Review of Lufthansa flight New Delhi → Frankfurt in Economy

better late than never

Hello and welcome to another FR!

This is both the final FR of 2023 and of my trip to Asia and will cover the most exciting flight of the entire trip (at least for me). Today I'll be flying back to Europe onboard Lufthansa's Boeing 747-400. On paper, I really shouldn't be excited about this flight at all - Lufthansa's long-haul product is incredibly disappointing (especially in economy). However, with this flight, I'll finally get to tick off something I've wanted to do for over 4 years: fly the Boeing 747. I'm extremely lucky to have flown long hauls regularly over my lifetime, meaning that I've ticked off most widebodies (apart from the A350). However the 747 have always eluded me, which is why I've been seriously looking into flights on the 747 all the way back in late 2019. The original plan was to fly on British Airways' 747 however that all fell apart with the pandemic and the early retirement of the fleet (and the 747 fleet from airlines all around the world). 

And yes, this flight is the sole reason why I'm in India. I wanted to fly the -400 (rather than the -8) and the other viable cities that was served by the type (Shanghai and Tokyo) was way to expensive to justify, which left Delhi as the only option. Even then, I paid €800 base as an open jaw flying Milan - Hong Kong and back from Delhi. Adding seat selection and checked luggage bought the total to around €1000. This is double the cheapest option I could've taken for this trip, which was €550 on Shenzhen Airlines flying London - Beijing roundtrip. 

I've ready done an FR on the outbound flight to Hong Kong so these two FRs will be quite similar. However, Lufthansa somehow managed to still disappoint me with this flight, even with expectation lower than the London Underground. 

From 2023, I aim to offset all of my CO2 emission from flights. All emissions are calculated using the ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator and I will be funding projects approved by The Gold Standard. The CO2 output for this trip is:
 
DEL-FRA-LIN: 358kg
Total for 2023 (so far): 3875kg 

video report

Here's the video report, it's got pretty much the same thing content wise. 

DELHI INDIRA GANDHI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (DEL)

Haha no, I won't be going to the airport on this. I did a 20 minute ride just for the experience. It was fun although being blasted in the face by the hot Delhi air isn't the most pleasant experience, especially as my hair was ruined by the end of it. It was totally worth it though! 

Actually going to the airport in a taxi. The ride took around 50 minutes, which was much, much better than the 2.5 hour it took when I arrived. This is the difference between Delhi at 11PM vs 7PM. It just shows how insanely bad the traffic is here (and in India in general).

The drop off area outside the airport. 

It's quite weird to see the airport outside being so crowded compared to the inside. The reason is that passengers are only allowed into the building 4 hours before departure (and relatives aren't allowed in at all). 

Here's the check-in area inside. It's very nice and modern. 

What wasn't nice, however, was the check-in process. There were two lines for economy, one for those who checked in online and one for those who haven't. I lined up in the former, which took 15 minutes. When I was at the front of the queue, one of the staff asked me if I was going to Munich or Frankfurt. After I told her I was going to Frankfurt, she informed me that they were only checking in passengers bound for Munich (their flight departs an hour earlier) before directing me to the Swiss counter (which still had a fair number of passengers checking in for Zürich). It took another 30 minutes of queueing with staff directing Zürich passengers to the front of the queue. What really annoyed me isn't how long it took but the way they did it. I'd be happier if they just told me straight away to come back after 45 minutes rather than being turned away at the front of the queue. I can also imagine some passengers being less than accepting in that scenario, creating an unpleasant working experience for the staff too. 

Anyway, here's the departures for tonight. 

At the top is a Nepal Airlines flight that is 7 hours late. Ouch, I can't imagine being stuck here for that long. Also, for some reason, KLM is using their 100 years logo rather than the normal one, it's probably not a big issue for most people but I scan these screens looking at logo, which made me really confused for like a minute before realizing. 

One final photo of the check-in area. I can imagine this area being incredibly crowded without the ticket check at the entrance, which is probably one of the reason why it's done.

Security took 20 minutes, which isn't great but here's the duty-free stores right after. 

It's quite basic in terms of design/decorations but it is clean, which is honestly all that matters.

There's a very large variety of shops…

… as well as a food court.

Walking to the gate. 

Wi-Fi is available, except these are the steps involved to get access to it: 

Yeah, unless you have an Indian phone number, it's a huge hassle. I didn't bother and chose to use data instead. I'm not sure why they need a passport for Wi-Fi but it's also a fairly similar system used in other Indian airport (like Mumbai) as well. 

Anyway, here's the gate area. 

The seats here all have charging ports, which is super handy. 

the flight

Flight time today will be around 8 hours and here's our route: 

First views of our plane on the jet bridge during boarding.

Some info about our plane:

Type: Boeing 747-400
Registration: D-ABVU
First flight: 8 December 1998
Age: 25 years
Config: C67/W32/Y272

A 25 year old plane that's been with Lufthansa for her entire life, she was stored briefly during the pandemic but was returned to service in September 2021. 

While the last FR featured a 13 year old plane that felt 7 years older than it was, here's a 25 year old plane that feels fairly new - huge kudos to Lufthansa for how well they maintained their fleet. 

The IFE (which we'll look into later) and tray table. 

Although you can tell it's an older cabin from the legroom. It's amazing and goes back to a time when Lufthansa wasn't terrible. I'm pretty sure newer cabins have much less legroom than this. 

The overhead panel - this is a fairly reliable indicator of an aircraft's age regardless of airline. 

One of the things that I love about flying new airlines/planes is the little details you notice. Here's one of them: 

It's a very unique seatbelt (I've never seen one like that). It also takes a bit of effort to insert the buckle, which was quite confusing for some passengers (the only time you might actually need the 'how to use a seatbelt' segment of the safety video haha). 

On each seat is also a pillow…

… and a blanket.

Shortly after, the crew came around with headphones. I didn't use them as the IFE had a single headphone jack so you can use your own. 

First views out of the window with a Kuwait Boeing 777-300ER (9K-AOE) pushing back for (surprise!) Kuwait (KWI). 

Pushback 5 minutes late. 

You really can't see much with it being night so I'll just skip the takeoff, climb and go straight to the 'snack' served right after takeoff. 

Here it is. It's quite funny how pathetic it looks in this not-so-big snack box. This is the only option, it's a vegetarian wrap curry wrap. Drinks were also served. The wrap actually tasted terrible - it was rock hard and bland. I had zero expectation going into this flight but somehow I'm still disappointed with this. Thankfully, I was prepared for the terrible catering and had a really nice dinner in the food court in Delhi so it didn't really matter but I can't imagine how it could've been this worse (apart from not serving anything). 

Anyway, lets have a look at the IFE:

I've already done an IFE review on my outbound to Hong Kong but I'll repeat it again. There's a good selection of movies and shows for a long haul flight. The touchscreen is really nice and responsive and there's also plenty for the kids. All in all, a nice IFE system and is one of the better aspects of Lufthansa.

However, there was no moving map for this flight, which is rather disappointing. 

After this, I slept for quite a bit and woke up to sunrise over Eastern Europe. 

Wi-Fi is also available for this flight. I think it is possible to pay for access but I couldn't find the option anywhere, which was weird. 

Good Frankfurt to you too! 

News is available on the portal for free. 

About an hour before descent, the crew came around with breakfast. 

And here it is. There was an option of vegetarian or non-vegetarian. I went with the vegetarian option. It's hash brown with chicken sausages and omelet in a tomato sauce. The hash brown and sausage is alright but the omelet tasted horrible (especially in tomato sauce, which also tasted terrible). I always try to eat all the food given to me on flights (even if it isn't great) as I hate waste but this time I just couldn't. Along with it was a fruit salad, yoghurt, chocolate bread and a bun (with butter and jam). Apart from the main, everything else was good. 

It's so cool you can see the contrails forming. 

As much as I love a good wing view on any plane, I have to admit the 744 has to be my favorite. I just love the view of the engine and the winglet from this angle. And yes, I paid extra for seat selection during booking. I mean, I spent €1000 on this flight so I may as well go all in, right? 

Oh look! We're overtaking a plane right below us. It's a fellow Lufthansa A320 (D-AIUP) flying from Yerevan (EVN) in Armenia to Frankfurt (FRA). They would land just 5 minutes after us. If you're wondering, the A320 is at FL340 (34,000ft) compared to us at FL380 (38,000ft). 

Descending into Frankfurt. 

View of the city and the river Main. 

Another photo of the city on final approach. It's hard to see but if you look very closely just to the right of the winglet, you'll see a Lufthansa A320neo (D-AINH) landing on an adjacent runway from Bergen (BGO) in Norway. 

Welcome to Germany! We landed on time. 

Parked at the gate. 

Frankfurt Airport (fra)

A very nice view of our plane 

Walking to passport control, which took 10 minutes.

I'll end this FR here. I've got 2 hours until my connecting flight to Milan. There won't be an FR on that flight as I was way too tired to photograph anything (plus a standard European short haul flight isn't too interesting).

Finally, I just want to say thank you to everyone that's been reading my FRs over the course of this year. 2023's been a crazy year for me with 33 flights in 15 countries. I can't wait for 2024 with even bigger trips to new continents (for me). I've got a few more FRs from 2023 that will come out after new year but until then, have a merry Christmas and a tree-mendous new year!