Lufthansa First Class Washington, D.C. (IAD) to Frankfurt, Germany (FRA) Review

Book your flight on Lufthansa here.





I booked the flight on the Lufthansa A330 with the old First Class configuration as part of a one-way trip from Washington D.C. (post FTU) to Bangkok, Thailand.

While several Munich based A330 feature the new first class - the Frankfurt based A330 are yet to be retrofitted.

Lufthansa has rolled out FlyNet on most planes though and I used it for one hour (EUR 9.99). It's rather slow with long ping times and just about 1Mbit. Think of it as a rather slow coffee shop connection. Useable but not easy to work with besides email/chat.

Seat (Space, Adjustability)

Lufthansa's old First Class configuration features massive seats that are very wide and are great for lounging. The seat can be adjusted with a rather easy to understand interface.

In-Flight Entertainment (User Interface, Movie selection, moving map)

The small screen that Lufthansa presents in First Class has been the joke of the industry for a long time. Your iPad Mini screen is bigger and don't even talk about resolution or brightness :)

The touch crescent is hard to use and there are just a few new movies on offer. Don't fly Lufthansa old First Class if you like to catch up on movies.

Food (Presentation, Taste, Selection)

Lufthansa really shines on the food and the way it is presented usually. This is especially true for flights from the US to Europe. Remember Lufthansa owns LSG Sky Chefs which caters food on dozens of major airports in the world.

LSG Sky Chefs partners with more than 300 airlines worldwide across 209 airports and operates almost 211 customer service centers in 52 countries, producing around 527 million meals a year.

So they do have an insider advantage there!









































Sometimes Lufthansa's food can be rather complicated and overly sophisticated. This time I did not have that impression during this flight.













All courses were excellent.

The wines/champagne on offer were equally good.













The breakfast before landing in Frankfurt was one of the best I ever had.













Sleeping (Lie flat, Comfort, stomach sleepers welcome?)

The flight attendants will convert your seat into a bed on request. And extra mattress is added to your seat. Now it looks fully flat but the shape of the seat back stop the seat from becoming a bed.

Sleeping on your side/stomach is rather tricky but as long as you can easily sleep on your back it's not that bad. Given the timing of the flight (it arrives before midnight Eastern Time) it's not very sleep conducive so I only got 1.5hrs out of it.





Service (Friendliness, Responsiveness)

Again one of Lufthansa strong suits. Flight attendants are very attentive and don't see service as a friendly gesture but something that can be done perfectly. This sometimes gives FA's a robotic expressions but they generally truly care about your well-being. This crew would not stop until all my wishes were satisfied and always had a smile. Excellent, over-the-top service.









Other

While many airlines offer some type of ground service for passengers flying in International First Class - Lufthansa does none of that. In order to get to the First Class Terminal a rather long walk past immigration towards the freeway is required. The Frankfurt airport First Class Lounges are much easier to reach though.

Overall

A fantastic flight - with the food and crew level making up for the equipments shortcomings. Love to fly again with LH.

Book your flight on Lufthansa here.