Hello from Boston! I just wrapped up my trip to Germany with my parents, and on the return we flew Lufthansa’s Airbus A380 first class from Munich to Boston. My gosh, what a treat this flight was, especially since I managed to snag us four first class award seats, so we had half the cabin to ourselves!
While I’ll have a full trip report soon, in this post I wanted to share some initial impressions of the flight.
In this post:
Lufthansa’s first class hard product is a bit better on the A380
Lufthansa only recently reactivated its Airbus A380s, and what a treat it is to see the whale jet flying again for Lufthansa!
Until Lufthansa’s new first class product is introduced, the airline is incredibly consistent with its first class hard product. The airline has the same seats on the A380s, A340s, and 747s. The A380 and A340 cabins almost look identical, while the 747 cabin is just configures a bit differently, given that it’s in the nose of the plane.
I do have to say, I really enjoy Lufthansa’s first class product on the A380. For one, the A380 is a pleasure to fly, given how quiet the aircraft is.
Furthermore, the A380 has much nicer lavatories than you’ll find on Lufthansa’s other aircraft, and they even have urinals (which… I always found to be an unusual feature).
I also love how the Airbus A380 has a tail camera, which you won’t find on other Lufthansa aircraft with first class.
While Lufthansa’s seats aren’t very private, the bedding is excellent, and I find this to be one of the most comfortable beds in the sky.
Like on Lufthansa’s other aircraft, the entertainment on the A380 is cutting edge… if it were 2007. The entertainment is awful, both in terms of the selection, and in terms of the quality of the screen. Fortunately Lufthansa offers free Wi-Fi in first class, so I consider that to be a fair tradeoff.
The service & food on this flight were great
I find Lufthansa to be quite consistent with service in first class, and crews usually range from good to excellent. I have to say, the crew on this flight couldn’t have been better. The two flight attendants working first class were fabulously friendly and attentive, and took such good care of my family. They were among the most professional Lufthansa flight attendants I’ve ever had.
Heck, even the captain came to the upper deck during boarding to greet each first class passenger. I find that happens maybe every 10 flights or so, and it’s always a cute touch, so I guess the stars really aligned on this flight in terms of service. I couldn’t help but ask the captain a few questions about his thoughts on the return of the A380, and he was happy to chat for a moment (we were delayed quite a bit due to late connecting passengers).
Not only was the service good, but the food on this flight was among the best I’ve had on Lufthansa. For one, the champagne selection was exceptional, which wasn’t the case on my previous Lufthansa flight. The rose champagne on offer was Laurent-Perrier 2007 Grande Cuve Rose Alexandra.
There was also Laurent-Perrier Grand Siecle, which I enjoyed.
The meal was quite good too, and started with caviar, and a delicious appetizer trio of chicken, tataki salmon, and carrot rolls.
For the main course, I mixed things up (that’s right, I didn’t have fish!), and ordered the pecorino ravioli, which was one of the best ravioli dishes I’ve had on a plane.
Then for dessert I had a tarte tatin with vanilla ice cream.
For the pre-arrival meal I asked for the beyond meat burger, which was surprisingly well executed for being served on a plane.
The real treat was sharing the experience with loved ones
What made this flight the best, though, was being able to share it with my mom, her partner, and my dad. I managed to snag four award seats a bit under a week before departure (there were even more award seats than that available!), so locking that all in with miles was awesome.
Flying first class alone is fun, but seeing family and loved ones enjoying a great experience is even more enjoyable. We all had the best time imaginable, and didn’t want the flight to end. I’m not exaggerating when I say that it’s a flight I’ll never forget, since it’s rare you get to have memories like that!
While there are better hard products out there, Lufthansa first class is the most readily available first class product across the Atlantic using transferable points. There are no fuel surcharges, award space regularly opens up within days of departure, and there are often multiple seats.
Bottom line
We had an excellent flight in Lufthansa’s A380 first class. The hard product was as expected, though the soft product was among the best I’ve had on Lufthansa, with a lovely crew, top notch champagne, and good food.
I’m happy to see Lufthansa continue to expand its first class footprint, since it’s great for those of us looking to redeem miles. That was especially true on this flight, where I managed to book us four first class award seats.
What do you make of Lufthansa’s A380 first class?
honestly, the cabin looks so 90's. I cannot believe to see this kind of cabin in 2023 especially for first class, compared to what other airlines are offering
I'm sorry, but this post is incredibly perverted in my eyes. At the latest when the writer addressed the quality of the champagne onboard the plane, I had the feeling that I would throw up. I know there are a great many people who don't care whether they and their family pay $40,000 or $4,000 for a flight like this, and I don't deny their right to fly 1st. class. But I just feel the...
I'm sorry, but this post is incredibly perverted in my eyes. At the latest when the writer addressed the quality of the champagne onboard the plane, I had the feeling that I would throw up. I know there are a great many people who don't care whether they and their family pay $40,000 or $4,000 for a flight like this, and I don't deny their right to fly 1st. class. But I just feel the mention of champagne is unintuitive. Hundreds of millions of people are starving in this world, the Swiss company Nestlée digs up the people's water and sells it to them for a lot of money, Russia's soldiers murder tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians. No, you don't have to understand how the description of a flight from Europe to the USA makes me go astray. But you can still think about it, I think.
Ben: "The real treat was sharing the experience with loved ones"
PaniBodo: How dare you!
Ahhh, I have been lucky to have that Grand Cuve Rose Alexandra treat on a LH F flight.
What a wonderful memory you were able to share with your family!
The total lack of privacy is a deal breaker for me, you're all exposed and everyone can see one another.
Oh my gosh, imagine being seen in public...in public!
I've seen more attractive international business products, these are hideous.
Hi Ben,
Any feedback from your parents about their experience of the FCT?
(i assume they used the FCT on the flight FRA-MUC)
I like lh first and recently realized how much of a premium I pay to foot space. Flew Qantas biz on the a380 and had the bulkhead row 16. Slept immeasurably better than the week before on a non bulkhead. Makes all the difference for me on sleep
Looks like a great business class product!
Great pre-review - so happy for you to experience all of that splendor with family- it’s always great to see how much joy it brings them
How about a review of BOS-MUC business class? I'll be there end of September, my first 380!
Hopefully they'll still fly for at least a couple more years, since I still need to check off LH from my 380 list, hah!
Ben: Please don’t stop posting when you booked the award flights and how many miles you paid. Thx.
Ben
Please moderate the use of adjectives “incredibly “ or “incredible”. When everything is incredible, nothing is.
Or the click bait titles- lovely, wow, crazy!
And I’ve overly underwhelmed ;-) with Lucky’s constant need for privacy on an airplane. When you’re traveling with 100s of strangers in a high-density metal tube, there is no expectation of privacy.
Ben, how was the caviar? I flew LH first LAX-FRA-SIN in July and caviar on both sectors lacked character (yes, a really first world issue). Have since flown SQ and EK and their quality was just excellent.
Just arrived back in Brazil in Luftansa 747 first after an awful couple of days. There was heavy pour in Frankfurt, but the crew kept delaying the flight to wait for passengers on a late Tel Aviv arrival, until the airport closed (Frankfurt curfew) and the flight was cancelled. All the information we got was to deplane and not wait for bags. That’s all. We didn’t get hotels, meals or ground transportation, nothing.
The...
Just arrived back in Brazil in Luftansa 747 first after an awful couple of days. There was heavy pour in Frankfurt, but the crew kept delaying the flight to wait for passengers on a late Tel Aviv arrival, until the airport closed (Frankfurt curfew) and the flight was cancelled. All the information we got was to deplane and not wait for bags. That’s all. We didn’t get hotels, meals or ground transportation, nothing.
The was also no definition whether the flight was getting rescheduled.
So a fellow first passenger (who I just met) got quickly trough passport control (mine is Brazilian) and reserved the last room at a hotel in the city centre for me. I arrived hours later (passport control was a zoo) and kept myself awake until the app showed any news, which it did at 3am. There was no email, no push notification on the app, nothing. The next day I got to the airport, and again my flight kept being delayed further and further. I could not understand their stand, since Swiss first to GRU had 7 (!!) seats available. When I finally convinced them to rebook me, our original flight was boarding (20h late), so I went with it. Got to GRU so late that there was no more flights to Brasilia, so had to pay for a hotel and a new flight (which cost me EUR 500).
Lufthansa did nothing and already responded to my emails simply ignoring the various receipts I send them (hotel, taxi etc.).
If that’s how they treat their only 4 first class passengers on that flight, imagine how they treat the 300+ in economy.
DISGUSTED at Lufthansa ground crew, but cannot not praise their FAs who were also abandoned by the airline (they only got out the plane at 2am and had no ground transport or hotels), but still delivered very kind service. Also, we got the exact same catering, which impressed me as well.
Just arrived back in Brazil in Luftansa 747 first. There was heavy pour in Frankfurt, but the crew kept delaying the flight to wait for passengers on a late Tel Aviv arrival, until the airport closed (Frankfurt curfew) and the flight was cancelled. All the information we got was to deplane and not wait for bags. That’s all. We didn’t get hotels, meals or ground transportation, nothing.
The was also no definition whether the...
Just arrived back in Brazil in Luftansa 747 first. There was heavy pour in Frankfurt, but the crew kept delaying the flight to wait for passengers on a late Tel Aviv arrival, until the airport closed (Frankfurt curfew) and the flight was cancelled. All the information we got was to deplane and not wait for bags. That’s all. We didn’t get hotels, meals or ground transportation, nothing.
The was also no definition whether the flight was getting rescheduled.
So a fellow first passenger (who I just met) got quickly trough passport control (mine is Brazilian) and reserved the last room at a hotel in the city centre for me. I arrived hours later (passport control was a zoo) and kept myself awake until the app showed any news, which it did at 3am. There was no email, no push notification on the app, nothing. The next day I got to the airport, and again my flight kept being delayed further and further. I could not understand their stand, since Swiss first to GRU had 7 (!!) seats available. When I finally convinced them to rebook me, our original flight was boarding (20h late), so I went with it. Got to GRU so late that there was no more flights to Brasilia, so had to pay for a hotel and a new flight (which cost me EUR 500).
Lufthansa did nothing and already responded to my emails simply ignoring the various receipts I send them (hotel, taxi etc.).
If that’s how they treat their only 4 first class passengers on that flight, imagine how they treat the 300+ in economy.
DISGUSTED at Lufthansa ground crew, but cannot not praise their FAs who were also abandoned by the airline (they only got out the plane at 2am and had no ground transport or hotels), but still delivered very kind service. Also, we got the exact same catering, which impressed me as well.
I agree. Ground service is a disaster and totally not acceptable for the first class. They just don't care. At all.
Alison - way way too much detail! Nobody cares!
Allison your post has nothing to do with first class service on Lufthansa. SAD!
I disagree. Tangentially related and a pretty decent story
Yeah a pointless story which can never be proven...
Allison your post has nothing to do with first class service on Lufthansa. SAD!
I disagree. Tangentially related and a pretty decent story
“Flying first class alone is fun, but seeing family and loved ones enjoying a great experience is even more enjoyable. “
Beautiful. In the end that’s what matters.
Great stuff, Ben! I hope you're able to visit the new Chase Sapphire lounge in Boston. I was just there yesterday and it's pretty nice... almost up to the Capital One lounge standards at DFW. The shower suites are especially great.
I went right after it opened on a Sunday evening and it was so packed that I regretted using my one time Priority pass to visit. The wait for the shower was 4 hours lol.
“Fortunately Lufthansa offers free Wi-Fi in first class, so I consider that to be a fair tradeoff...”
…when the WiFi is working.
I have > 10 vouchers from LH and LX that have never been used because WiFi was not working.
Hey Ben,
You wrote about urinals in the bathroom/toilet but the photo below the paragraph shows a sink.
I think.
Hello Ben, A380 always a treat! However I would like you to make a list of the 10 most comfortable seats to sleep in business and first….I find AF and new BA Suites to be superior than LH and also probably than LX. QR is good and SQ as well….your ideas? Thanks
Hello Ben, I think you should make a post on the most comfortable seats to sleep (both in business and in first). Often the most important for a night flight is to get a solid sleep before a working day. I find AF to be excellent in business, LH not that good (not much space for feets)….BA on the new Suites also is good….I would like to see your impressions on a list. Thanks
I flew first class on that route from Boston earlier this month. Captain Tom came back to chat before takeoff and he was wonderful. We crossed the Atlantic in less than six hours! I find the A380 to be the most elevated LH first experience.
@ Matt -- Hah, too funny! I imagine he's rather bored just flying to Boston and New York constantly. Happy you had a good experience as well.