Hello everyone, welcome back to another flight review. Today I'll be sharing an experience that has a special place in my heart, my first ever First Class Flight. I swear I barely slept the night before, I felt like a kid the night before Christmas. To add icing on the cake, I was flying the peculiar and very unique (20 year old) A340-600 French Baguette. And finally the cherry on the icing, I was returning to Boston where I spent 4 years, for the first time since leaving it. I genuinely had no idea what First class had to offer, but this was setting up to be the perfect flight.
First, I needed to fly from Madrid to Frankfurt. It was a short but sweet flight I'll probably make a brief review on separately. The crew on that Madrid flight confirmed my itenerary with me, and mentioned the car would be waiting on the tarmac. My jaw dropped hearing this.
Waiting for me upon arrival in Frankfurt was this Porsche taking me into the terminal.
The driver asked whether I wanted to visit the main terminal lounge or the satellite terminal. Since it was raining quite heavily, he suggested the main terminal since I needed to walk ten minutes or so to reach the satellite one. I had no idea which to choose and asked for his opinion, and he mentioned he personally perfers the main, so on we went! I had never been driven in a car on an airport tarmac before, my goodness it was an adventure.
Rainy Frankfurt!
An aviation nerd's dream, jumbojets at arm's length.
Being the largest operator of the Queen, these were on show today.
Looking back at this picture, I'm only now noticing SQ's unique all-white Star Alliance livery in the background. I guess I was too mesmerized by the giant 747 and my hometown CA hanging around and neglected SQ's bird! This 747 was bound for Vancouver.
Another angle.
I walked into two different lounges before reaching the correct one. As much as I appreciated the chauffeur driver, some extra directional help once inside the terminal would've been great. For a first time visitor to Frankfurt, its terminal can be confusing with all the letters and different lounges.
After double checking my documents, the lovely lounge staff shared all the amenities on offer.
The lounge was quite empty at this hour. I had a good 5 hours to kill today.
I spent two weeks in Spain before this trip and got attached to these comb honey things, so it was cool seeing one here.
Apologies for not having a fully in-depth lounge review of all the amenities and food offerings today, please feel free to read my FRA-PVG review for that!
I grabbed an Iced Americano with my honeycomb and greek yoghurt, as I noticed the spa pamphlet.
After clearing with the masseuse on duty, I was into the spa treatment room for a quick massage. This was unfortunately not included with the price of the ticket, but was a great experience!
I followed the massage up with a quick shower. I genuinely did not know one could shower in an airport lounge at this point, all of this was brand new for me and I loved every moment of it!
A nice big shower space.
After my rinse, I came back to the giant glass panes in the lounge. It's insane how rare a 747 is anywhere outside FRA, here they're almost as common as a single decker!
Feeling hungry, I sat back down in the dining area and checked out the a-la-carte menu. I really wanted to chug some Paulaner today, look at the size of this glass! I thought it was against my better judgment not to indulge in the incredible food offerings! A beer fills me up quick :(
Sitting down, I walked over to the champagne bottles before a waiter stopped me and insisted he help me. I'm unsure if he was being helpful or slightly unhappy I tried opening the bottle myself, his facial expressions suggested the latter.
While waiting for my meal, I took a shot of the enormous bar. What a vibe to grab a drink and sit near the windows just to plane spot!
There were two a-la-carte menus offering hot dishes, one offered year round and a special seasonal menu. I orded the duck confit from the latter, and it came with a delicious mushroom sauce.
Next up, wanting to try something different, I went with platter of German delights. Those brown looking balls were actually meatballs and the tastiest item on offer. All the cold cuts (or similar/resemblant) options were available at the cold buffet section, same can be said for the pickles and bread. I didn't indulge in much here other than the meatballs.
With boarding imminent, I made my way to the lounge exit where another agent was waiting for final passport checks. I was then taken down an elevator directly from the lounge linking to tarmac where another Porsche was waiting. We also descended directly below this 747!
After a short ride, we arrived at our A340-600! I was escorted back up the stairs and onto the jetbridge. I was absolutely buzzing!
The crew welcomed me at the gate, and escorted me over to me seat. I'd never seen a seat this wide and spacious. Waiting for me was a massive pillow, fluffy slippers, amenity kit, wifi voucher, duvet, and oh! a real rose!
The lovely lady introduced herself and offered welcome drinks. Champagne and some water for me, please! Here's the seat from a different angle. Although LH's F products are showing some age, particularly with lack of privacy, I find it among the most ocmfortable. Ample storage space is available on my left with cubbies open up.
Since there are no overhead bins, the crew offered to take my suitcase and place them in some locker-like storage near the cabin's rear.
You could also open up the storage space under the ottoman, where I placed my backpack.
Warm wet towels were then offered, along with a rose petal! Some basic seat controls are available on the left armrest, my goodness those look antique!
We soon began to pushback, and I caught one final glance of CA's 777 in the distance. As of late, CA have resumed the 747 on routes to Frankfurt, love to see the Star Alliance family sharing their double deckers!
Menu cards were also offered. Apologies for not snapping the beverage menu, for this was far far before my Flight-Report days! Luckily, I did get a shot of the dinner options.
We blasted out of Frankfurt at 14:20, nearly an hour behind schedule. Absolutely no complaints since that meant more time to enjoy this suite!
Immediately after reaching altitude, meal service began as tablecloths were set and the amuse bouche was presented. Sweet potato with Caramelized corn, BBQ and Spring onion. Quite a lot of flavors packed into a small dish, but very refreshing nonetheless.
Bread, butter, and olive oil/balsamic vinegar followed. I ordered some diet coke, as I always do!
Just as I was frantically deciding on an appetizer, the cart rolled through and the crew proudly shared that I could have everything! Oh the glory!
Before any appetizers were served, she asked if I'd like caviar service. Oh of course!! I'm not the biggest fan of caviar, so I was happy with the smaller portion. It came with all the accompaniments such as egg white, egg yolk, onions, sour cream, a lemon, and oven-toasted bread.
Some more champagne was also offered!
Next up, my goodness I can't describe the feeling at the time, was all of the appetizers! Other than the spring salad (which is hard to make special) we had king crab leg, roasted celerias with pickled mushoom and sweetcorn, and duck breast with beetroot cream and raspberry. MY personal favorite was the king crab, who wouldn't love that! The duck breast was decent but I wasn't a huge fan of the beetroot cream and raspberry, I guess I generally prefer not mixing sweet with savory. The celerias and mushroom was alright, not too special. With so many appetizers on offer, it would've been nice if one was hot. Having four cold appetizers isn't a problem or anything, more of a personal preference.
After excessive contemplation and asking for crew advice, I settled on the Surf and Turf. Visually, not the best. The mixed vegetables looked like a plop of scrambled egg, and the lobster sort of looked like it just got stepped on. The beef, which is always difficult to get right in a plane, was alright. In hindsight, I might've gone with a different main course, I generally try to stray away from steak on a plane. The sauce was the highlight, which isn't a good sign if lobster/steak are also present. Overall, not the greatest main course.
On the bright side, the next soup course, a beef consumme with dumplings, was far tastier. I'm a sucker for a hearty soup, and this delivered in all respects! It was strange having the soup after your main, but I was glad it came around!
Since this was a daytime flight, and of only 7 hours, I tried to maximize my time awake with some coffee.
The meal concluded with a poppyseed and buttermilk cake with green apple. This was quite solid. I desperately wanted to try both the sweet dessert and savory cheese plate, but back then was too shy to ask!
Finally, meal service wrapped up with some German chocolates.
Overall, I'd say this was an average meal. The main course was rather disappointing. Despite the generous appetizer offerings, everything other than the crab were quite average. I was of course beyond ecstatic for the entire meal adventure, but looking back and having experienced some different carriers and seeing their offerings, Lufthansa today would rank on the lower side.
Soon after, I asked the crew for turndown service. I found it very cool when she opened up a cupboard and whipped out a giant mattress and duvet. The width of the seat made the bed extremely comfortable, but no sleep needed today! I spent two hours or so lying down and playing with my phone before finding myself seeking food again.
Luckily, Lufthansa offers a dine-on-demand menu in addition to the meal service.
First up, I ordered the sushi platter. This was quite tasty.
Next up, I added some mini sliders with what I reall were beetroot (or some purple vegetable) chips. Funnily, these sliders were the best thing I ate this flight. Despite its small build, whatever cheese and sauce LH embedded was incredible. I could've easily done another serving!
Finally, I wrapped up my culinary adventures this flight with a mixed berry yoghurt bowl. This isn't the usual type of food I go for, but the berries were wonderfully fresh and the marriage with yoghurt was excellent!
The PA soon came on announcing our imminent descent into Logan. I hadn't paid too much attention to the restroom review today but I found another fresh rose inside.
Before I knew it, my first First class experience was coming to an end as the Boston harbor came into view.
A gorgeous Autumn day in MA, oh the memories are coming back!
We parked next to some Delta jets, with an AF bird in the distance.
Finally, completely unrelated to this flight. If you're even in Boston, namely around Boston University/Allston, please go try Kaju Tofu Korean Restaurant. It was essentially our cafeteria during my years here, the best Korean tofu soup I've had to date:)
