Avis du vol entre Frankfurt et Chicago en classe Economique avec Lufthansa

introduction

Welcome to my new Flight Report series, In which I'll cover my flights from Israel to the US and back.
For years I'm dreaming of traveling to the US and experience what America is like and finally I got the chance to go on a 50 days solo adventure, mostly in the southwest with several days in Chicago and two short hops to Mexico.
The flight routing doesn't make much such sense as many things have changed since I booked this trip from Lufthansa (except for the domestic flights) in December 2023.
This time I finally got the chance to fly long-haul for the first time in my life, and to fly on wide-body aircraft for the first time since 2011.

On this report I'll cover my second flight out of the seven which is a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Chicago-O'hare onboard their Airbus A340-600.

Now let's get started!

routing

frankfurt airport

After a few hours in Europe's financial capital I made my way to the airport using the S-Bahn from the old town and I got to the airport almost 3 hours before the scheduled departure time.

 The main hall and the iconic FIDS:

Check In is done usually via automatic kiosks which is efficient and time saving as there are no lines for those.
After that you have to drop off your baggage via self service counters however since my suitcase was relatively big, although not overweight or oversize I had to go to a special counter for excess baggage which is staffed, but that didn't make more than a few minutes so it's not a big trouble. 

Our gate was Z66 which is at the edge of the Z concourse which is (Z50-Z69) a newer concourse that is mostly used for widebody long haul Lufthansa flights like ours.

Since not many flights depart from that concourse at those hours the passport control and security check were super quick as I was almost the only person there, also, this newer part of the terminal looks better and more well-maintained than older parts of the terminal like those I passed through in my previous flight.

Another thing I liked here is the spotting opportunities, as Lufthansa has quite a unique flight, and there are some interesting airlines too.

Planespotting:
Egyptair Airbus A321 NEO to Cairo
Lufthansa (Star Alliance livery) Airbus A340-300 from Chicago
Lufthansa Boeing 747-8I to Shanghai-Pudong
Lufthansa Airbus A321-200 from Barcelona and Boeing 747-400 to Seoul-Incheon
Lufthansa Airbus A340-300 to New York-JFK

That part of the airport doesn't have many if shops or restaurants if any at all but they do have those rotating armchairs:

After some waiting the boarding started on time around 4:30PM, I was at group 4 so we boarded about 10 minutes later.

departure

Our aircraft for today is Lufthansa Airbus A34-600 registered D-AIHZ.
It was delivered new to Lufthansa in 2009, stored in 2020 and returned to service in 2023.
It's the last Lufthansa A340 and one of the final A340s ever built.

The fuselage as seen during boarding:

The crew greeted us when boarding and directed me to my seat 37K.

Business class:

The economy class seats, with a pillow and a blanket on each seat:

Seatback contents included the IFE screen with USB-A outlet, a foldable tray table, a cup holder and a pair of very basic headphones (I recommend you to bring your own).

I got this very nice view of this massive A346 wing:

Then, after all the announcements were made and the safety video was played we started pushback and taxi to the runway.

Takeoff was made at 5:56am (41 minutes late) through runway 25C (4000m).

inflight

The IFE system for this flight is a bit old and the touchscreen is not responsive but there's a good variety of content and the interface is efficient and easy to navigate. 

There's a map of course but it's running automatically and you can't choose modes or anything.

The first service started shortly after takeoff and included a bag of pretzels and a drink of your choice, I opted for my usual tomato juice:

Then about 30 minutes later (or about 90 minutes after takeoff) dinner was served.
There were 2 choices: stir-fried chicken with rice and vegetables or vegetarian pasta. 
I got the chicken and it came with an appetizer of noodles salad, bread roll with butter and cheese and an apricot  cake.
The meal was served with proper metal cutlery. 

All in all a good meal with nice presentation, the chicken sauce was too thick however everything else was good and I especially appreciate the metal cutlery which is not very common.

Then I went to check the lavatories which are located in the cargo floor below the main cabin so it doesn't create congestion in the aisles.
As you can see it's basic but clean.  

Cabin view:

Then water bottles were served and we were requested to close our window shades.
I passed the time by watching a German documentary and then I started to watch the movie "Everest" but I fell asleep (despite the slim seats) and woke up more than 2 hours later, as we were starting to get closer to North America.  

The flight was mostly during daylight and during cloudy weather (doesn't matter much, we're over the ocean anyway) but later as we reached the continent there was a beautiful sunset.

As we were getting closer to Chicago the second meal was served which included a warm cheese sandwich and a choice of drink, I went for a cup of tea:

Hot towels were served afterwards:

ARRIVAL

Just before arrival the usual chocolate was handed out:

After crossing Lake Michigan we finally saw the lights of Evanston, IL near Chicago:

Landing was made at 8:40pm (25 minutes before schedule) through runway 28C (3292m) and then we taxied to our gate M21 in Terminal 5 where all international flights arrive (despite some of them, including Lufthansa's depart from other terminals).

chicago o'hare airport

We got out of the aircraft to this very American and not too interesting terminal: 

After several minutes of walking I reached the longest line I've ever seen for immigration, for both foreigners and Americans.
The whole process including the short interview took about 90 minutes and then I finally went to collect my baggage and then to take the train to Terminal 3, from which you can take the Blue Line to the city which you can see here (You're lucky you can't smell it because it was horrible inside and felt a bit sketchy after 11pm, but at least I made it to my hotel).