I began my journey home from Istanbul with a flight to Frankfurt on Lufthansa. Even though I would always choose Turkish Airlines over Lufthansa to travel between IST and FRA if given the choice, I did enjoy warm service and a delicious meal onboard my Lufthansa A320neo flight in business class.
Lufthansa A320neo Business Class Review
Why Lufthansa over Turkish? Because Lufthansa is much more generous with close-in award space than Turkish Airlines. Most of my trips are booked fairly last-minute and when it came time to book, Lufthansa had space from Istanbul to Frankfurt in business class with a connection in first class to Chicago while Turkish had…hiçbir şey (Turkish for nothing). The ticket cost 100,000 Aeroplan points and 153CAD in taxes and fees.
Check-in was a breeze and we soon had our boarding passes and were on our way through passport control and security.
I briefly stopped by the Turkish Airlines lounge prior to boarding – I am not putting up a review, but my old one is still quite relevant. I love the food in that lounge.
Our boarding began at 6:02 pm, seven minutes behind scheduled departure time. No reason was given for the delay.
Lufthansa 1301
Istanbul (IST) – Frankfurt (FRA)
Wednesday, April 13
Depart: 05:55 PM
Arrive: 8:00 PM
Duration: 3hr, 05min
Distance: 1,114 miles
Aircraft: Airbus A320neo
Seat: 6D (Business Class)
I found my seat onboard and settled in for the journey to Frankfurt.
Seats
Don’t expect luxury when it comes to the business class seats on a Lufthansa narrow body jet. These Recaro slim lines seats are quite uncomfortable and the only difference between business class and economy class is that business class has a guaranteed blocked middle seat. This allows the premium cabin to be “variable” in size (the curtain can be moved back and forth) and today business class stretched back 10 rows.
These seats have a slight recline, but no power ports (yet).
Food + Drink
The biggest difference between business class and economy class on a Lufthansa shorthaul flight is the meal service. While food is buy-on-board in economy class, a meal is served in business class, regardless of flight length. A hot meal is offered on flight more than three hours long.
Dinner began with a bag of cashews and choice of beverage.
Typically there will be a menu card placed on the meal tray, though there was none tonight. The meal tray, however, suggested that the cuisine on tonight’s flight from Munich (Bavarian).
Choices were a chicken breast in a fennel mustard sauce with mashed potatoes or a vegetarian mushroom dish with potato dumplings. I chose the chicken, which was delicious and served with a beet salad and something rolled up next to it (anyone have an idea?).
Dessert included an orange flavored tart (maybe someone can identify this too…?).
My friend chose the other dish and did not care for it.
Prior to landing each business class passenger was presented with an apple.
IFE + Wi-Fi
There is no in-flight-entertainment on these planes and the wi-fi did not work (flight attendants apologized for this after takeoff).
Service
The flight attendants working business class were cheerful and attentive. While drinks were kept refilled during the flight, the flight attendants ran out of glasses after the meal service and drinks were served in plastic cups for the remainder of the flight.
CONCLUSION
We landed 30 minutes late in Frankfurt and I was soon on my way to the Hilton Airport Hotel for the night. I was happy to fly in business class (versus economy class), though there is really no comparison between Turkish and Lufthansa on this route in terms of the overall product. I found the food to be fine on Lufthansa, but the difference in business class seating is gargantuan.
You wrote “ Dinner began with a bag of almonds”…the bag says cashews.
You’re right. It was cashews.
I could agree more about the difference between TK and LH on European business class! What I don’t understand is why LH does not increase legroom for a few rows and then they could have business class (more legroom than economy, middle seat empty) or premium economy (more legroom but middle seat potentially occupied) and then adjust capacity between Business and Premium Economy as necessary.
They’re unlikely to offer a Premium Economy product on a narrowbody in Europe. It’s not competitive or necessary. That’s probably why they don’t do it.
@Matthew you wrote Los Angeles to Istanbul instead of Istanbul to Frankfurt. And I don’t understand this obsession with cappuccino.
I didn’t mention cappuccinos…?
I think I have read on FT that there isn’t a rigid 3-hour rule, they rather decide whether to offer hot meals based on yield and any direct competition (e.g. making an effort when it comes to IST/ATH/LIS and just throwing together something random for AGP/HER/SCQ).
The above comment refers to hot/cold meals obviously.
Makes sense, I suppose.
There was hot meals in J from FRA-ALG, which is an even shorter flight.
From a passenger viewpoint it’s obviously not very good as you don’t know what to expect – another reason to eat in the lounge and/or BYO.
I always try to be a little extra careful with handwashing and sanitation when traveling, and I always wonder – how would one wash that apple before peeling it? Presumably it was not packaged and loaded with the same care that, say, a fruit plant would be from airport catering.
fruit plate*
Matthew- I immensely enjoy reading your blog, but as others have pointed out in this post, there are a lot of inconsistencies and minor grammatical errors. This appears to be a growing trend in your posts. Although this are usually very minor, it does diminish your great content. I encourage you to do a bit more proof reading or have a copy editor before publishing. I know you are very busy and focused on getting out content, but maintaining quality is key!
No review of the FS Istanbul or is this the trip ftom the previews review?
It was a return stay…I could provide an update, but the hotel has not changed at all.
Wasn’t the only real change for the Polaris Lounge tbe menu, and we got an update for that?
And a newer iPhone…
This trip report is over a year old!! Update required!
Matthew, to my knowledge A320neo series do not have Wi-Fi as the antenna is to heavy and the plane would tilt backwards. You can also see on the pictures that there is no antenna on the belly.
So awful. These seats. Omg.