Hi everyone, this is the second part of a trip to Switzerland and France made in may 2013.
Flights intinerary:
LH 543 BOG-FRA
LH 1226 FRA-GVA (you are here)
U2 1397 GVA-ORY
LX 1072 ZRH-FRA
LH 542 FRA-BOG
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So after our inbound from Bogotá, we found ourselves in FRA's A pier, with over 1 hour to spare. For me the main activity was spotting, to see all those LH widebodies was really impressive.
The plane that brought us from Colombia, D-AIHK
Other planes in the A+ pier
After walking the whole of the A pier, we headed to our assigned gate in the A+pier to have some rest. It provided interesting comparative views of the B744 and the A380
After a while Boarding was announced, I found it somewhat disorganized as it was free boarding. At first I suspected it was because of a light load and the fact that we were being bussed anyways, but after having flown more this year I've noticed that boarding in Europe is not as organized as in America, where there tends to be a more strict boarding order.
Anyway, we were bussed to a remote position nearby RWY 18…which allowed for great views.
A+ pier exterior
Huge LH hangars
A row of one of my favorite planes…sadly flying cargo
under an A380, I was really thrilled as I hadn't seen much of the whalejet until this trip
South African A346
And finally our plane to Geneva: D-AECC
Boarding was swiftly completed and as expected, load was light. The Embraers seem to have a version of its own of the NEK, which I found weird as usually Embraers tend to have the same seats regardless of the airline, in my opinion LH's seats are the best for Embraers, I don't really like the standard Embraer seat.
A view of the cabin from my seat:
And the view to the wing from my window:
We made a short taxi to RWY 16, crossing by a nice Greek jet from an airline we certainly can't spot in my side of the world:
B777s were also spotted in AeroLogic livery
And then was takeoff, which permitted some nice views of FRA:
Around 20 minutes later service begun, consisting of a sandwich and drinks, I chose my favourite soda in the world: European Sprite, and was invited to have seconds.
The rest of the flight was rather uneventful, particularly because there was nothing but clouds outside…
We begun landing and passed by GVA continuing into France and then doing an 180° turn to align with RWY 05
In GVA some of the usual suspects were seen:
Easyjet
Swiss, present with the jumbolino (I was really excited as I would ride in one of those at the end of the trip)
And Embraers hailing from Poland and the Netherlands:
Its a shame GVA has its windows covered with dots, hate them:
Thanks for sharing this continuation flight.
LH offers a good shorthaul product with this flight. The E190 aircraft looks new and the cabin comfy.
How was the sandwich ? Do you know that you could have asked for a ehanced Sprite ? ;)
FRA<->GVA and FRA<->ZRH LH flights are the routes I'm used to fly the most in a year. ;)
I hope you enjoyed your stay in Switzerland.
I agree, LX/LH's E190s and service ex-CH are really good...specially if you compare them with KL/AF's.
I wouldn't usually order a sandwich that contains such amount of cucumber, but I was really hungry as I didn't eat anything in FRA so it did its job.
As for the enhanced Sprite, I did notice that one could do so, but I didn't want to spoil my first taste of Sprite for the trip, I'm seriously addicted to its flavour.
I had a blast in Switzerland, sadly it wasn't as long as I would have liked it to but I didn't know at the time I was going to be back in two months, respective TRs coming soon!
Cheers!
Thanks for this next flight in the series. LH's shorthaul product is indeed better than AF's regarding seat comfort and catering, but inferior on longhaul IMO. Looking forward to future reports.