I returned home from Europe on Friday and have not encountered a hint of jet lag. Flying first class certainly helped, but that alone was not enough.
Sometimes I fly first class, sometimes I fly business, occasionally I’ll even fly economy class back to the USA if I am desperate enough to get home. But if I want to avoid jet lag, there is always one thing in common: I must sleep on the flight.
That’s not so easy on daytime departure from Europe, in which you experience light for the duration of the flight. But that’s exactly what I did last week from Munich to Los Angeles aboard Lufthansa 452 in first class. I forced myself to.
When you think of flying first class on Lufthansa, you probably think of champagne and caviar. Perhaps the excellent onboard service and spacious comfort. But I tried something different on this flight.
It was noon when we took off and I had forced myself to stay up the night before. By this time I was exhausted. Rather than partake in any food, I asked the FA to prepare my bed immediately after takeoff. She asked if I wanted to be woken up and I responded affirmatively, requesting a wake-up call 90 minutes before landing. That left me about 9.5 hours to sleep.
With my privacy divider up and the cabin nice and cool, I went to right sleep. And slept for about nine hours. I did get up once to use the restroom, but fell quickly back asleep. How refreshing that was after a night without sleep. And how effectively it prepared me to hit the ground running in LA.
The beauty of flying first class over business class on Lufthansa is that the onboard service is tailored to your needs, not a regimented schedule. That flexibility still allowed for a tremendous multi-course dinner as the flight approached Los Angeles.
Food in Lufthansa First Class is not always great, but I enjoyed an excellent lunch of:
- caviar
- soup
- salad
- veal with spätzle
- cheese
- plum tart
CONCLUSION
Typically I will enjoy a large meal after takeoff, watch a couple movies, connect to Wi-Fi and work for a bit, then try to take a short nap. Oh what a better arrangement this flight was. I love avoiding jet lag.
Care to share how you booked this? Using miles / points?
Thanks
Cash…
😉 No, just kidding. 70K Aeroplan.
Well, when you use aeroplan you are kind of using cash + miles :). Isn’t it like $1000 in fees return now?
Out of interest why wouldn’t you use lifemiles for this? Did you have other connecting flights? 87,000 miles (transferrable from chase or pay 1.375c) and like very cheap fees.
Noting that you may have millions of Amex points. But I put LH first class at a cost of around $1250 one way using lifemiles. And I haven’t had any issues usi the website. Changing flights etc.
What are the fees aeroplan passes on for a o/w flight on Lufthansa?
I’ll use Avianca coming out of USA, but for ex-Europe taxes are under $300. Aeroplan kills you on flights departing USA/Canada (r/t or one-way).
“Nice and cool cabin” are not typically descriptions I associate with flying LH! The high temps that LH flight crew keep the planes at is sadly one of the reasons I don’t seem to get much sleep on my LH flights.
The last few flights have featured not just cooler cabins, but cold cabins. I had to wrap my blanket tightly around me on this flight.
I would love an article on cabin temps in various business class cabins. Lufthansa turned the cabin temp down for me so that I’d be more comfortable (which surprised me as it was a full cabin), but United would not change the temperature on a Polaris flight, and it was so uncomfortably warm that I didn’t use any of the nice Polaris bedding. Unlike economy, premium seats don’t seem to have their own fans, and it’s almost driving me back to the rear of the plane!
In my experience, it is YMMV. Sometimes Lufthansa is warm, sometimes cold. Sometimes United is cool, sometimes not. ANA and JAL are usually warm, but not always. Perhaps the better article would be which airlines have individual air vents in business/first class?
I’d be interested in that too! I don’t have enough diversity of experience besides knowing it hasn’t been an option so far 🙂
I don’t know if I could have stayed up all night. That sounds like torture to me! And I love flying in the nice cabins so would miss all the fun stuff too.
I usually land. Stay up till a regular bed time then have a few whiskeys. After a long haul flight the day before I’m usually tired enough to avoid jet lag.
If I’m returning from Europe, I never have trouble falling asleep the first night. The problem is always waking up at 3-4a the next morning and subsequent mornings.
So I’m curious. If you sleep until 90 minutes before landing, that’s about 1:30 PDT give or take. Sleeping in that late doesn’t cause you problems falling asleep at a reasonable time that night? If I sleep in until noon, I’m always up until 1 or 2 am the next day.
Nope, I can sleep in and go to bed early. Sundays I take a four nap in the afternoon and still go to sleep at normal time.