Review of Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Bremen in Economy

FLYING LUFTHANSA'S DOMESTIC A320 FROM FRANKFURT TO BREMEN

Whats it like to fly on a short inner german flight almost only used by connecting passengers? Today we'll find out.

I started my journey on this bright and sunny morning over at the Parking Garages just infront of Terminal 1 of Frankfurt Airport. After leaving my car there for the "cheap" price of 30€ a day I made my way over to departure hall B and the famous huge analogue departure board Terminal 1 still features.

Even though Lufthansa offers a very handy and easy to use self dropoff for luggage I was able to skip through the check-in areas completely because I already checked myself in for my flight and was only travelling with carry on luggage today. So i set myself off on a mission to find a place to settle down and kill some time before my pre booked slot for the security fast lane, which you can book free of charge via the airports website. But that is easier said than done at Frankfurt Airport, especially before the security checkpoints. Behing check in hall B there is a small food court  and stores but sitting down here in the seperated space of the cafe without buying anything will definitely earn you at least a few angry glances by the people working there. If your willing to accept this trade-off, fair enough, go for it. If you don't and like a nice view of some planes, Terminal 1 has got you covered, if you get a little lucky. The hallway between Halls B and C has some nice benches located infront of a couple windows offering a pretty nice view of the apron from the pre-security check area.

After enjoying this view for about 20 minutes impatience got the better of me and I decided to completely disregard my fast-lane slot and headed for the checkpoint about 10 minutes early. But still, no problem at all. The security checkpoint is perfectly organised so even though I didn't use the fast lane I practically had zero wait time. A really nice additional aspect of the security checks here in Terminal 1 is that they use all the latest scanners etc. which in some instances even allow you to bring beverages over the normal limits through security (Yes I forgot my water bottle was still filled up in my backpack, no it wasn't a problem). So in total I spent under 5 minutes with the security check, which for an Airport the size of Frankfurt is a really good number. 
Over now in concourse A where my Gate A3 was, it was a whole other story. The southern arm of concourse A was super crowded and always is no matter the time of day. It is a long and narrow arm, which has around 30 Gates and only has 1 combined entry and exit. That means due to the many flights departin simultaneously the already sparse seating was almost all occupied. Adding to that arriving and departing passenger streams are not seperated at all here and have to squeeze through tiny passages simultaneously in some instances, leading to an even more crowded feeling than it already has naturally. In conclusion I much prefer concourse A's newer northern part which is designed a lot more openly or concourse B altogether because it is overall less crowded. But in the end I still found myself a nice little spot in a seperated corner to settle down and enjoy a couple sips of my FREE water i managed to "smuggle" through security.

Another issue I had with concourse A was the lack off or at least very poor management of the air conditioning systems. Yes it was a surprisingly warm and sunny morning for March but that shouldn't have to mean that I have to feel like I am boiling in my own sweat. Shortly after I made my way over to Gate A3 where my flight was going to leave for Bremen.

Sadly my flight for today wasn't leaving from any of the jetbridges, which was to be expected so we had to take a bus ride to our aircraft. The boarding process was done in groups as is standard and went on pretty smoothly as far as i got to experience it as i was one of the first economy passengers to go through the gate down to the first bus.
Our plane was parked on one of the remote stands right infront of Terminal 2 which meant we we're going to be on the Bus for a little while, but as an avgeek you don't mind a free airport tour with some nice views.

After quite the lengthy bus ride we arrived at our plane, D-AIZJ, a 14 Year old A320-200 delivered to Lufthanasa in 2010 and still wearing the old livery.

After a brief wait at the stand it was time for the boarding process to properly begin. It went really smoothely as both the front an back doors were used for boarding.

I quickly made my way to seat 20F in wich I settled down for this 1h flight

The seat was reasonably comfortable, well padded and the lack of a headrest didn't bother me on this short hop, although I imagine it could get a little rough on longer flights like their 4h 30min journey from Frankfurt to Baku which is operated by exactly those A320s. The legroom was also fine for me with my 185cms but as said previously, nice for a 1h hop but could be really rough on longer flights. The whole cabin was really clean and in a really good state. 

Besides the very standard but decent tray table and the personal storage net which can carry your essentials you need during your flight, there is a literature pocket / cabinet that has the A320s safety card, their onboard delights buy-on-bord food menu and the worldshop duty free shopping magazine, although there was neither buy-on-board service on this flight due to the short duration of it. It makes me quite sad to see a so called five star airline like Lufthansa not having any inflight magazines. In addition to that there was a QR code for Lufthansas FlyNet WiFi, but that sadly wasn't available either on this flight today.
Lucky for me the seat next to me remained unoccupied so I enjoyed an empty middle seat.
Shortly after it was time for taxi and takeoff.

Shortly after takeoff we already reached our cruising altitude and the cabin crew started handing out small waterbottles and the small Lufthansa chocolate bars. That was it for the very bare boned "meal service" but who needs more than a waterbottle during 45min of effective flighttime anyways. More dissapointing though: The meal service on their longer rountes doesn't look any different, exept you can buy additional meals on board.

Just shortly after that we already started our descent into germanies smallest city state and touch down on arguably one of the shortest runways of an international Airport in Germany at just 2040m or 6693ft.

Taxi time also was very short as is common on small city airports, of which Bremen is defenitly one. The deboarding process was pretty smooth and pretty fast. I even managed to get a little peek into the flight deck and have a short chat with the pilots upfront, so overall the crew was lovely and super super nice. 

Leaving our plane behind now let's just talk a little bit about Bremen Airport itself. Its a very small city airport. When you leave your plane from one of the jetways your mostly redirected immediately into the baggage claim area via a staircase and then directly end up in the departure and check in hall, but due to its small size that isn't an issue. Even though it isn't connected to any train station or big bus terminal, due to its proximity to the city center and the tram station right infront of the terminal entrance you can reach the historic city center in about 10 min and the central station in about 15. A one way fare is 3,20€ and a day ticket is 9€ which in my opinion is a very fair deal.