Review of Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to San Francisco in Business

Background

This series covers a recent TATL trip. For the background on routing, please see the previous report.

After booking my flight, I was immediately proposed with an upgrade to F for $1,670. Since I would have no chance of using the FCT and the menu did not look compelling, I declined the offer since flying the upper deck of the Queen is special in its own right. Given the day of travel experience on this flight, I'm glad I didn't do it given the sour taste the transfer experience at FRA would have been left in my mouth.

Routing

This report covers the 11h flight from Frankfurt to San Francisco to conclude this series:

Pre-Flight

We'll pick up this report at 09:05 as I arrive into FRA off my bus.

As I turn the corner, I'm met with a wall of people. I go to the front to confirm that it is indeed the immigration line before joining the queue. It is an extremely slow slog up to where the immigration area actually is. There were no FRA staff around providing any information or keeping order since there were all kinds of people cutting lines. Eventually getting into the actual immigration area, it became evident that there were just 3 police working at the peak TATL departure block along with 2 FRA staff (not) controlling the flow of passengers. A total failure by FRA and another reminder why it should be avoided for international transfers whenever possible. I finally reached the police at 09:45 after waiting ~40 minutes to exit the Schengen zone.

With boarding due to close at 09:50 and exiting immigration at 09:46, I slow the pace and take a leisurely walk to the far reaches of the Z gates expecting to be rebooked.

A turn into the duty free zone.

And then a turn towards the Z gates.

At the far end of the terminal, we find Z25 and some agents still standing around. As I approached, one came out and talked to me confirming my name from a list and let me know the door has not closed yet so would let me board.

Boarding

The walk downstairs to the jet bridge.

I'll head straight to L2 to access the stairs for the upper deck.

The only view I'll get of our Queen today. She will be D-ABYU and named Köln, a 2015-built B747-800 that was the final B747 that LH took delivery of. CA and KE are the only carriers with newer B747s in service.

Fuselage shot ruined by rain.

The FA didn't see me as I entered so I started up the stairs before he turned and asked me to come back to look at my boarding pass. He confirmed my seat before letting me go back up.

Up we go.

We arrive at the upper deck, which is already packed up and ready to go so I have to go rummage around the overhead bins looking for space for my bag. The FAs were all in the galley talking and didn't bother coming out to greet me or assist me.

My seat in the last row (taken mid-flight).

The communal foot cubbies on the B748 (the B744's variant has parallel seats with separated foot cubbies). My seat mate was not very tidy so I had to struggle to carefully climb over his stuff every time I wanted to go to the bathroom.

Pre-placed in the seat cubby is the mattress pad and the small storage compartment contains a water bottle and Christmas themed amenity kit (contents same as in SFO-MUC).

Pre-placed on the seat were pillow and blanket.

The seat really lacks storage space, but getting an upper deck window seat corrects that by offering large bins that can fit all kinds of personal items as well as serving as an extra surface for storing service items or devices.

Beneath the screen is a literature slot with duty free catalog and safety card.

The center console is tiny so you will get very well aquatinted with your seat mate since they need to remove all items to even access your tray table or IFE remote.

On the front of the console is your sole charging port, a 110V universal outlet.

Inside the aforementioned console is the AKG headphones, IFE remote (mine was stuck and couldn't be taken out), and the tray table.

After I settled in, the captain came on and confirmed boarding as complete, but cargo was still being loaded so it would be ~20 minutes before they could complete their paperwork and initiate push back. I used the time to nip back to the lavatory since I had no time to go to the bathroom in the terminal. The lavatory was standard, but did have a well stocked amenity tray as well as L'Occitane products.

After using the lavatory, the FAs eventually came out to greet me and offered me a PDB, I took a water and Avionic. The packaged nuts were also handed out.

Through the rain, I can see our twin next door.

Eventually, we started our pushback at 10:33 and the safety video played.

Great seeing so many Queens still serving FRA.

We turned to align for take off on runway 25C and were barreling down the runway at 10:56, almost an hour late.

Goodbye FRA.

Always sunny over the clouds.

I didn't go into any detail on the IFE, but the screen is small and low resolution (not surprising given the age of this hard product). The content is the same as on my SFO-MUC flight, but it uses the old interface seen in my MUC-FRA report that requires you to scroll through lists of items and since the screen is kind of far away, you need to use the remote to click through all the options. I did not watch anything and just set the IFE to the moving map.

Meal service started with a hot towel.

Linens were laid and I was asked what I wanted to eat by our FA, who was surprisingly an American. I responded asking for a menu, which was finally brought out.

I'd seen the menu online, but wanted to confirm the appetizer options. Not sure what qualifies as "American snack specialities."

The drinks selection is the same as last flight so please refer back to SFO-MUC for the full menu.

On flights departing FRA/MUC, there is also a pre-order option on the web page. There are 3 additional mains available than what is included in the menu. The beef cheeks looked interesting, but since I wanted to try the goose (not available as a pre-order option), I decided to try my luck on board and not use this feature.

A glass of Champagne Collery Blanc de Blancs Brut Grand Cru to accompany the amuse bouche as we exit the continent west of Hamburg.

The starter and salad are served on a tray.

Fresh Field Greens with Quinoa Lentils, Cucumber and roasted Pumpkin Seeds.

Freshly baked Multi Grain Bread from World Baker Axel Schmitt.

Saddle of Veal with Miso Eggplant, Oyster Mushroom and green Asparagus.

I asked what the Vinothek option was for the flight and the FA looked confused and said she needed to ask. She eventually came back and said it was an Argentinian red from Mendoza, so I stuck with the Portuguese red on the menu. No effort was made to clean up the amuse bouche items by our FA.

After the tray was cleared, orders for the main were taken.

In honor of their holiday menu, I went with the Traditional Roast Goose with Red Cabbage and Potato Dumpling.

After my plate was cleared, I was asked if I wanted cheese, dessert, or fruit. I asked for Fresh Fruit and Chocolate Hazelnut Cake with Blueberry and Raspberry Ragout, Almond Cream. She left without even asking me or my seat mate if we wanted drinks. I eventually waved down the FA from the forward cabin and she brought me an espresso and cognac. Lindt chocolates were handed out as the meal closed.

Dusk over Greenland.

Flying over Greenland on a clear day is always beautiful with the snow covered landscapes.

Internet was available immediately after take-off and accessed through the portal. The rates are on the higher end in the current market at $35 for a full flight; however, for a long day time flight it was worthwhile. Speeds were okay during the flight and better than Panasonic systems.

The less interesting topology of Canada as we come in over Nunavut.

The FAs came up the cabin twice offering sandwiches, wraps, fruits, and desserts from trays and replenishing drinks. I eventually took a small crumble and a cup of coffee.

Likely the Thelon River.

More and more lakes visible as we reach Manitoba.

The cabin mid-flight.

About 2h to arrival, hot towels were handed out as the second service started as we were crossing Montana.

Linens were laid.

There were two options for the second meal, I opted for the warm option.

My tray as received, which contained the main, dessert, and butter. Breads were offered from a basket.

The main: Butter Chicken with spicy creamed Spinach served with Basmati Rice.

After the meal, I requested a coffee.

Chocolates were handed out as we crossed into California.

Soon, we had reached the Pacific Ocean and started our turn to the south.

Crossing into the Peninsula.

Half Moon Bay.

We made our u-turn near Mountain View on the typical flight path. SJC is visible near downtown San Jose.

Crossing over the NASA Ames Research Center and Moffett Field.

The Salt Ponds along East Bay.

Fremont.

Crossing over the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge.

We touched down at 13:04 on runway 28L about 30 minutes late.

BF A359 taking a break from its ORY-SFO-PPT rotation.

We turn off towards Concourse G.

The B748 is very long and when making turns it definitely has minimal clearance on all of the peripherals on the taxiways.

The doors were quickly engaged and upstairs is given the priority to deplane through L2 so I step off the plane at 13:16.

We arrived at G12 so have the long walk across the entire terminal to reach immigration.

Global Entry will be empty as usual. From time stamps, I entered immigration at 13:21 and was exiting customs at 13:24 with no bags to collect. 20 minutes from wheels down to exiting customs is well done by SFO.

I'll conclude this series here, thanks for stopping by!

Flight Information

Lufthansa, LH454
Equipment: Boeing B747-800 [D-ABYU “Köln”, delivered April 2015]
Departure: 10:05 (ATD: 10:56)
Arrival: 12:35 (ATA: 13:04)
Flight time: 11:08