Review: Lufthansa A380 Economy Class Los Angeles To Frankfurt

My opinion of Lufthansa Economy Class is nearly identical to Lufthansa Business Class. It’s a perfectly serviceable product, but there are better options available.

Boarding was an absolute zoo at LAX. Lines stretched hundreds of feet down the terminal waiting to board and felt like a free-for-all as passengers rushed the boarding gate, not particularly paying attention to instructions to board by row.

Lufthansa 457
Los Angeles (LAX) – Frankfurt (FRA)
Monday, March 18
Depart: 04:35 PM
Arrive: 11:30 AM+1
Duration: 10hr, 55min
Aircraft: A380-800
Seat: 84K (Economy Class)

Onboard, I  crossed the galley and headed toward the back of the aircraft to find my seat in row 84.

Lufthansa A380 Economy Class Seats

Seating is arranged in a 3-4-3 configuration on the main deck and a small economy class cabin upstairs offers a 2-4-2 configuration. Economy class features 371 seats with 31″ pitch and a width of 18.2″.

The good: seats have generous recline. The bad: seats have generous recline. By that, I mean that it is nice to recline, but becomes quite uncomfortable when the person in front of you reclines. I was fortunate enough to end up with an open seat next to me.

Big complaint: the A380 does not offer power ports for larger electronic devices. Under the armest is a USB port that will (very slowly) charge your USB devices, but that doesn’t help with the laptop. Thus, if you are traveling in Lufthansa economy class and need to work, bring sufficient back-ups portable chargers.

Lufthansa offers above average pillows and blankets in economy class. The blanket is thick yet not scratchy and the pillows have cloth covers, not the cheap throw-away covers usually found in economy class.

If you need a walk in-flight, you can head upstairs. I like that Lufthansa has a spiral staircase in the rear of the aircraft.

Lufthansa A380 Economy Class IFE + Wi-Fi

Lufthansa offers seat-back in-flight-entertainment, wireless internet, and mobile calling onboard. That’s right…you can use your cell phones to make calls and no one abused the privilege. The successful rollout of mobile calling on Lufthansa is one reason why I support in-flight calls. By the way, the network is shut down once all the lights are turned off.

IFE selection is excellent. I counted nearly 100 movies, though few were recent releases. That said, there are so many movies you should have no trouble connecting.

Complimentary cheap headphones are given and volume can be controlled in the armrest and on the monitor.

Wi-Fi internet is available onboard. A flight pass cost EUR17.95 and as is often the case on Lufthansa, the only thing I could do was send iMessages…email and web pages would not load.

Lufthansa A380 Economy Class Lavatories

There are eight economy class lavatories on the main deck. Four are located between the two main economy class cabins while four are located in the rear of the aircraft behind a third smaller economy class cabin. They are small.

Lufthansa A380 Economy Class Service

Service was fine onboard. It wasn’t very friendly, but it was courteous and professional. Due to the large size of the cabin, I would not complain that it took 90 minutes after takeoff to serve dinner. But there was no reason to take an additional hour to pick up the meal trays…that should have been done quicker.

I wrote a separate post about the “onboard shower” and mention in here to point out that the purser had a very lackadaisical response to the incident.

> Read More: An Onboard Shower…In Lufthansa A380 Economy Class

Lufthansa A380 Economy Class Meal Service

Dinner was served after takeoff and breakfast was offered before landing. All food and drink are complimentary on Lufthansa.

Shortly after takeoff, a choice of beverage was offered along with some snack mix.

That was followed by warm towelette.

Meal choices were orange chicken or vegetarian pasta. I chose pasta, which included penne with mushrooms, tomatoes, and cheese. On the side was a small salad, white bread roll, cheese and crackers, and a chocolate brownie.

The meal was a big “meh” but at least helped to pass the time. I appreciate that Lufthansa uses metal utensils:

Between meals, chocolate bars and snack mix were available in the galleys along with self-serve beverages.

Prior to landing, breakfast was served. Everyone who had not ordered a special meal received the same thing: a frittata with hash browns and spinach. Bread and a small assortment of sliced fruit were served on the side.

To avoid snacking on junk food, I recommend you bring your own snack in case you get hungry between meals.

CONCLUSION

Other than the lack of power ports, there is nothing that would cause me to avoid Lufthansa in the future. It was a smooth flight with zero turbulence aboard the quiet A380 that left on time and arrived on time. I received two meals and managed to get a couple of hours of sleep.

But I do believe there are better economy class options…including United Airlines. I’ll have more to say on that in a future post.

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