Avis du vol entre Chicago et Frankfurt 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 fifth flight out of the seven which is a Lufthansa flight from Chicago-O'Hare to Frankfurt onboard the Boeing 747-400, the queen of the skies. For years I was waiting for that opportunity and just when I thought I'm too late Lufthansa changed my flight from Boeing 747-8I (which I hope to fly soon too) to the -400.

Now let's get started!

routing

CHICAGO O'HARE AIRPORT

Not even 24 hours after I arrived in Chicago for the second time I already had to leave and head back home and I started the journey by taking the Blue Line train from the city and arrived 3 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Despite I arrived with Lufthansa in Terminal 5 on the other day, their departures are from Terminal 1, as they tow the aircraft every time between the terminals since only Terminal 5 can handle international arrivals. Why don't they just depart from Terminal 5 like most foreign carriers I honestly don't know.

After a short walk I made it to Terminal 1 which mostly served some of United's operations, alongside Lufthansa's and ANA's departures only.

Baggage claim area:

The Check-In floor, quite busy:

Some more United Check-In facilities:

At the end of the corridor there are a few Check-In desks that serve Lufthansa and ANA, I was surprised to find out that are no automated kiosks which seem very common in the US and because of that the line was a bit long but not too bad and after sending my baggage I went to security for some more lines and about 45-50 minutes after entering the terminal I made it to the airside.

Terminal 1's airside is made out of the main concourse B and the satellite concourse C.

Concourse B:

United Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 to Buffalo:

Concourse C is reachable by this cool underground corridor with lights in different colors:

Concourse C looks newer and much less busy:

Unfortunately my flight leaves from Concourse B but since I still had plenty of time I went for some United spotting here as there was nothing else:
Boeing 767-300ER to Zurich
Boeing 767-300ER to London-Heathrow 
Boeing 757-200 to Edinburgh
Boeing 737-900ER to Buffalo
Boeing 757-300 to Denver

Then I went back to Concourse B to spot some more of United's, this time this Boeing 787-10 (the second ever built) to Frankfurt:

And those Boeing 737-700 to Santa Ana and Boeing 777-200ER to San Francisco:

After getting bored of seeing United's livery I proceeded to my gate B17, at the end of Concourse B and waited for the boarding call.
About 25 minutes after the scheduled boarding time it finally started. 
I was in boarding group 4 but since the gate was so cramped and crowded I had to wait until I could make my way to the gate itself:

departure

Our aircraft for today is Lufthansa Boeing 747-400 registered D-ABVY.
It was delivered new to Lufthansa in 2000, stored in 2020 and returned to service in 2022.

The economy class cabin:

I was sitting in 37K, just above the mighty jumbo wing:

The seatback features the IFE screen, a foldable tray table, cup holder, safety card and a coat hook:

Pillows and blankets were available too:

There was a leaking from the ceiling and when I told the crew about it they just gave me a tissue to put on it, it looks very amateurish but since it actually stopped it completely it didn't bother me anymore.

All Nippon Airways Boeing 777-300ER taxing from Terminal 5 before flying to Tokyo-Haneda:

The safety video was played in German and in English before pushback:

After some delays we finally did pushback and started the very long taxi:

Spirit Airlines Airbus A320 NEO to Fort Lauderdale
American Airlines Boeing 787-8 to Barcelona
Aer Lingus Airbus A330-300 to Dublin
ITA Airways Airbus A330-200 to Rome

Takeoff was made at 5:02pm (1:02 hours late) through runway 28R (3962m).

INFLIGHT

Shortly after departure it already became completely cloudy:

The inflight service started very soon, first with this bag of crackers:

And then with a drink service in which I chose tomato juice and water:

And not even an hour later dinner was served.
The choices were potato and beef pie (that was called a lasagna) or vegetarian falafel, I chose the first.
It came with a wheat salad, bread roll with butter and cheese and a chocolate mousse cake.
 The meal was served with proper metal cutlery.

With the meal I got a beer:

It was a tasty and filling meal, It would be slightly better if they would serve the bread roll but it's too minor for me to complain about.

After clearing the trays  the crew served bottles of water.

The IFE system for this flight is not the newest but it has plenty of content, it's easy to use and unlike on my previous Lufthansa flight (with the same IFE) the touchscreen worked perfectly. 

Since I couldn't fall asleep I passed the time watching 6 episodes of The Big Bang Theory, 21 Jump Street (the film) and played some games.

After a very short night (with no sleep for me though) a light and refreshing breakfast consisted of a marble cake and a fruit salad was served:

For drink I got an orange juice:

At this part of the flight we were already over Ireland after crossing the Atlantic:

arrival

Prior to descending a chocolate was served:

About an hour before arrival we finally saw the European forests and towns, indicating we're getting closer to Frankfurt:

Unfortunately I didn't take proper photos of the landing but it was made at 7:52am (32 minutes behind schedule) through runway 07R (4000m).
Then we taxied to our gate and parked near this Lufthansa Boeing 747-8I to Houston:

Premium Economy class as seen during disembarking:

Business Class:

frankfurt airport

We entered Terminal 1 through gate Z69 at the far end of the terminal and had to walk until the other side:

I had to go to the passport control to enter the Schengen zone as I had to fly to Munich to catch my flight to Tel Aviv.
Originally I was supposed to take a flight directly from Frankfurt but it was cancelled two months before so I preferred to have 2 risky connections and arrive at home early rather than spending 11 hours in Frankfurt and arriving at 3am.

After going through the whole Z concourse and navigating through very confusing signage I got to an improvised passport control line on shut-down walkways and somehow I made my way through to the Schengen area and I went to gate A16 for my flight to Munich after a very stressful connection.

The flight to Munich was operated by this Lufthansa Airbus A320 registered D-AIQT: