From San Francisco to Munich I flew on Lufthansa onboard the A350-900 in business class. I am not a fan of these seats when traveling solo, but I did manage to sleep well and found the service and food onboard satisfactory.
Lufthansa A350-900 Business Class Review
After a few hours in the SFO Polaris Lounge, I walked over to the boarding gate in Terminal G, where boarding shortly commenced for the 11 hour flight to Munich.
Lufthansa 459
San Francisco (SFO) – Munich (MUC)
Sunday, November 27
Depart: 08:35 PM
Arrive: 04:40 PM+1
Duration: 11hr, 05min
Distance: 5,879 miles
Aircraft: Airbus A350-900
Seat: 6K (Business Class)
Onboard, flight attendants were still prepping the cabin, but I was warmly greeted in German.
I was originally seated in row one, but moved to row six prior to boarding, hoping the seat next to me would stay open. It did not. All seats went out full.
Seat
Lufthansa uses a proprietary business class seat onboard much of its A350 fleet that while functional, lacks the privacy and space of more modern business class seats. The 2-2-2 configuration (48 business class seats spread over eight rows, with rows 1-6 in the front cabin and rows 7-8 in a mini-cabin with a galley and lavatories in between) does not provide direct aisle access to window seat passengers.
Furthermore, these seats are 20 inches wide (less than on other Lufthansa jets) and feature a 64 inches pitch. The bed is 78 inches in lie-flat mode.
I was traveling solo and while my seatmate was a perfect gentleman, I still had to climb over him to get out, which was annoying for me and annoying for him. These seats would be just fine if I was traveling with a friend or family member, but I really prefer the seating on United Airlines (which operates the same route) for the extra privacy.
The only personal storage this seat offers is a small compartment between seats that is large enough for small personal items (a bottle of water and the amenity kit took up most of the space).
Seat controls include a 7-way seat adjustment as well as five levels of cushion firmness.
One reason I chose this flight to Munich instead of traveling on United was that it left so late. I love a late-evening departure to Europe because it truly helps to combat jet lag. When you take off late, your body is ready to go to sleep and you end up sleeping better onboard. Even better, when you land it is already the late afternoon so you only need to make it a few hours before going to bed again, thus avoiding the deadly afternoon nap that can induce jet lag for days.
There are no air vents, but thankfully the cabin was not hot and I managed to sleep for about seven hours. Bedding includes a mattress pad, blanket, and pillow. The blanket is much improved and is light while still warm.
The plane boarded efficiently and we were soon ready for takeoff.
Service
I really scratch my head when I hear reports of poor service on Lufthansa because that is simply not my experience and I fly the German carrier quite a bit. No, this was not first class. Even so, I received amazing service from a flight attendant named Doris R. that was almost on the level of first class.
The four flight attendants who worked passenger-facing roles in business class carefully choreographed service to enter the cabins with carts at the same time and Doris, who worked my row on the starboard side of the cabin was so kind, courteous, gracious, and attentive.
Sometimes we spoke German, sometimes we spoke English, but there was such a lovely heart for service on display that I greatly appreciated and that truly helped to compensate for a business class seat I no longer find competitive.
Amenity Kit + PJs
Amenity kits were placed at each seat prior to boarding. Until recently (and for many years), the Lufthansa business class amenity kit was a reusable tote bag with contents inside including ear plugs, an eyeshade, toothbrush, and toothpaste. I love these bags, have about a dozen of them, and use them for my grocery shopping. My understanding is Lufthansa is currently offering Porsche Design amenity kits that can serve as a glasses case, but I hope it returns to these, which I find so much more practical than most amenity kit cases.
Full pajamas as not offered in business class, but PJ tops from van Laack are offered and I put mine on and left it on after I spilled food on my other shirt.
Food + Drink
Dinner was served after takeoff with snacks available in between and breakfast before landing.
Dinner
Service began with a hot towel, a choice of beverage (I ordered a glass of Riesling, my favorite white wine, even though I planned to order red meat for my main course), and mixed nuts. The nut mix included pistachios and pecans, which I loved.
Lufthansa serves meals in three courses, with an appetizer followed by the main course followed by dessert or cheese.
Appetizer choices included:
Spicy Chili Crusted Tuna and Buckwheat Noodle Salad with grilled Chayote and Chili Lime Dressing
or
Honey Ancho Beef Jicama Roll with Corn Pepper Salad and Gazpacho Vinaigrette
or
Green Asparagus, Red Peppers, Feta Cheese, Quinoa, yellow Beets and toasted Pistachios with Truffle Oil Sherry Vinaigrette
I love asparagus, but apparently so did everyone else in the cabin because that choice was gone by row four. The ladies in front of me both wanted it and became very angry when told it was gone. If you want your first choice of appetizer, do consider sitting as close to the front of the cabin as possible.
I chose the beef roll with corn pepper salad and it was fine, though nothing to write home about. Bread was offered and I chose some dark rye bread (in anticipation of the cheese course) and a hot sourdough roll.
Main course choices included beef short ribs, cioppino, and pasta.
Beef Short Rib with Gremolata, Braised Red Cabbage, Grilled Baby Carrot and Rutabaga Whipped Potatoes
or
Pier 39 San Francisco Cioppino Shrimp and Scallop with Cioppino Sauce, Julienne Vegetable Mix and Saffron Rice
or
Black Pepper Fettuccine in Tomato Wine Sauce with Olives, Herb Roasted Cherry Tomatoes, Red Swiss Chards with Cannellini Beans, Grilled Baby Zucchini and Sunburst Squash
Let me note that while first class has the additional caviar service along with salad and often a soup course, the appetizers and main course choices are identical (this plane does not have a first class cabin, but had I flown to Frankfurt on the 747-8 the first class and business class dinner menu would have been almost the same).
I specifically chose the beef short ribs to compare them to the same dish (with the same sides) I had in first class 11 months earlier from SFO-FRA.
Frankly, the beef was much better on this flight and so was the presentation. I love tender short ribs (which should be well done) and the sauce complemented the meat well. I also love cooked red cabbage.
Dessert choices included cheese (“Marco Polo, Beecher’s Smoked Flagship and Montchevre Garlic and Herb Goat Cheese”) or pumpkin cheesecake with caramel sauce. I could have had both, but just had the cheese and thought the herb goat cheese was particularly delicious (with the rye bread I saved from dinner).
The meal concluded with chocolate truffles from Coppeneur (made in Bad Honnef in North Rhine-Westphalia).
Mid-Flight Snacks
I am always impressed by the selection of mid-flight snacks Lufthansa offers, which appear to be thoughtfully selected to include high-quality snacks from smaller companies. I greatly enjoyed rosemary-spiced almonds from Filbert’s and also appreciated the extra water bottles.
Breakfast
90 minutes before landing, breakfast service began with the offer of “fresh-squeezed” orange juice. More accurately, this was Tropicana 100% juice, so not horrible but also not fresh-squeezed.
Lufthansa offers straight espresso in business class, but not cappuccino or lattes. Still, the espresso was strong and hit the spot as I tried to wake up.
Breakfast choices were either eggs or overnight oats. I ordered the heartier eggs dish, which included an omelet filled with cheddar cheese, potato rösti, sautéed mushrooms, and grilled Canadian bacon.
The omelet was very satisfactory and I loved the bowl of berries. The croissant was also hot and flaky. The “Canadian bacon” was just a very cheap processed ham and the “potato rösti” tasted like deep-fried hash browns (because they were deep-fried hash browns). Real rösti is different from hash browns in that hash browns are made from potato that is already cooked.
I concluded breakfast with one more cup of coffee (also good, though I prefer the espresso).
IFE + W-Fi
I appreciate the Lufthansa A350 business class cabin has modern, responsive, and large touch screens. The interface is still quite dated, but I was able to navigate through the collection of movies, TV shows, games, and music quite well.
Best of all, I loved the high-resolution tail cam, which I had on for most of the flight.
On-ear noise-canceling headphones from AKG worked well.
I was very thankful I got my essential work done before the flight because wi-fi did not function for the entire duration of the flight. The network signal was present and the landing page opened, but clicking through always resulted in a “server busy” error.
Lufthansa now sells internet packages with data caps, which it did not do before.
Lavatory
Lufthansa lavatories are often full of goodies when traveling in a premium cabin and this flight was no exception. Not only was the lavatory spotless, but it included shaving kits, combs, and mouthwash, socks, and eyeshades.
CONCLUSION
As we descend into Munich, we said goodbye to the sun and hello to the clouds.
Overall, this was an excellent flight on Lufthansa. The current Lufthansa business class seats on the Airbus A350 are not competitive unless you can secure one of the ex-Philippine Airlines jets (those have totally different seats – look for configurations with 30 seats instead of 48 seats). Even so, I slept well, enjoyed the meals, and found the service onboard outstanding.
I’d still choose United over Lufthansa, but Lufthansa is by no means a bad choice.
So strange. I have only had atrocious service and food in LH J. Flew IAD-MUC on the 359 in Sep. So many issues with the flight, where to start:
a) food was totally awful. worse than polaris
b) service was cold and service flow so badly thought out. the flight is only over a tad over 7 hrs with heavy tailwinds. they kept the lights on for 2 hrs+ for the dinner service, which took forever, and then again around 90 mins-2 hrs before landing.
c) the seat is really bad. not just the 2-2-2, but more accurately the padding of the seat. it is easily the hardest J seat of any of the major transatlantic carriers. And the bedding is not great either. I ended up having to put a few blankets above the seat to make it less hard.
d) LH business + sen lounges are also really bad. Particularly in FRA and MUC, bizarrely. I actually preferred the J lounge to the Sen lounge in MUC Schengen area, as the Sen lounge was absolutely teaming with people. No decent food choices, just a few showers, very sterile space, etc
Would rather fly any of the US3, or BA/AF/KL/OS/LX/TK/ etc to europe over LH.
I flew J on one of the ex-Philippine aircraft. What a revelation! Properly padded seats, which were not painful. No footsie with the seat mate. Awesome.
The food ex Munich. Was simply sad. I knew that would happen, so I brought along my own charcuterie as an appetizer. It felt like being at a home for dinner – one that had seen better times.
Pro tip: Air Canada. Comfortable trans oceanic angled seats, good menus, interesting wines, and genuinely nice staff.
AC is still flying angled seats in business class? I know they have some A330s they got second-hand that still have angled seats but thought those only did North American (e.g., Montreal-LAX) duty.
Hard as your seat was, I had it worse the last time I flew Lufthansa business class! In typical German “let’s devise an overcomplicated solution for a simple problem” fashion, instead of conventional cushioning material, the seat uses pneumatics – basically bladders of air. Well, on my seat the pneumatics failed, and I was sitting on zero cushioning whatsoever. I could literally feel the hard metal underneath. And of course business class was full. With lots of blankets it was barely tolerable but awkward. This business class was uncompetitive when it came out in 2012, and it’s bottom of the barrel now.
Glad that service is returning as a couple colleagues had terrible experiences last year that made them switch over to dip their toes with AF/KL.
I’m surprised that they’re giving out PJs again on this route. My colleague flew with them a couple times last year as he’s based in the Bay Area and the FAs told him that they were probably not going return.
I wouldn’t exactly call the touchscreens modern unless this is a new 4k curved screen lol. That seat and monitor look to be from the dinosaur age.
Love sourdough and cabbage. This food does not look worse than Polaris, to me
You should see the screens on the 747 and A380.
Food is better on LH than UA.
Well then there might be some truth to United being the best in the world lol
Just saw your other comment about LH having better food..does appear so but tech and seats, no
“asparagus, but apparently so did everyone else in the cabin because that choice was gone by row four. The ladies in front of me both wanted it and became very angry when told it was gone. If you want your first choice of appetizer, do consider sitting as close to the front of the cabin as possible”
that’s really unacceptable in business. They should use data from previous flights to gauge popularity of different menu options. Most popular options should be fully stocked, equal to the number of passengers. Any excess could be eaten by the crew or passed down to premium economy in order not to waste food.
Yeah, don’t really understand how they can’t cater enough for one person each. Seems reasonable. The crew (or Matthew when he’s ordering multiple menu items) will eat the rest. Although I wouldn’t get “very angry” if my first choice wasn’t available.
Man, those hash browns looked so good! I wish I could eat them!
I wish you could have – I don’t like wasting food.
You didn’t eat them? Have never had deep fried hash browns. They do look amazing. The CAD bacon on the other hand..
You know it must have been bad if Matthew didn’t clean up everything on his plate 😉
he’ll order four entrees next time to make up for it
I did LAX to Munich in November of 2021 in this type of aircraft. Your experience was pretty much mine except it was emptier then. I would not do it again unless there was no choice.
“I’d still choose United over Lufthansa, but Lufthansa is by no means a bad choice.”
I’m chuckling in that aside from that line, and some other caveats in your article, what a wonderful summation of your experience on Lufthansa Business Class that their own marketing team couldn’t do much better.
Lufthansa marketing next week: We’ve already become the 2nd best airline in the world
“the appetizers and main course choices are identical”
Usually on flights to Germany…on flights departing Germany, the choices are usually different.
Was a side salad not being offered during that time in general? I thought salads are now served even on flights to Germany.
Glad Other Aaron liked the looks of the hash browns.
@Matthew –
I’ve been watching LH first class availability the past month or so to understand patterns in availability and I’ve seen vastly more availability from Germany to the USA than the other way around. is this normal?
I’m currently in the Mainz Hyatt. Nice place. Where can I find the spaghetti eis you’ve mentioned previously?
Hi Christian. It’s called Da Vito. Short walk to the Alt Stadt from the hotel. Ask for Yuri or Masud. Tell them Mr. Matthew from LA sent you.
I notice a whole lot of LH F awards from Boston, but further west is fairly sporadic.
Masud was rather creeped out that I knew his name but livened up considerably when he learned how I obtained it. He explained that the two of you are great friends and asked about your health. After that I didn’t ask the other guy if he is Yuri but I suspect so. He had a boisterous personality and a vaguely Russian type accent. When he asked if I wanted the bill I said no but would stick with tradition anyway.
The place had superb food. Thanks so much for the suggestion.
So glad you had a nice meal!
Yuri is Croatian, but I suppose could pass for Russian.
Enjoy your time in beautiful Mainz!
You chose 6K ? The seat where your head is resting against the lavatory wall which rattles to the thunk-boom every time someone flushes the toilet?
Ha. I didn’t notice.
Nice to see a respectable premium cabin airline meal that is recognizable and not served in a dog dish…
What kind of barbarian doesn’t have their seat selected during boarding?!
Like the previous lie flat seats LH installed, these were out of date and way behind the market at the time of installation. There are a few good things about LH service but long haul premium seats are not one of them. Food is also IMO in significant decline. There are better places to spend money these days.
Agreed and the key for me was that I was able to buy a premium economy ticket and secure an upgrade immediately upon booking. I appreciate that.
Yep the paid upgrades are great value.
IAD-MUC from premium economy G class (so full fare) was 279 USD to J — total bargain (P fare class available)
LAX-MUC from economy this may (H fare) to J is 650 (!) USD — also a bargin (P fare)
You gave this a positive review. It could also be summarized this way: 20 year old business class seat, non-functioning wi-fi, and a connection to a four hour intra-Europe flight in Y with a blocked middle seat, no power points, and no wi-fi.
I like LH’s brand, and how clean and tidy everything is, but so much of their product is just woefully and unnecessarily uncompetitive. Many people (myself included) just seem inclined to like German things. If the airline was exactly the same but based in Bratislava and called LuftSlovensko, I wonder if everyone would still love it so much, or if we’d dismiss it as a below-average carrier as we do with LOT, TAP, and AirEuropa.
I agree that LH is hugely overrated but I think you’re being unfair to TAP! They are streets ahead of LH with their A330neo J hard product and very solid business class catering even within Europe. Lisbon airport isn’t ideal for non-Schengen connections, but FRA isn’t much better. Admittedly their IROPS handling can be pretty disastrous, but they’re far from alone there.
I haven’t flown LO or UX in many years, so I don’t have a view on them.
It sounds like TAP might have a better hard product, but LH crews are probably a little friendlier. We’ll call it a draw!
To be fair the seat is 11, not 20 years old, although it wasn’t particularly competitive even when it was introduced in 2012. It says a lot that Lufthansa’s best J seats are those it got “by accident” – the ex-Philippine Airline A350s and the 787s that were originally going to be delivered to another carrier.
The wifi problems are really ironic. Lufthansa was the first major carrier to introduce in-flight wifi with Connexion by Boeing in the early 2000s. They were so ahead of their time the service was canceled for a while, before everyone started putting in onboard wifi. Sad that 20 years later Lufthansa can’t get this right.
I’m always curious about bloggers’ complaints regarding 2x2x2 seating. If traveling solo, take one on the middle pair and nobody will step over you. It’s a red eye flight – not much to see. The absence privacy is definitely a cultural concern. For many parts of the world it really is not a big deal. For others, Americans, nordics and certain others it seems to be deeply uncomfortable. Think the review is generally fair and helpful.
How did you get an upgrade from Premium Economy? Last 4 flights I had they said my PE tix were “not eligible” for upgrade. Which is why I’m back on UA
What fare class?
Yesterday I flew from Munich to LA on Lufthansa A350-900 Business Class. The service was terrible. I get beeter service in economy class. The only good thing was the seat that could turn into a flat bed and that’s because I was seating in the middle of the plane. Those who were seating by the windows had to climb over the bed of their co-passengers having the aisle seat. No internet, I had to have downloaded an application (prior to boarding) to access the plane’s wifi.
What made the service so terrible?
I will be flying MUC-SFO in the A350 in a few days. Unfortunately could not book the middle seats with nobody jumping over one. I will share my comments when I get back
Looking forward to them. Hope your flight goes well!
Thanks for the review, just got on this same flight, was dreading finding what you said I would: the awful open plan seating. This feels like short distance first class. No privacy whatsoever. If i wasnt with a companion, I would be pretty angry that they think this us worth the price. Butbthank you for the review!
For a solo traveler on this plane would you recommend sitting in the center row instead of the outside rows?
I prefer my privacy and don’t want to have awkward interactions throughout the flight.
Yes. I only took the window becuase I really like to control light for my pictures.