A couple years ago I wrote an article entitled, “I Survived Lufthansa Premium Economy.” Now I have the pleasure of saying that I survived economy class as well. Barely…
I say barely not because I cannot take a 10+ hour flight in economy class. Instead, I was simply not prepared for a flight in Lufthansa economy. First, Lufthansa has no power plugs in economy class for larger devices, only a USB port. How can that be in 2019? When I do fly economy class it is usually on United and every single United mainline aircraft now offers power ports (at least two for every three seats).
My laptop was fully charged, but that’s only 3-4 hours. Thankfully, my business partner bought his portable charger along and I was able to use it to re-charge. So note to self: bring back up power when you fly on Lufthansa! Shame on me for not knowing better…
Second, the legroom is truly horrible when the seat in front of you is reclined. Lufthansa has fairly generous recline for economy class, but it is murder if you’re trying to work while your neighbor in front is fully-reclined. Here is photo evidence:
(Yes, my business partner relished coming down from first class and rubbing in the difference between our cabin accommodations)
And I even wound up with an open middle seat…
Service was friendly, food was “blah” (not great, not bad, just mediocre), and wi-fi worked no differently than in any other class…very sporadically. I do appreciate Lufthansa’s extensive IFE library, which I took advantage of when I could not sleep.
CONCLUSION
Of course I survived…I’d do it again IF I had to. But the beauty of miles and points is that I don’t…at least not for longer trips like this one. When I fly home, it will be in the forward cabin…count on that.
But I will post a full review of this flight with a lot more pictures in the days ahead. Stay tuned later today for another incident that occurred onboard.
I totally agreed that economy across the ocean is never “fun” (well, I always think hopping on a plane to another country is fun) but I do think LH is one of the better options out there. I have a solid stash of UA and Chase UR points and have found that LH and other Star Alliance partners have great award availability out of ORD but sometimes a purchased fare is just too good to pass up. A recent trip to Lyon is a prime example – less than $500 r/t in standard (not basic) economy. I’d have greatly preferred to be upstairs on the 747-8 but I think the 45 or 46 BC or HJ paired seats at the back of the cabin are among the better economy options in the sky. The extra storage is fantastic and the proximity to the flight attendants is great for top offs on drinks. We indulged in the upgrade a la carte meals on the last FRA-ORD flight and were thoroughly impressed. Don’t get me wrong – row 85 upstairs is infinitely better but I’ll take LH any day for a relatively short 8-10 hour flights between Chicago and Germany. The experience is leaps and bounds better than UA, DL, or AA on a comparable flight.
Agree. I used to fly TATL economy a fair amount, and thought that on LH the food and service were generally better and they had cleaner seats, so superior to any US carrier, though AF was my favorite. Admittedly, I have not managed to get stuck in economy on long haul in quite a few years, between certificates, miles and time spent searching for discounted fares and cheaper connections.
There are standard power outlets under each pair of seats in economy on every lufthansa plane!
Nope. Not on this one.
Nope. Only updated aircraft. That’s all A350 and 748. It’s hit or miss on the A330, A340, and 744. The A380s have none.
5 star airline my ass.
Congratulations on living like a peasant for a day.
That death stare of yours is priceless.
You should make John pick up the spaghettieis for the next week as payback!
You are absolutely right about the difference between “I can do it if need be” and “It’s not what I choose to do”. There’s no shame in selecting what you want to spend your hard-earned dollars and points on.
The one perk to economy, for me, is meeting interesting people. There is less privacy, and some people are excited about being on a special vacation or trip and want to chat about it.
why would you not survive? ahem… what makes you so special?
And I personally think they will create statues and write epitomes of your feat for eternity. Bravo!
All the non american carriers the younger and hotter flight attendants are in economy. That is enough of an incentive for me to go by economy if needed.
Hello rich brat! You complain about being tight on a plane while 90% of the population of this planet has never experienced air travel! Maybe you should reconsider what is the marvel of flying.. bridges in the skies bringing people together. . Getting you where you need to be or even better, where you want to be! Drop that laptop of yours for a duration of a flight and get to know the person sat next to you. That might be the beginning of something. Too bad for whoever is sat next to you. Narrow minded Matthew.. Grow up man we are all peasants!
Talk to the person next to you? What century are you in, lol.
Bravo! My thoughts exactly
wearing united PJs in lufthansa economy for the praxis !
I flew once in LH economy (Munich to Hong Kong), and wasn’t impressed. The food was OK, but the way meal service was handled was poor and slow (they first served the “starter” which was basically a bag of salty cookies and a cup of juice, and only after that they served the main course…about 40 minutes after the starter, when people were already starving). The crew was OK, far from friendly, and one of the FAs even rolled her eyes at a passenger for taking too long to chose his meal (it would have helped if she could explain what the meal, a goulash, is, but this didn’t occur to her). Legroom was poor and I’m only 4’11. Service was a lot better on the return flight (Hong Kong to Zurich), which was operated by Swiss. They were a lot faster serving the meal and they served the starter and the main at the same time. FAs were effective (one came to me about one second after I pressed the call button!) and smiling a lot more.
Eye rolling by cabin crew is not exclusive to economy class. My daughter ordered tea while travelling JFK-ZRH on SWISS. She asked what tea options were available, I wish I could have filmed the eye rolls.
On a recent United 12 hour flight in business I found one Cabin crew member, Frank, to be very rude. I asked a younger crew member and he explained, Frank got up on the wrong side this morning. He then exclaimed that he was surprised, he found me to be a very easy passenger.
I didn’t know that crew scored passengers. LOL
I guess most service people score customers and certainly curse the most annoying ones which is fine as long as they keep it between them. Now rolling eyes at customers should be enough reason to get told off by your boss regardless of where the person happens to be working.
OMG, you know, just for like, you know, like, totally fun, I’m going to…omg, it’s hilarious, I’m going to fly economy class. I know, like, totally not me but I’ll do it just to show how tough I am, you know, like, you know, like, totally, you know, like
exactly rather than being informative blogg its turned into i piss take. All the comments appear to be from self proclaimed business and first class flyers mocking economy. yet the writer claims to fly on cheap using miles etc. A bit of a contradiction. face facts if you can afford do it if you cant dont. no point in highlighting shortcomings between the classes and making embarassing comments about bravery and living like a peasant. all rather pointless
And yet you still took the time to comment. Thanks!
How about doing (as another reader also suggested in your original post) the trip back in Premium Economy to possibly offer a comparison again regular economy – and if you find it a worthwhile value for those whose budgets (and credit lines) are more limited than the cost/points for biz or 1st classes requires?
It’s a westbound flight, so sleep might not be as critical; plus your expertise comparing the four (4) varied classes from nose to tail might also offer an unique perspective to better assess LH’s PE as a value proposition than most other reviewers have.
Just (seconding) an idea… 😉
Cheers!
Hi Howard,
Already done!
https://liveandletsfly.boardingarea.com/2017/06/24/lufthansa-a380-premium-economy-review/
Despite all the hand-wringing about narrower seat pitches, I gotta say that the single greatest innovation to make long-haul flights in economy tolerable is the personal on-demand IFE screen and/or the IPad with downloadable content. Long-Haul economy class flights truly were hell in the days where you had to watch movies on a big screen with no choice… but personal IFE makes the time go ALOT faster. I’d take 12 hours in modern economy with an IPad over 12 hours in first in 1980.
They did have books back in the day.
About the food served in economy the less said better
3-4 hours of laptop battery life. How can that be in 2019?
New Apple Macbook Pro. And that four hours is if I am lucky and have most apps closed…
I’m sorry, yet I have followed your blog for some time now, and always enjoyed reading your opinions and reviews about travelling all over the globe.
Today, I’m pretty disgusted at what you have decided to publish.
I’m a frequent flier, long and short haul based in Europe. I also work as Cabin Crew for an airline that’s exclusively European in terms of route network.
I get the odd perks and upgrades and when I can, I’ll treat myself to at the very least premium economy, sometimes business.
This is a really unfair post about what’s it’s like to travel among us common people, and boo bloody hoo you decided to do it as a ‘joke!’
Long haul economy can sometimes be the best Cabin if the aircraft it be in, rather than those who think they elitist and think they deserve better.
Yes, if you can afford the luxury, I have no quibbles, yet don’t downstep those that flying economy who perhaps saved thousands and thousands of Pounds (I’m Scottish, so U.K. sterling) for what may to them, be a trip of a lifetime to slag off the conditions they travel in.
An unhappy follower of your blog.
You have really went down in my estimations of what I thought what a serious and respectful travel blogger.
Trot along away and turn left every time you board an aircraft. You won’t be welcome turning right with an attitude like you have shown in this post.
Hi Martin,
I appreciate your comment and thank you for reading. I actually travel fairly regularly on United in economy class–the point is not that I am “too good” for economy class or that I cannot tolerate it. This flight became a “joke” because I had plenty of miles and business class redemptions were wide open. Thus, it became a deliberate choice to fly economy when the extra miles were inconsequential.
One of the primary purposes of my blog is to help people essentially fly premium cabin for coach prices. I don’t promise free travel — it doesn’t exist. But with the right credit card spending and use of miles and points, you don’t have to sit in coach unless you choose to. Here, I chose to.
So I don’t “downstep” those who fly economy. Whether by choice or necessity, sometimes flying economy class just makes sense. But again, my point is only to underscore what a huge difference as few as 25K points in securing longhaul passage.
Thanks again for reading and commenting.
I think your review is very helpful. No matter what class you fly. I am having to pick between this and another airline and this review is helpful.
I’ve never had the chance to fly prem economy or business and i’m a travel agent (but obviously dont travel enough myself). I’m making a trip to REY with a loooong layover in FRA both ways so I looked up reviews or blogs about economy on Lufthansa since it will be my first time flying with them. I thought your post was funny but also informative for me, 1. I now know at least my seats will recline a lot 😀 (I had to laugh at that picture) and 2. I had to look up what plane i’ll be flying on 747 to see if i’ll have enough laptop time (although mine is for homework not work, so I really wouldn’t be upset if it died LOL). I appreciate your post. People get butthurt at everything now a days. Keep on writing! Thank you!
Thank you Viviana!
Ok. I cannot believe theres no power /USB outlet to charge your phone on the 380 in eco. Are you serious ?
I flu Lufthansa premium economy just a month ago. And I love travel. But I also should day I survived it. Barely.
Why customer service was pretty good (ok, let’s say), there were only two food services on 15 hrs flight, 12 hrs apart. Vegetarian options only!!! Snake were just chocolates, fruit – when we asked for something rather then chocolate.
But in first place, they did not even put me on a plane, my first leg; transfer where supposed to be to United. Which had never happened to me before!!! They said it is because of layover is more then 12 hrs, and they will not transfer my baggage.???
Eventually, 10 days later, I was finally able to fly. After they forced me to force United to change 2nd leg from United to Lufthansa. Now that was ok to transfer my baggage.♀️
Airport security pass in Frankfurt happened to be a horror experience on this trip.
Jeez… whatever happened to read a (real as opposed to screen) book on flights?? Also, the person who sat in front of you,, the recliner, is probably thinking how good that Lufthansa economy class seats recline so comfortably, so that he or she could rest. It’s all a matter of perspective.
I have to say that it is very pretentious to be making these complaints when you are someone privileged enough to be able to fly. It’s also disgusting that you still entertain the idea of flying first class even when the climate crisis is at its height, and the pollution of first class has been well documented. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Ground all planes! Cut down 100’s of square miles of trees for solar panels/ Put up turbines and kill birds.