Background
This series covers a recent TATL trip. This report will be part of the return to SFO. As mentioned in the previous report, this was booked from LIS since fares were less than half of what I found from MXP/LIN. LH/LX/UA obviously offer multiple permutations to get from LIS to SFO via FRA/MUC/ZRH, but I needed to be home before 14:00 so was left with only one option and an option I would have never chosen otherwise. It will involve a 05:00 departure from LIS, a transit in FRA with a 1h connection time, and the old LH J product; none of which one would look forward to.
Routing
This report covers the 2.5h hop from Lisbon to Frankfurt.
Flight routing
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- 7LH1173 - Business - Lisbon → Frankfurt - Airbus A321
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Pre-Flight
After waking up at 03:00, I checked out of the Meliá Lisboa Aeroporto (review in previous report) and started my 3min walk back to the terminal. I was not the only one doing this walk at this hour and passed a couple of other groups making their way up to the terminal.
LIS is technically open 24h so there were still a lot of people inside at 03:30, many of whom were roughing it out.
We would be the first flight of the day along with KL's AMS service. LH's check-in counters were already open and didn't close until 04:30 through I didn't dare try and test this cut off time.
I didn't have any bags to check and was able to get my mobile boarding pass so headed straight through to the security line.
The Fast Track is not open at this hour so it will be to the regular security line.
Security is located upstairs.
It took ~5 minutes to clear security and I was then deposited into the terminal.
We were due to leave from S14 (even though LIS refused to show our gate information, LH had e-mailed me with the gate information) so I will head off that way. The TP Lounge doesn’t open until 05:00 when our plane departs.
Reaching the seating area for S14, it became evident it would be a bus gate.
I grabbed a light breakfast from one of the open stores and sat by the windows to kill some time. A S4 A321neo outside.
Boarding
Boarding was called at 04:15 and I joined the back of Group 2.
Down the stairs we go.
And onto the bus, where we will wait for 10 minutes before departing.
U2 A321 next to our bus.
The bus ride was long out to the far reaches of the tarmac and we stopped next to a LH A320 that would be operating the 06:10 flight to MUC.
I wait to get off the bus last to get some tarmac views of our pre-historic A321-100, D-AIRP, that would be taking us to FRA this morning. It was built in 1995 and has been faithfully serving LH the last 29 years. It will be named Lüneburg after the city in Lower Saxony.
Our vintage IAE V2500.
Reaching the door.
I enter and start heading back to my seat. We will of course get the NEK seats on this vintage A321. The first 2 rows get the small tables across the middle seat.
My seat in row 4 will not get the small table, which is fine with me since I prefer the space for storage.
For all their faults, the NEK seats do offer decent legroom in the front of the cabin.
The seat back is a standard affair with literature compartment. There are no charging ports on this older cabin, but it does have FlyNet installed.
The literature compartment includes a BOB menu, in-flight shopping catalog, safety card, and airsickness bag.
Old PSU on this A321-100, but well maintained.
The load will be 10/14 in J for this flight and I would get a set of 3 seats to myself.
The view from the window will be of some TP narrow-bodies.
Flight
The front door closed at 04:55 after the 3rd bus arrived, but the pilot came on while we were waiting and announced that we would have a 10-min wait on the ground before pushback due to ATC in FRA controlling our arrival slot since we would have a short 2h20min flight up to FRA this morning. With only a 1h layover in FRA, that was encouraging news.
We eventually pushed back at 05:05 and started the long taxi across the airport to runway 03. After aligning, we had a 3 minute wait before the buzz saws started and we took off at 05:20 over a sleeping Lisbon.
A view of the cabin as we start our ascent over the eastern suburbs of Lisbon.
Service started with drinks.
Followed by a hot towel.
Menus were then distributed.
I opted for the hot option, which was delivered as a single tray and warm breads were offered from a basket.
I'm not a fan of them serving the meal with the foil still on, but at least it serves as a good plate for my croissant. LH does not offer champagne, but I will take a sparkling wine since I saw the FA open a bottle for the row in front of me.
The meal includes cold cuts and cheese.
A bowl of dried fruits and seeds.
The main is Scrambled Eggs with Sweet Potato and Vegetable Ragout.
Drinks were always topped off by the efficient crew.
The lavatory confirms the age of the plane with its stainless steel sink, but was clean and well maintained.
FlyNet was available immediately after take-off. I didn't buy the Premium service and just used the free messaging service, which is sufficient for messaging, basic e-mailing, and really slow web browsing.
The sun started to rise as we reached the French coast.
We flew right over Paris, which was unfortunately cloudy.
The cabin was prepared for landing as we reached Luxembourg, which was accompanied by the distribution of chocolates.
As we dropped below the cloud level, we had some nice views of Frankfurt.
We landed on runway 25R at 08:44 well ahead of schedule and hit the brakes hard since it is the shortest runway at FRA.
As we taxi back to the terminal, we can see a TK B77F awaiting take off from runway 18.
With a tight connection, my heart sank when we pulled into a remote stand near runway 18 as the rain started to pick up.
The front doors opened at 08:55 with my flight to SFO due to board at 09:20. Since our fate was a bus, there was no rush out into the jet bridge and I took the time to get a nice fuselage shot before heading down the stairs.
One last look at D-AIRP from the bus.
The bus deposited us at 09:05 and I quickly make my way upstairs towards the Z gates. Will I make it to my gate before boarding closes at 09:50? Likely not.
I'll leave off this series here as I start the tortuous stop at FRA, thanks for stopping by!
Flight Information
Lufthansa, LH1173
Equipment: Airbus A321 [D-AIRP “Lüneburg”, delivered January 1996]
Departure: 05:00 (ATD: 05:20)
Arrival: 09:05 (ATA: 08:44)
Flight time: 2:24
The NEK seats have got to go...they're pushing 15 years old on some aircraft and just look tired and worn. It's crazy...but NOT surprising that LH are taking for damn long to install the new Geven Essenza seats on the narrowbody fleet. And I use the term "new" loosely since I think they first introduced them like 3 years ago...and they have less than 10% of the fleet outfitted I believe!
A not-so-fancy bread plate substitute haha
With J fares typically 3X economy fares on intra-European flights and seats essentially being the same as Y, the only distiguishing factor is the meal (Well, and lounge access and priority access, but I get that stuff normally through status anyway). So it's disappointing to see meals served with the foil still on as if it were some economy slop.
With all the changes with the BAEC programme, I took a good hard look at switching to *A and namely LH, even signed up for an M&M account, but LH premium products are just so blah and uninspirin--at least until they can get Allegris properly rolled out--that I'll just begrudgingly stick with BA.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for stopping by Kevin!
It really is sad since there are a lot of A320neos still with NEK products. All of the narrow-bodies I got on this trip were geriatrics (>20 years old) so it is not surprising they still have NEK and will likely bring those seats to the grave with them.
In the case of this flight, there is no lounge access or fast track due to the early departure time so there is very little incentive to pay out for a J ticket. You might as well just fly Y and pre-order the dean&david meals since they look quite good. I certainly wouldn't consider this flight to be good value if paying out of pocket for J, but to each their own.
You were one of the first people I thought of when saw that news slip out, haha. Pretty slimy by BA to just abruptly change their model right before the new year starts, which will burn a lot of people that had pre-booked trips in the second half of the year. Don't you get to keep your status for one additional year with their soft landing program? Jumping to M&M might be reasonable depending on how much you leverage LAX to tap into LX/OS/AZ beyond the LH service to SAN. Just remember the fun that awaits domestically in *A...