My family flew Lufthansa nonstop from Los Angeles to Frankfurt last week onboard the Airbus A350-900 in business class. It was a great award redemption and a great flight.
My First Impressions of Lufthansa A350 Business Class
Avianca LifeMiles can be frustrating when partner award space is blocked, but during the last promotion you could buy 63,000 miles for about $700. That’s how many miles are required for a one-way business class ticket between the United States and Europe and no fuel surcharges are collected. Our flight, LH457, was wide open in business class and thus booking via LifeMiles website was easy.
Still, one ticket was booked via Aeroplan because I would be traveling with my seven-month-old daughter. While infant tickets are annoyingly difficult when booking with LifeMiles, they are incredibly easy and cheap with Aeroplan. So one ticket was booked for 70,000 Aeroplan points and then the infant ticket was an additional 25CAD…a very good buy and one upside to the new Aeroplan program.
The Tom Bradley International Terminal was fairly busy at LAX, with a long line waiting to check-in at the Lufthansa counters. Thankfully, we used the business class line and only had to wait a few minutes.
After clearing security, we walked directly to the gate (with my son stopping to admire several aircraft on the way) because the Star Alliance Lounge is closed.
Onboard, we were warmly welcomed by a young, Munich-based crew. The ladies working the cabin were friendly and attentive and I give the crew extremely high marks for service, unlike my last longhaul flight in the other direction in Lufthansa Business Class.
The cabin departed about 2/3 full, even after several deadheading flight attendants were accommodated in business class. We reserved seats in row 1 and 2 (to take advantage of the bassinet) and ended up with an open seat in row two.
That became very instrumental when our daughter refused to stay in her bassinet (she’s in that stage where she is getting close to walking and pulls herself up on everything). She ended up sleeping in her own seat…more on that in a future post.
The main courses in business class were identical to the main course choices in first class a month ago. Indeed, I ordered the same beef dish just to compare the two (the only difference was the plate). Certainly the appetizers and desserts were more limited. But the food was nice.
Augustine sat next to me and has become a very good flyer. I’m thankful that he can take a 10-hour flight without much fuss. He even managed about five hours of sleep.
There’s nothing like watching the sunrise while sipping an espresso. I so appreciate that Lufthansa has not engaged in the sort of cost-cutting masquerading as hygiene theatre so many airlines have. Food was still served on ceramic plates with proper glasses and flatware. Presentation matters.
We landed on-time to a cloudy winter morning in Frankfurt.
CONCLUSION
I’m really depreciating my miles, but the reason I collect miles in the first place is for instances like this. Even if I could afford it, there is simply no way I could justify flying in longhaul business class if I had to pay retail pricing. But using miles makes aspirational travel affordable (not free…don’t let anyone tell you otherwise).
Lufthansa business class is no substitute for first class, but the flight exceeded my expectations and I love flying the A350.
@ Matthew — One of my very least favorite business class products.
Mine too, but this flight definitely beat my expectations.
I flew MUC-EWR on the LH A350 this past weekend and while the food and crew were outstanding, the seat is one of the least functional, least privacy and most uncomfortable still around these days. I hadn’t flown LH C in years and this reminded me why. I also flew with my 3 year old and having a nonstop flight with her is nice but I’ll gladly book LX or OS the next time.
What is wrong with you people? You’re willing to put yourselves and your kids in danger by taking a totally unnecessary flight, possibly infect others and bring all this crap back to Southern California? This is the height of irresponsibility. Did you really need to go to Germany for Christmas— or do you just like to be defiant? I can’t believe you guys! Over 20,000 cases in one day in LA County and you guys don’t think you’re going to get it. I hope you don’t but man, are you tempting fate!
He and his family have essentially relocated to Germany for the time being (like Lucky at OMAAT did in the summer/fall). He said this in an earlier post. They don’t even have a return ticket to the US.
@Andre
Take a deep breath. He’s not going on holiday; rather, he’s moving in a semi-permanent way as far as I can tell to Germany.
Also, he seems to have followed all the safety procedures (mask wearing, social distancing, etc.) as he should as well as quarantine in Germany on arrival
Thanks to S and Matt, who are correct.
Andre, the dismal LA County numbers you cite are a primary reason we have decided to re-locate to Germany for the time being. Yes, this is a time with family, but this is not a vacation and we quarantined before and after the trip. I spend most of my days working, like at home.
Andre, don’t ever leave your house again. Death lurks everywhere, waiting to strike you down.
You are the absolute worst type of person. I hope for your sake you never leave your house. A meteor could kill you! But I hope you dont stay inside your house either because the fridge might fall and kill you.
Oh shut up will you
Service and food look good, but the seats and IFE are worse than UA. And that’s what matters most in J on these transatlantic flights IMO. UA Polaris > LH J. L
H F is a different story though obviously.
Agreed. I really appreciated the great service on this flight, but had UA also flown LAX-FRA we would have taken UA.
One thing I did not mention above was that the cabin on LH became very warm and there were no individual air nozzles.
I liked Matt’s comment about some airlines cutting down their on board services using “hygiene” as an excuse. If Lufthansa is able to provide a dinner service, US carriers should be able to at least give us a can of pop!
Agreed!
My wife always wants to fly Lufthansa First when we can, and we have done so twice with our daughter at age 2 and age 3. The second time, last summer, required booking her a full Aeroplan award. But honestly when you have little ones like you do, there’s no way to really enjoy First and business is more than sufficient. This flight looked utterly pleasant and enjoyable.
I recently flew business on LH A350 from FRA to BKK and I will probably never fly LH again. The cabin is dated, 2-2-2 in 2020!? The seats are relatively uncomfortable, compared to the competition. I was also served champagne in a dirty glass and the silverware had dried old food on it too. Very disappointed.
Ah, LH457. I have that flight number memorized. We used to take it every year back when LH had angle-flat business class seats (and back when United didn’t charge more miles for booking with a partner). I think it was a 747-400 and subsequently a 747-8 with lie-flat seats. I know other airlines have better seats, but we loved the service on LH. Back then it was good even in business class.
I must’ve missed the blog post where you mentioned you have a daughter. I only remembered Augustine.
Curious – is it common for MUC-based crews to operate flights from the US to FRA?
“Curious – is it common for MUC-based crews to operate flights from the US to FRA?”
Ordinarily, no – but in the pandemic, a couple of A350’s got moved to FRA hence the MUC-based crews operate the XXX-FRA flights as there are no/little qualified crews available in FRA.
I’m having problems booking Lifemiles at them moment. Very frustrating. It shows there’s seats available at the 63K mark for the days that I want. I selected those days and then when it comes to choosing flights, it shows no availability. It’s also showing the days of the week in Spanish, even though I selected English. Not sure what’s going on. Any advice? Thank you.
A familiar frustration with LifeMiles. If you cannot book it on the website, you can’t book it. There’s no magic solution.
Children and babies in business and first a nightmare. My last business flight 17 hours with a crying baby and a toddler crawling in the asle. They are not going to settle so save money and sit in economy and let those that have paid to sleep, sleep .
That isn’t the J class that supposedly earned them 5-stars is it?
Lol. No, that has been delayed a few years.
I’ve yet to fly Lufthansa, but seeing that second picture really doesnt fill me with inspiration or desire. Compare to, say, Qatar’s or Virgin Atlantic’s A350s which have a completely different character.
What do you first think when you see that second, third and fourth picture?
Yes, it’s great with a family but oh so bad when flying solo if you have a stranger next to you.
It’s not so bad on daytime legs. Honestly though, if you’re flying solo, I’ve never had a problem scoring a middle seat with aisle access on LH.
Informative and enjoyable trip report and biz class review! I’ve always found LH C and premium class trips to be really enjoyable. I think LH’s hard and soft products are consistent and of really high quality. Understated and not overdone. One big surprise to me, though, is the seating configuration. I hate 2×2 seating that requires the person in the window seat to step over the aisle passenger during sleep. Awkward for the window passenger and maybe equally awkward for the aisle passenger. That set-up would make me hesitate about flying LH in C class.
Haven’t done the shuffle over to Germany since last February, but my go-to routing is USA-Germany on UA so that I can sleep given UA’s decidedly superior hard product, then Germany-USA on LH, where the inferior hard product isn’t as much of an issue on the daytime leg, but the superior soft product is front and center.
Hey Matt, booked a flight in LH with Aeroplan miles and flying with a three month old. How did you go about reserving a bassinet for your little one? I have mines ticket booked for the extra 25 CAD, but do I need to do anything else? Contacted LH and they gave me the run around. Also reserved bassinet seat. Thanks!
Important to get that bulkhead row or another row specified as able to accommodate a bassinet. But if you reserved seat, I don’t see where you would run into problems.