Review of Lufthansa flight Bogota Frankfurt in Economy

Airline Lufthansa
Flight LH543
Class Economy
Seat 41A
Aircraft Airbus A340-300
Flight time 10:45
Take-off 31 Aug 21, 20:55
Arrival at 01 Sep 21, 14:40
LH   #64 out of 95 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 1589 reviews
Guillbcn
By 1522
Published on 3rd April 2022

Introduction


Hello and welcome to another Flight Report. Today I'll be flying on my flight back home from Bogotá Colombia to Barcelona, with Lufhtansa via Frankfurt. So let's go! 
After 3 months in Tumaco, which is located in the pacific region (flights which have been reported) it was time to go back home. I arrived in Bogotá the night before from Cali, but as I have very few and blurry pictures about the flight, I didn't report it. Anyway, I stayed in a hotel located close to the airport. As I had to take an antigen test to enter into Spain (covid times), my plan was to stay at the airport at the afternoon, during 7 hours, just walking around and waiting for my flight. 

So at 11:30 I took a taxi to the terminal, where a Synlab was installed in order to respond to the demand of testing people. It was quite crowded. Here's a picture about the building. 


photo img_20210831_121535

After my test I went to eat at the airport while waiting for my result. Luckily it was negative, so nothing to worry about. Despite my flight was at nearly 9pm, check in counters were opened some good 4 hours before flight, and I was the first one to check in. 


photo img_20210831_143842photo img_20210831_160156

As I had a long time to go, I went to another restaurant and to make a walking tour on the terminal. Despite being Colombia my "second house", I've never had enough time to visit the airport with time.  
 
A good place to make spotting. Domestic departures. 


photo img_20210831_135216

Later on, when I passed through the passport control, I proceeded to the international departures line. The A340 was arriving. Lufthansa is the only passenger airline operating a 4-engine airplene here in Colombia. Iberia remplaced their A346 for the newly A350 and it's both daily flights are operated by this type now. 


photo img_20210831_172118

And a Copa being preapred for it's flight to PTY. Background, the Wingo was starting it's flight. 


photo img_20210831_175354

International departures tonight. Quite interesting routes. 


photo img_20210831_175751

A nice advertisement showing Bogotá 


photo img_20210831_175717

Relaxing with the last lights of the day


photo img_20210831_180318

And soon later, an American airlines arrived from Miami. 


photo img_20210831_181923

Already in the gate, it was time for boarding. When I arrived on june, load factor was just like 15% or so, but tonight the flight was going to be almost full.  


photo img_20210831_190345photo img_20210831_194103

Boarding was made and I went to my seat, 41C (aisle seat in the left rorow). Each seat had a pillow and a Blanket. Despite the flight was full, When boarding was nearly full, I had nobody next to me, so I moved to the window. By the time, we were given a hand sanitizer and earphones. 


photo img-20210831-wa00734277-65401photo img_20210831_202104

Take off and climb


After a small delay, the captain came to us saying we were ready to go, so a few minutes later we were already pushing back, just while the safety video was being played at the screens. Air France in the back, it's flight to Paris is departing an hour later. 


photo img_20210831_203706

And the second flight of the day for IB to Madrid was already being prepared. 


photo img_20210831_204528

Cabin lights were dimmed for take off. We have 9.000km in front of us. 


photo img_20210831_204728photo img_20210831_205646

Lining up


photo img_20210831_205948

There we go! Bye bye Bogotá! See you in a few months! (sorry for the quality of the pictures). 


photo img_20210831_210158photo img_20210831_210326

We made a right turn just to avoid the mountains and after a "8" loops we headed to the north. Bogotá slowly disappeared under the clouds.  


photo img_20210831_210336

Very slow climb tonight. 


photo img_20210831_210943

Cruising altitude


After the seat belt was turned off, lights came along the cabin. Here's a picture of the cabin. 


photo img_20210831_220550

Dinner service came about an hour after take off. Again, I must complain about Lufthansa servie, which "because of covid" made some strong cuts, also in their long-haul flights. There was no previous snack service, so the cabin crew passed through the cabin with the dinner service, which had only one choice: pasta with mushrooms and tomato, without cheese. It came along with a very bad salad which I didn't t even try. At least there was a decent dessert, made of vanilla mousse with chocolate. Everything with a bun and butter. 


photo img_20210831_220845photo img_20210831_220916

Generally, the meal looks poor and, despite i was adviced from the first flight, I was expecting much more from an airline like Lufthansa. 
Coffee came at the same time with all the other drinks, so it took quite a long time to reach my seat. Lufthansa must definitely improve their meals again.   
By the time, we were over Venezuela.  


photo img_20210831_223418

As I was feeling tired from the last days, after dinner I slept, just a few moments after the lights were dimmed in order to let the passengers rest. I made my longest sleep ever on a plane and I just woke up to take this picture just before sleeping again for a while. 


photo img_20210901_035415

By the time we were reaching Ireland and outside it was already the next day. 


photo img_20210901_063900

Breakfast came again and my worst forecasts were confirmed. It was absolutely horrendous. A veggie wrap with lettuce, cheese and carrot, a small fruit package and a cereal bar. Lettuce with cheese and carrot is not what my stomach awaits right after waking up. Absolutely disapointed with this product, LH.  


photo img_20210901_062226

At least, I took a coffee and a decent orange juice. 


photo img_20210901_063909

After this "breakfast" we were already quite close to Frankfurt, so a few minutes later we started our descent. As you can see, the PTV have a small USB port for the phone. This is a nice detail. 


photo img_20210901_073431

Descent and landing


We started our descent into frankfurt some good 30 minutes before. Cabin was prepared for landing. The weather in Germany was going to be much better than in Colombia. 


photo img_20210901_074339

Descending


photo img_20210901_075737

They gave us a small chocolate. Better than the breakfast at all. 


photo img_20210901_075004

On approach 


photo img_20210901_080024

And soon, on finals. We were about to land from the west. 


photo img_20210901_080245photo img_20210901_080440photo img_20210901_080643

Welcome to Frankfurt! Just over 10 hours and 50 minutes in the air. 


photo img_20210901_080725

Time to taxi to the gate 


photo img_20210901_080849

And there's our parking. The UA 787 was starting it's long journey to the USA. 


photo img_20210901_081458

And parked! Right next to the 747 of Lufthansa, which was about to start it's long flight to Tokyo. 


photo img_20210901_081656

Disembarking "covid style". Row by row. I managed to take a picture from the rear part of the economy section. 


photo img_20210901_082657

We're off 


photo img_20210901_082822

Bye bye! Thank you for this trip! Will it be my last time on a 4 engines plane? 


photo img_20210901_083023

After this, it was time for a very long wait into Frankfurt Airport, as Lufthansa cancelled all the afternoon flights to Barcelona by the time and I was located in the last flight of the day, which was after 9 o clock in the night. Another great surprise! 
Thank you very much for reading, comments are appreciated. 

See more

Verdict

Lufthansa

6.9/10
Cabin8.5
Cabin crew8.0
Entertainment/wifi7.0
Meal/catering4.0

Bogota - BOG

8.6/10
Efficiency9.0
Access8.0
Services8.5
Cleanliness9.0

Frankfurt - FRA

6.9/10
Efficiency6.5
Access7.5
Services6.5
Cleanliness7.0

Conclusion

It's quite dissapointing to see how Lufthansa standards were removed on all their planes, specially on it's in flight service. It's quite worrying to see everyday less differences between low cost airlines and standard ones, which are supposed to be better. Anyway, hopefully Lufthansa will normalize it's service again during 2022.

Information on the route Bogota (BOG) Frankfurt (FRA)

Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 7 avis concernant 1 compagnies sur la ligne Bogota (BOG) → Frankfurt (FRA).


Useful

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

La durée moyenne des vols est de 10 heures et 47 minutes.

  More information

6 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 599842 by
    Pilpintu TEAM 997 Comments
    A nice advertisement showing Bogotá

    Bogotá is high on my bucket list. Maybe next year. Is there any advice you could give me for my flight? Places to visit (or to not visit) for example? Thanks

    Bye bye Bogotá! See you in a few months! (sorry for the quality of the pictures). 

    I think that the second photo, with the clouds lit by the city lights, is gorgeous!

    Very slow climb tonight. 

    It’s funny how the word “Heading” - referring to the aircraft heading - got lost in translation. It was translated as “Título”! hahahah Quite a boring title for a book: “57°”

    I must complain about Lufthansa service

    Well, it’s in situations like this that you get to appreciate how lucky you can feel for being born in LATAM’s country of origin. Flying with them toughens you up! Yes, you learn to appreciate every crumble you get served onboard. The FA comes with a glass of water and a sanitizing towel and trains you to survive in the skies. “That’s all the water you’ll have today, fag**t. Drink it!! Now chew on that towel, b*stard! Chew it!! And now give me 50 push ups!!” Then you really learn the value of a humble veggie wrap.

    Iberia remplaced their A346

    We Spanish speakers can seldom avoid being given away by our grammar or vocabulary. So many words are similar in English and Spanish, except for one or two letters! Remplazar, for example!! hahahah

    Thank you very much for sharing! :D
    • Comment 599902 by
      Guillbcn AUTHOR 68 Comments
      Thank you very much for your comment. Bogotá is very nice. I Kindly recommend you to visit the city center, specially el barrio de La Candelaria, which is busy all day, and Monserrate Mountain. If you have more time, for sure try to visit some other places out of Bogotá. I'm not colombian, but I can reccomend you a few places such as Villa de Leyva or Guatavita. There might be quite a lot of day or 2 day tours.
  • Comment 599846 by
    KévinDC TEAM SILVER 6668 Comments
    Great to get to fly on the A340 with them becoming so rare now. Speaking of the Iberia A340-600, I feel bad I never got to fly on it. I had one flight booked on one, but it was cancelled.

    What a shame about the onboard service. It's really surprising not to have a choice of meals on a 10h longhaul flight! Maybe they ran out of the other choice and just pretended like there was only one option--which, I've seen happen a few times on various airlines. Even in Business, sadly.

    Hopefully this is a one-off experience. One expects better from Lufthansa on longhaul...I mean they're a 5* airline supposedly haha.

    Gracias por compartir!
    • Comment 599904 by
      Guillbcn AUTHOR 68 Comments
      Thank you for your comment!. It was a surprise on my 1st flight to see the downgrade of it's service due to COVID. But it wasn't a mistake. They stopped any meal choice, they supressed the snack service and cutted off the breakfast, which was in my opinion ridiculous. I hope LH it will soon recover (at least on their long-haul flights) because nowadays it's just shameful.
  • Comment 599946 by
    NGD16 SILVER 59 Comments
    Thanks for your report. Actually, shortly before Covid19 from November 2019, Lufthansa started offering small cold vegetarian snack as the pre-landing meal, with no choice. The cost cut I think is not totally about Covid19.
    • Comment 599975 by
      Guillbcn AUTHOR 68 Comments
      Yes, I remember they made some strong cuts a few months after I took the last Long Haul before the pandemic with them. Generally Lufthansa product downgraded very much in the last 2 and a half years. 🤔

Login to post a comment.