Hello everyone, this is my first post in this webpage, it consists in the first part of a trip I made to Switzerland and France 6 months ago. This itinerary for such trip consists of:
This trip was exciting as it had some firsts for me: 1st time on a A340, my favorite type; 1st time in LH, 1st time visiting FRA and Germany. I had already done some trans-atlantic flights on BA (when they flew BOG-CCS-LGW) and AV to Spain (BOG-BCN-BOG, MDE-MAD-BOG), the latter this year too so I was eager to compare LH's and AV's trans-atlantic products.
Most flights to Europe leave BOG in the late afternoon and night, the flight to FRA being one of the latest. Check-in for international flights @ BOG require a 3-hour check in time previous to SDT, so i was in the airport around 7pm. Check in was hassle-free and rather uneventful as I was early, that left me with almost 2 full hours to waste in BOG's new International Terminal (sorry no pictures this time). I had some burger in the airside Burger King and soon enough they were calling us for boarding. The flight was packed, I noticed that a considerable part of passengers were connecting from other Colombian and Andean cities, sure this flight feeds importantly on AV's network ex-BOG.
Upon entering via Door 2R, one passes by the Business Class,
While I waited for boarding to be completed, I was free to mess with the PTV, choosing the Map function, which only showed this at the time:
Once it was completed this nice message was shown in all screens:
While getting ready for push-back, security briefing was shown and in no time we were heading to BOG's 13L runway:
Today's flight time would be just over 10 hours
The cabin was pitch dark throughout most of the flight, except for meal time..
As we crossed Colombia towards Venezuela and eventually the Atlantic Ocean I carried out my plane-geek activities:
Exploring the contents of the seat pocket:
Checking seat pitch ( I find LH's A436s fairly comfortable compared to AV's A332s) :
As the Cabin Crew distributed the drink service, I chose my IFE for this first part of the flight…
Then was dinner service, options tonight were either Pasta or Beef:
Movie selection wasn't the best, thankfully the music was good…I then turned to one of my favorite albums:
Midway over the Atlantic I woke up and it was already day, nevertheless the rest was still sleeping, so I could only peek through my window fastly and while the crew wasn't checking (they requested thoroughly that window blinds were kept shut)
So as I told you…the cabin was very dark:
Thankfully the Velvet Underground was there to help me cope with boredom/drowsiness
As we approached Great Britain Cabin Lights were turned on and breakfast service was distributed
Britain and France on the other side of the Chanel
Entering continental Europe
In no time we crossed the continent into Frankfurt, approach let us have a great view of the city and its skyscrapers, landing was soft.
Taxying into the A+ Pier…
The Cabin before deboarding
Deboarding was quick and efficient, after the airbridge one must go one floor up to the arrivals level, where a contingent of the Bundespolizei was randomly checking passports… after that one could have some nice final views of our plane, D-AIHK
We had around 3 hours for our onward flight to Geneva (I chose to have sufficient buffer time after reading FRA horror stories), but this proved exaggerated as both the security and passport checks took less than 45 minutes.
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Verdict
Lufthansa
7.9/10
Cabin8.5
Cabin crew8.5
Entertainment/wifi6.0
Meal/catering8.5
Bogota - BOG
7.2/10
Efficiency10.0
Access5.0
Services6.0
Cleanliness8.0
Frankfurt - FRA
8.1/10
Efficiency10.0
Access7.5
Services7.5
Cleanliness7.5
Conclusion
Pros: I found LH's product better than AV's, I liked a lot the fact that toilets are on the other level below the Y-class cabin, so it doesn't get congested as it happens in other planes. Cons: LH's film selection was poor, albeit music was good...it somehow doesn't help to keep you distracted through the 10 hour flight. Also my PTV was damaged and had to be resetted as it froze frecuently, but not even the reset worked.
Conclusion: LH is IMO the best option for BOG-Europe flights, although it also tends to be the most pricey.
This is all for this part of the series, I hope you've like it. Saludos!
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Thanks for sharing this first report with us! The catering doesn't looks particularly appealing but as long as it tastes good, that's the most important thing. Looking forward to the rest of the series--hopefully next time we'll have a little bit bigger pictures :-) Thanks again for sharing this detailed report!
Bienvenido a Flight-Report.com!
Kevin (KévinDC) Flight-Report Community Manager and Moderator
Thanks for sharing this interesting report. LH is always a solid choice and you know what to expect. Personally I feel really safe in one of their planes.
Welcome and thanks for this first FR. I share your opinion on the lack of available films on LH's PTV. The meals look good and so does the legroom. It's funny to hear that LH is the most pricey option ex-BOG as in France they're often the cheapest one for long haul flights.
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8 Comments
Bienvenido a Flight-Report.com!
Kevin (KévinDC)
Flight-Report Community Manager and Moderator
LH's catering seems to be close to US airlines' : not really appetizing
Hopefully you had fast security and passport checks in FRA
I share your opinion on the lack of available films on LH's PTV.
The meals look good and so does the legroom.
It's funny to hear that LH is the most pricey option ex-BOG as in France they're often the cheapest one for long haul flights.
See you!
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