Review of Lufthansa CityLine flight London Frankfurt in Economy

Airline Lufthansa CityLine
Flight LH929
Class Economy
Seat 7A
Aircraft Embraer E-190
Flight time 01:05
Take-off 25 Jul 14, 09:10
Arrival at 25 Jul 14, 11:15
CL   #90 out of 96 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 238 reviews
ChrisB
By GOLD 721
Published on 15th November 2021

Flying from city! yes!


Hello dear Flight Reporters and readers!
Today I will start a series of flights that took me from London to St Petersburg.
Of course there were some direct flights with BA, but it was too expensive and not convenient for us as the flight was leaving in the morning. 

I must also add that living and working in east London, and I was travelling with friends from the office I was more enclined to leave from City rather than going all the way to Heathrow.


Miles & More earned: 300 



There was no App at the time - at least not that I remember so I checked in the old fashion way on LH website and printed my BP in the office (too late I no longer work there you can't tell my boss XD).


photo boarding-pass

This was the sweet time when you could select your seats for free before checkin and we did so to sit next to each other.
For information, here is the seat map of an 100 seats E190 on lufthansa: 


photo e190

Going to Russia, even for a 5 days tourist trip is not that easy.
First you need to register to an online visa application - and this is very intrusive. Besides usual stuff like evidence of Identity, they also ask for the lask 3 bank statements to make sure you have enough cash to leave the country, your job contract, the name of your boss and even his work direct phone line…

Of course I should also say that you need to be "invited" by someone or a company. As we didn't know anyone over there, one of us found the trick to be invited by a tourist agency that is specialised in selling tickets of the railway company.
We asked for a quote and paid for an invitation and Bob is your uncle! 


photo visa

You then need to go to the office that deals with VIsa application in the City of London near Barbican tube station.

It was really impressive, they were not that funny at all. You can see on the screen I went there on the 6th of june so about a month and a half before travelling. 


photo img-20140606-wa0000-43692

You fill in some more forms… and your passport is taken away from you for weeks… I am not kidding.
I was passeportless for weeks… 
Before I finally received it casually by the post.. 


at london - city airport


photo 20190830_130824

We arrived with the DLR, it was just a short journey by train away.


photo 274849_qpf82r4nmcj1acn_ldqypt8y2x6l9_wzgw09us3hegaphoto dlr

And here is the coolest London airport!
For those who have never flew from City it is cool for 3 reasons:
1. It is located near Canary Wharf business district.. It is like having an airport at La Defense in Paris, or in the Queens in New York
2. It small and super fast to reach airside
3. It is cool 


photo london-city

There are some self checkin machines for PAX in a rush - It wasn't so common to see that at the time.


photo smvrjgwcd9l-wf1shwy8xzgvq428-vlz6s3tv26vggi

We still went to the checkin counter to check in our luggages all the way to LED.
Lufthansa was the first counter.


photo gecmieac1200htga4dzzvqmnbj1cktvwuj0loz5dvh5en4ds

Going airside was super fast and especially because the four of us were travelling without a cabin luggage.


onboard the e190


Here was our plane. I guess there were some sort of priorities respected..


photo screenshot_20211002-0729

Aircraft: Embraer E190AR
Registration: D-AECI
Engines: 2x CFM34
Age: now 11 Years
Layout: Y100


A view from the cabin.. I think the orange headrests are for J?
I don't think I have made such a perfectly aligned cabin picture before… 


photo cabin

After the safety demonstrations done manually, we started to taxi towards the 27 runway.


photo taxi2

It is always impressive to take off from EGLC/LCY, the airplanes are usually putting full on thrusters then release the brake…

And after a sharp turn we were flying above essex. 


photo cruise

Now over Netherlands where the service started - a bit late though considering the time of the flight.


photo food-16455

The lady handed over a sandwich first…


photo sandwich2

Then came back again with drinks this time with her colleague>


photo servcice-99052

A quick glance at the safety card..


photo safety

Now somewhere over Cologne I guess


photo cruise2

The magazine found onboard is okm had a few interesting articles not the most thick I would have ever seen.


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A nice article about the Washington air museum, and with THE beauty as a centre piece…


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And my favorite page for the fleet geeks


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Not that many differences with nowadays fleet, except the B737 and CRJ700 are gone.


AT FRANKFURT - FLUGHAFEN FRANKFURT AM MAIN


We parked away from the jetway gates as most of the times with FRA airport.


photo paxbus

and onto the vast and iconic terminal buildings with these upside down triangles.


photo 38844_9xcr_hw4dt7ukneup0gwdpjip62xok1ymzmqljbvzao
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Verdict

Lufthansa CityLine

6.9/10
Cabin7.0
Cabin crew7.5
Entertainment/wifi6.0
Meal/catering7.0

London - LCY

8.9/10
Efficiency9.5
Access9.0
Services8.0
Cleanliness9.0

Frankfurt - FRA

7.9/10
Efficiency8.0
Access7.5
Services8.0
Cleanliness8.0

Conclusion

LCY: always a fantastic experience to leave from this airport - a bit less to arrive.

LH: The seats are not as comfy as KL, AZ or AF but the pitch is ok.
Service happened in two stages, not sure why

FRA:
Unboarding by paxbus as most of the times in FRA.

Information on the route London (LCY) Frankfurt (FRA)

Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 5 avis concernant 2 compagnies sur la ligne London (LCY) → Frankfurt (FRA).


Useful

La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est British Airways avec 7.3/10.

La durée moyenne des vols est de 1 heures et 23 minutes.

  More information

5 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 586389 by
    Esteban GOLD 19853 Comments
    Thanks Chris for sharing this archive !

    The sandwich is gone and as you said, so are the 737 and the CR7 but unfortunately also the JU-52. LH kept one flying but stopped its operations a couple of years ago.
  • Comment 586437 by
    flyLars 56 Comments
    Hey Chris!
    Thank you for this very nice report indeed! Great to see such elder reports on this site. You still get free seat choice on Lufthansa before check-in if you travel in Economy Classic or higher, and I actually don't know anyone travelling in light lol, but the sandwich is a sign of the past, sadly... I did actually quite like the sandwiches back then. London City seems absolutely cosy, though sad that BA1 does not operate anymore and I do think that there is no lounge for Lufthansa status/business customers.
    Hope to see the other parts of the report soon!
    • Comment 586479 by
      ChrisB GOLD AUTHOR 3391 Comments
      Thank you so much for stopping by!
      I don't fly that much LH, thanks for the info I thought the seats weren't free at checkin neither.
      Yes the era of complimentary food and drinks is long gone, I heard LH isn't really satisfied with its Buy On Board... Let's hope it will one day resume the legacies service.
      Yes I saw many times the A318 at LCY but never thought of taking a picture of it. Now that it is gone I regret it!

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