Oh poor me, I had to fly Lufthansa First Class again. This trip, though, I really tried to branch out and try something new. But I just could not turn down the allure of flying nonstop on one of my favorite products.
After Dubai, I traveled to Frankfurt via Brussels, where I hoped to try a new product on the way home. Among the contenders:
- Aeroflot 777 Business Class
- Air Canada 787 Business Class
- Air Italy A330 Business Class
- Avianca 787 Business Class
- Delta A350 Business Class
- TAP A330neo Business Class
- WestJet 787 Business Class
A lot of choices, no? You would figure that at least one would open with miles.
Usually if I don’t travel on Lufthansa I just take United home. Here, though, I flew to Dubai on Emirates and thus was looking at a one-way United ticket (more expensive than a round-trip) or a round-trip ticket with a return flight on a future date that hopefully would work. My schedule is so crazy that I rarely make flight plans more than a couple days in advance. Thus, I wasn’t happy about booking a return I potentially could not use.
To complicate matters, the only upgrade space was to Chicago O’Hare and ORD is a big mess right now with the train linking the international terminal to the other terminals closed. I hear the temporary bus service is one big…mess.
So no United space, no space on the laundry list of carriers I’d love to review, but there was a Lufthansa nonstop to LA wide-open. And for 15K miles more than business class, was I really going to turn down the chance to fly first class and arrive back well-rested and in time for dinner with my family?
It became an easy choice.
CONCLUSION
As terrible as it sounds, I’m hoping for a bad flight…just to have something different to write about. But I’ve never had a bad flight in Lufthansa First Class and expect another extremely positive review will result from this flight…
One of these days I will fly each of the carriers on my list above. But not this time.
> Read More: 10 Airlines I Hope To Review In Business Class
Did you use Aeroplan miles?
I did. Low fees ex-Europe.
I try to use Lifemiles in the other direction, though the space is often blocked.
Rode the temporary ORD bus from the international terminal to terminal 2 May 6th. Although not a first class experience, it certainly fine and efficiently.
I heard that waits are along as two hours in the afternoon. Instead of getting home at 5pm I would have got home at 10pm with the connection and missed putting my son to bed. Next time! 😉
Maybe the experience has gotten worse. Two hour wait time would be awful.
Is it just me or does that first picture of LH F look really tired and worn out?
I don’t know what your schedule was like in FRA, but in October I came though after arriving on UA945, one of the first AM arrivals, and with claiming and rechecking bags there was no wait. I was told by a friend a trick is to go to the upper level where they normally drop off vs to the arrivals level as the wait is shorter
This was back in November, but yes, the horror stories about the ORD bus shuttle are true. There was at least a 90 minute wait from the looks of things. However, there is an easy enough work around. Just pay a Lyft or Uber to take you from T5 to whichever domestic terminal you need. It cost me $13 but at least I made my connection and didn’t get stuck in Chicago for the night.
You are correct to avoid ORD. They are doing the best they can, but it is hit and miss at best. It depends on when you arrive and how many INTL flights have arrived. But, as @Jimmy mentioned there are times when it is less busy. Schlepping all your bags onto the bus is really a pain either way. Good to avoid ORD for INTL flights until 2020.
What would you have done if award space on Lufthansa hadn’t opened up?
Fingers crossed for a Westjet review soon. Very impressed with what they’ve done as a whole recently, and it will be interesting to see if their new ownership changes anything.
I’m confused. You write posts like “why I always confidently wait until the last minute for award space” and then found that 7 different carriers didn’t open space… Are those specific planes just very rare?
Please fly Norwegian economy next time. I need some schadenfreude moments. Or ,if not Norwegian, something peppered with “ worst ever”, “ never again”, “disgraceful” and “scandalously bad”. Looking forward to it.
I rode it twice last week from T5 to the domestic terminals, once around 1500, and the other time around 1400 and there wasn’t a wait either time. They’re paying a third party company to handle it. I’m not saying that it didn’t take somebody two hours to make the journey, but I suspect their figure was a bit exaggerated.