxied to Lufthansa's gate at Tegel A01. Looking out of the window after the pilot gave the order to disembark, you could see the last Brussels Airlines flight from Tegel to Brussels, operated by an A319-100.
So we de-boarded by rows and went through one of the iconic red gangways into the terminal, which have seen much use.
And this was the first view we were given after entering the terminal! How beautiful this architecture matches the lightning conditions!
And in landscape mode… Can't get enough of this! In the building on the right side, nah not the tower, you can find Lufthansa's Business and Senator lounge, the Senator lounge being one level above.
The view onto our plane from directly in front. Even the ground staff took pics of every plane they could.
If you in this pic are seeing a plane in Air Berlin colors, you aren't high or have got too less sleep. It's D-ASGK, the last plane in Air Berlin base colors, operated by German carrier SUNDAir. The plane was chartered by a friend of mine, Niklas Lemke for sightseeing flights from Tegel to Tegel and Tegel to BER! Sadly the flights were already fully booked when I decided to come to Tegel on 07.11, I would have been on one of those for sure.
Only some handful of flights would still depart or land on this day, with the most being sightseeing or charter flights. The most where even cancelled :/.
Flights to Berlin Tegel, arriving from … Berlin Tegel? You don't see that every day. The WDL arrival from Memmingen FMM/EDJA carried the football club Hertha BSC Berlin to their match against Augsburg and back.
The departure board.
Wouldn't it have been its last day of operation, the airport would have been deserted. For example gates 3 and 4 didn't see any flights.
That's what a gate area in Tegel looked like. Tegel did not work like a normal airport, every gate had it's own check-in, where you directly proceeded to the security, there was no other way. Only Lufthansa had its own check-in desks because of the large amount of daily flights that were only operated by Lufthansa (>25).
Such texts were spread all over the airport.
Gate A05. I had about 12 hours of lay-over, I didn't count the times I walked in circles haha. This is only possible because Tegels Terminal is shaped like an Hexagon. That means that you just can't get lost, you'll always come back to where you started.
The monitors at the Air France gate showed this beautiful hashtag! Air France was the very last airline to perform a flight to/from Tegel, as it also was the first one.
Fly long-haul from Tegel! These were the destinations served before Corona:
Doha - Qatar Airways
Singapur - NokScoot
Toronto - Air Canada Rouge
New York - United
Philadelphia - American Airlines
Ulan Bator - MIAT Mongolian Airlines
Peking - Hainan Airlines
Before COVID, you could also fly with DAT, advertising themselves as the Vikings Airline! They flew to Saarbrücken in Germany as they won the EU subsidaries on this route. The route to Bornholm, a Swedish isle, was just a positioning flight also sold to the public.
After walking through the whole hexagon once, you arrived into the main building with the "plaza".
Follow always the signs with the arrows to the lounge haha!
An even more retro looking departure board.
But before going into the lounge, I still wanted to take outside pics of Tegel and get something "proper" to eat. Proper? Yes, as due to the partly silly restrictions of the German government, you aren't allowed to eat anything in the lounge, there are only sandwiches to go.
Just another angle.
Holy shit this was my favorite pic I took on my trip damn!
View from the "upper deck".
Then I went to the lounge, main purpose: Working and spending nine long hours.
Lufthansa says Goodbye to Berlin Tegel!
The Senator Lounge would have been one level above but was closed due to Corona. In the foreground you can already see the complete service you could get in the lounge. A sandwich and Lufthansa's Elisabethen water.
The seating area was very comfortable and reminded me of the SEN seating spaces in MUC and FRA.
On the other hand, the view was priceless!
Both other airline Lounges, AF/KL and BA were closed, in BAs everything was already prepared for the transition to BER.
The Lufthansa Worldshop tried to sell as much suitcases as they could, giving 20 percent on the already lowered prices.
I already checked in at home for both flights but for memorabilia of Tegel I went to the Lufthansa counters and made them print out a real one for me! Also I asked for a cash upgrade but as expected there was no free seat in C since five weeks, when they announced that they would be deploying an A359.
Later to the end, there were way less people in the terminal and the reporters of the RBB had gone, but other interesting people had arrived…
…
Then there was this literally drunk ex Air Berlin crew that came just to make party…
One person it was surely worth taking a pic with is Engelbert Lüdke Daldrup, CEO of the FBB, the company which all 3 (now 1) airports belong to! And yes I had really my Adidas X Lufthansa sneakers on haha.
Then it was already 19:30 and for me time to go through security, where some Lufthansa and Lufthansaviews staff was awaiting all the passengers of LH1955!
And look what was written on that white carton: 20x Worldshop Goodie Bag TXL Abschied 07.11.
YES! We were handed out goodiebags containing worldshop vouchers, an obligatory Lufthansa rubber duck and some interesting leaflets about Berlins aviation history!
The gate area started to get really crowded!
Spot D-AIXI, our little beautiful A350-900 named Dortmund, in new colors!
Suddenly about six airport staff members came in and began to sing some old songs with slightly changed texts commemorating Tegel, like "Über den Wolken", written by Reinhard Mey.
Then boarding started, of course, in groups, starting with the HONs, then C and SENs, and then three groups of Y passengers.
The very last flight of the Lufthansa Group from Berlin Tegel … The end of an era
We were given even more goodies, but this time from the ground staff, a remove before flight tag with #danketxl on it!
Last time going through Tegels gangways into the LH gate A01….
What a beast this engine is!
Now let's just jump right into my seat, 22K!
Lufthansa's standard long-haul IFE.
What a wingview! I of course mounted my GoPro onto the window.
Sadly, only the tail camera was working this evening.
Legroom was ok but is a long-haul no go for me, as I am 1,87 and my legs started to hurt upon arrival in Munich.
This pic was taken by a friend of mine out of the tunnel to Terminal C:
Almost fully booked!
Also the terminal shined under a beautiful light!
Loads of ground staff standing, filming and waving to us as we taxied once around the whole terminal! Yes, that's possible in Tegel, you can taxi around the whole terminal what is kind of unique!
My very first water salute and with a high chance, the only one I will have ever gotten!
Taxiing around the hexagon! I apologize for the bad quality. Apples cameras are normally lit, but not under low light conditions, and the cabin light was not just dimmed but shut down completely…
On the runway.
Lufthansa 1955, over and out.
The most beautiful part of my whole trip was the takeoff and the wing wave we performed afterwards. Can you imagine how beautiful it is that a whole plane with the length of 66,9 meters banks right and then immediately left, to pay salute to an airport that will close after several years of service?
After connecting to Lufthansa FlyNet to read the newest issue of DER SPIEGEL, I saw that we had a delay of thirty minutes but really no one cared.
The whole service on this flight consisted of an Elisabethen still water, but the crew was so nice that they even brought my seat neighbour red wine after he had asked after it.
The approach into Munich was in my opinion one of the most scariest I have ever been on. Due to MASSIVE FOG you couldn't see further than about 25 meters!!!!!!
Because of that, I think that it was even the hardest landing I had ever experienced, but surely the one with the most claps after landing. Bringing us down safely was surely worth the claps, mister captain.
To commemorate the day I asked a crew member to take a pic of me in the C cabin, what was no problem.
We were the only passengers in whole terminal 2, there were only some three of four persons trying to sleep on a hard bench, waiting for the next morning to come.
It was spooky to see all the baggage claims in Munich with no people, only ours was turning slowly.
After this immense trip of 22 hours, with the fog it still took 3 hours instead of 1.20 to reach my home safely, almost hitting a deer on a road in bavaria.
I got only one more thing to add:
#DANKETXL
Yours,
Lars
As it took me five and a half hours to write this report, I would be really happy about feedback!
#DANKETXL, it was surely the greatest aviation adventure I have ever taken. #DankeLufthansa but of course #DANKETXL, gone but not forgotten. Nevertheless, I am also eager on trying BER on a one day trip next year!
15 Comments
Very beautiful pictures for this special flight in A350.
I remember I flew to TXL 5 years ago and despite its look "old school", it was a great airport.
Have safe flights. ;)
You too, have safe flights and stay safe!!
Thanks again for sharing this with us!
Oh yes especially for me as a German it was really hard to see how foolish they were at building the airport! I am really eager on trying BER next spring on a one day trip, the LH Lounge is really nice, a friend of mine told me!
Stay Safe!
Well there was a goodie bag but LH could have made the flight even more special by offering champagne or Sekt to everyone.
I'm surprised by the price of the flight, with all the restrictions it's nice to know there's still a demand from the enthusiats at leat.
Was the flight fully booked ?
Giving out drinks would not have been compatible with the German „Infektionsschutzverordnung“, the regulation on containing the pandemic. As you could see with the lounge, you also weren’t allowed to eat or drink in there, just grab something to eat and a water. And bout 250 without mask all sipping some champagne in a gate area that was crowded as hell, you surely know TXL, would have got a big mess!
Regarding the price, I know some friends of mine that were some of the first to book and managed to pay only 200 r/t plus 50€ for the Business cash upgrade. I just decided way to late so I had to pay an expensive price. The flight was almost booked out, 20 seats left in main eco cabin, Y+ and C were fully booked and people had to be downgraded!
The demand is still there, on the flight to Berlin on an A319 on a normal Saturday morning, there were also just 10 seats left! Demand is still there!
Stay safe!
Awesome report and thanks for taking the time to write it up. What a unique event, and lucky you to be part of it. Visited TXL several times and remember it for its uniqueness. As well as the Currywurst stand which was someplace outside of the terminal.
Best, Daniel
Tegel was indeed unique! A lounge before security, able to taxi around the terminal, every gate has its own security! Oh yes I know which stand you mean: Es(s)bahn! I know I already had some Currywurst there haha!
Stay safe!
You were lucky getting to do this once in a lifetime trip!
Infact it wasn‘t and I am not sure wether I would make it sitting there 10 hours in Y. The C also isn‘t that good as the seats are to narrow, even though that wouldn’t be a problem for me. Let’s see when Lufthansa introduces the First and new Business for the 350, still I guess not before 2023.
Trust me I tried, but on my next trip in December I’ll try to take even more pics in landscape mode!
Stay safe!
I was waiting for it :). I’ve been there on that day and the atmosphere was just so great. I had the impression to be back in the 90’s. I was on the last KLM flight at 18:20. My report will follow. But probably in the french version of the site. Your plane had not yet arrived at that time.
It sad to see that Lufthansa did not made a more special moment of this one time event in a life. For 400€ return they could have propose more... I was as well on flights from TXL and the “Infektionsschutzverordnung” was interpreted in a very different way... you’ll see. LH really disappointed me during this crisis.
Looking forward reading more from you!
Schönes Wochenende ?
I will be waiting for it, let’s see if my french is good enough for understanding it completely!
Indeed, at least a flight certificate like they did with Air France would be fairly nice!
Haha how true that is! I sat around infront of Gate A01 around one hour before boarding and watched the people pass by. There was a significantly high number of people who just had the mask below the nose, what hasn‘t got ANY protecting effect. In Bavaria this is handled a bit more seriously, you can easily get a fine if the mask gets down under the nose.
Regarding Economy and handling with Senators and HONs, absolutely. In Business Class imo not, they even slightly improved their service! But just a bottle of water on a one hour flight, not even a chocolate? Come on Lufthansa! Same goes for the lounges, you just can‘t put people who paid some thousands of euros into a lounge with Pax who paid 200€ for a C ticket, even if there is no service, like they’re doing in Frankfurt right now!
Dir ebenfalls ein schönes Wochenende und bleib gesund,
Lars! ?
What a luck about the A350!
I really like the last picture of the A350 thank you Texel!
Thanks for sharing
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