After landing in Frankfurt on LH457 and clearing passport control, my first stop was the first class lounge near gate A13. It is currently the only Lufthansa first class lounge open in Frankfurt (and indeed all of the world). This review will focus on how the lounge has changed during the pandemic.
Pandemic Edition: Lufthansa First Class Lounge Frankfurt (FRA) Review
My visit to the lounge was on November 1, 2020. On November 2nd, Germany went into nationwide lockdown. For the month of November, all indoor dining and drinking is prohibited. Consequently, this lounge is currently just a waiting room with not even coffee or water available. Hopefully next month the lounge can go back to service levels that I experienced during my visit.
For comparison purposes, you may want to take a look at my 2017 review of the lounge, which was still relevant up to March 2020 in terms of food and beverage offerings.
Limited Food Selection
If you’re a long-time reader of Live and Let’s Fly, you know I am a creature of habit when it comes to these lounges. I sit in the same chair every visit. I order the same food.
Sadly, that wasn’t possible this time. I did sit down in “my” chair in the restaurant area. Immediately, it was apparent we were in a different era. The usually scrumptious buffet was missing. Food is no longer self-serve in this lounge or any Lufthansa lounge.
A waitress stopped by the table to greet me and offer me a menu. I was hoping–especially with the lack of buffet–that the usual a la carte menu would be available. Sadly, it was not. Instead, I was offered a single sheet with a limited number of choices.
Nothing looked particularly appealing at the time (I was still full from breakfast onboard my flight from Los Angeles), but I did order a cappuccino, bowl of fruit, and glass of orange juice. Had I been hungrier, I am sure I would have enjoyed a tasty meal.
The second cappuccino was even better:
What a sad step backwards for what was the most wonderful feature of this lounge. While I heaped great praises upon Lufthansa for its refusal to scale back onboard first class service like its competitors did, its decision to eliminate the buffet and dramatically scale back the a la carte menu in the lounge represents a cost-cutting move, not a healthy/safety move.
Consistency Even During Pandemic
Everything else is pretty much the same. The furniture is the same, though some chairs are marked for social distancing. So are the restrooms, bar, and work areas. Even rubber ducks are available…sadly no special COVID-19 edition masked dusk was available.
All the alcohol has been removed from the smoking lounge.
Magazines and newspapers have also been temporarily eliminated:
CONCLUSION
While I greatly appreciated that Lufthansa has kept this lounge open during the pandemic despite significantly reduced demand (for much of the time, I had the lounge to myself…), I was sorry to see that Lufthansa has cut back the a la carte menu so substantially. We will know in a couple weeks if Lufthansa is able to serve food and drink in the lounge once again.
Have you visited the Lufthansa First Class lounge during pandemic? What was your experience like?
I recall seeing the news break about the fire at Notre-Dame de Paris on that TV the last time I was at that lounge. It’s nice enough. They were out of stock of items I requested from the drinks menu. I think the FCT is overrated, though it is nice not to have to deal with regular airport security and border controls. Did you book your flight knowing that the lockdown was coming on the 2nd?
I did. Was not even expecting this level of service, to be honest.
FCT doesn’t carry sour cream & salsa pork rinds for fatty Americans on award tickets with special requests
How would you know what the FCT carries? I didn’t even know sour cream and salsa pork rinds existed. Thanks for enlightening me. A special request would be a bottle listed on the drink menu? It’s amusing that UA-TDS tries to mock someone for using award tickets while commenting on a blog devoted in large part to traveling on award tickets and specifically on a post in which the blog author describes an award ticket trip involving the LH FCT. What happened to the white knight? UA-TDS personifies Bush 44’s wife’s catchphrase: “When they go low, we go high.”
omg i cannot belive how all corporations are together in this and everyone in the same tume is blind and in fear… and now first class covid line.. orwellism in face, while people sleeps awaken and in fear… some people must reset point of view, we had all types of wars, even nuclear catastrophies in world and no lockdown no pandemic hospitals hotels shops or similiar like this today mask for keeping silence till enforce us all to vaccine above human law and freedom of choice.. even cages are forming fema like a war of the worlds with limiting human rights to none power.. wake up till isn’t late.. with love
I’ve not been in this one but it doesn’t look substantially better than the J /Status lounges, except for the superior table dining.
I visited the Senator lounge the following week and it was ridiculous. They had bottled water and bagged sandwiches that you could take to go, but you couldn’t eat it in the lounge. You were able to buy food in the airport and eat it in the lounge though. More insane covid rules disconnected from any semblance of science.
Indeed, I visited the following week as well. Pretty sad:
https://liveandletsfly.com/lufthansa-lounge-to-go-snacks/
I visited this lounge yesterday before a flight to Mexico City. I was informed that they will close it again as of next week.
There was zero service and EVERYTHING except the furniture had been removed. One poor employee was handing out very sad (and absolutely horrible) pre-packaged food, water and OJ to the handful of customers.
It is sad to see that the most beautiful part of the LH F ground experience is gone.
The flight itself, luckily, was amazing as always….