Lufthansa A380 Premium Economy to Frankfurt and Munich

[yflyer]

There was a restaurant that served a full American breakfast, which also doubled, in the evenings, as the Executive Lounge, as there was no dedicated lounge on the premises.





There was a great breakfast selection.

I also had lunch at the in-house restaurant Grill93.

I tried the local trout, This was spectacular.

[yflyer]

Munich is where the worldwide headquarters of BMW is located. Apart from the distinctively shaped tower block, shaped like the four cylinders of a car engine, the BMW World Customer Experience and Exhibition Center (“BMW Welt”) is also located here.



On one of the days, I asked the driver of my taxi why there were so many Mercedes taxi’s here, when the HQ of BMW was right at their doorstep. Should’t this be BMW territory? He had an interesting perspective: First, Mercedes was the first with a strong diesel engined offering, and hence dominated the market.

Another taxi driver said that Mercs were the most popular because taxis here were put through quite tough treatment, with constant starts and stops, and his perception was that the Mercedes was the most reliable; Audi’s and BMW’s would start to hit issues a few years down the line but the Mercs would just keep on going and going. An interesting observation, because in Singapore, the perception is that all 3 German prestige brands were at the top of the heap, and that you paid a premium for the top notch engineering, compared to non-German makes. Apparently all things are not equal at the top, and that even between these 3 premium brands, there were perceived differences in quality. Well that was the opinion that one driver expressed, anyway. Probably not a large enough sample size to generalize...

[yflyer]

Another distinctive structure here was the football stadium, the Allianz Arena, home to the football club Bayern Munich. The exterior is white, but can change colour depending on the match or the event.



Folks in Germany are crazy about football. The hotel room TV remote even had a button marked “Football”...

[yflyer]

This was a very hectic trip. I hardly got out of the office. On the last day of my short stay, I had a very small window of opportunity to do what I enjoy most: head outside for run, and enjoy a meal in the city.

The Marriott is very close to the English Garden (The “Englischer Garten”, a large public park in the center of Munich) I’ve run through there before (TR here).

Immediately after heading back to the hotel after work, I changed into PT attire (It was a very pleasant 18-19 degrees, so just a T-shirt and shorts were sufficient)…and headed to the English Garden for a run. Sunset was fast approaching, but I enjoyed the dusk run through the park as the sky darkened.

My run started at the Munich Marriott, where I headed 1.5km south-east to reach the English Garden, somewhere around the middle section of the park, where the crowd was already thinning out as it was going to be dark soon. I ran the length of the park, starting in the centre, heading to the northern end, then retracing my steps before heading south, right past the man-made stream where, amazingly, there were several die-hard surfers still surfing, in semi-darkness, in the man-made stream.

From the south end of the park, I headed into the city center and ended my run at Marienplatz, the central square in Munich, for a total distance of 12km.



I arrived at Marienplatz just after sundown -- the old buildings in the central square were illuminated beautifully against the dark blue sky.



I took a stroll around the old town and plonked myself down, still in my PT attire, at an outdoor table at Wirtshaus Ayingers, which was located right across the street from the famous Hofbrauhaus beer brewery and beer hall in the center of Munich. The famous blue HB logo can be seen on litre-sized beer mugs everywhere in Munich.



In fact, Ayingers is very well known in its own right, both for beer and the food they serve.



I was a week early for Oktoberfest (Festivities would begin a week later) but all around me, humonguous mugs of beer were being down in frightening quantities. I ordered a glass of Ayingers beer and a beef goulash.



At that point, I realized that while I was running, the heat and perspiration counterbalanced the cold weather and I was perfectly comfortable running in SG-style PT kit even if the temperature dropped down to 12 or 13 degrees. But once I sat down at the outdoor table outside Ayingers after my run, the frigid evening temperatures and cold evening breeze started to take it’s toll, and I began to feel a little cold.

The warmth of the tavern indoor seating beckoned, and there was a lively crowd inside, but I did not feel comfortable asking for a table inside dressed the way I was.

My plate of beef goulash with buttered spätzle (A kind of dumpling) arrived.



I wolfed down the goulash quickly, savouring the rich flavour of the goulash, nicely offset by the creamy spätzle, while at the same time feeling increasingly chilly.

Taxi’s were plentiful in the old town. After dinner, I grabbed a taxi and headed back to the hotel for a good night’s rest before my flight the next day.

[yflyer]

In the morning, I headed to Munich Airport for my short domestic flight to FRA before connecting to Singapore. I was very lucky with my schedule. The day after I arrived, LH long haul went on strike. And the day before my departure, it was the turn of LH short and mid haul for labor action. The flight display in the hotel the previous day said it all.



But today, on the day of my departure, everything was operating like clockwork. I breezed through check-in and security, using the dedicated LH F / Star Gold check in area and security lanes, and was in the LH Senator Lounge in minutes (An earlier write-up on the MUC LH Senator lounge can be found here).

The flight was on a small A319, rather than the long thin A321, but the hard product was similar.

Onboard, I browsed through their shopping catalog. I’ve seen a lot of interesting stuff in these catalogs, but I thought it was quite cool to be able to redeem a car (A BMW i3, no less) with your hard earned miles. Maybe SQ should start a scheme to allow redemption of Krisflyer miles for a Toyota Corolla Altis (Or at least bid for a COE….)

[yflyer]

After a short flight in clear skies, we arrived in FRA, and deplaned at Gate A1.





I looked at my boarding pass to check my connecting gate…



Z62! Are you kidding me?

I need to get from A to Z?

On previous trips, my connections at FRA were memorable for the perversely lengthly treks through the terminal. Sometimes a walk, occasionally a full on sprint.

FRA was where I learnt, in desperation, the art of how to thumb a ride from any passing buggy.

I resisted the impulse to change into my PT shoes and begin my warm up routine right there and then…



Thankfully, the Z gates were simply a level above the A gates.

It turned out to be one of the shortest, and most convenient connections ever.

The immigration counters to the Z gates was located right round the corner, and there were, what, 2 people lining up in front of three border control agents. Perfect! I greeted the young, bespectacled man across from the counter and placed my passport on the counter.

He thumbed through the passport from front to back, increasingly wide-eyed at the passport stamps filling the pages until he reached one of the two last remaining empty pages in my travel document, and neatly stamped the EU exit stamp next to my arrival stamp.

And then I was through to the Z gates. Best of all, there was no security check on arrival. I guess there is enough faith in MUC security that any arrivals from MUC or other domestic destinations do not require screening on arrival in FRA. Brilliant!

Before I entered the Z Gate area, I actually went up to the LH Senator Lounge by the A Gates and asked the lady manning the lounge entrance: “Are there any lounges in the Z gates? Or should I use this one?”.

“There is a very new lounge in the Z Gate area. You should go there. It is very famous!” she replied.

[yflyer]

And now here I was at the new Lufthansa Senator Lounge.



The Business Lounge shares the entrance, but it is a completely separate lounge on another level, accessible via elevator.

I entered the Senator Lounge area.





This looked fairly similar to the LH Senator Lounge at the A Gates, but it was of course newer, and did appear to be laid out slightly better. Not a quantum leap in comfort, but definitely superior ambience, than the A Terminal Lounge. It felt open, airy and inviting. This was a lounge I would be very happy to spend a lot of time in.

If you sense a little Déjà vu here, it is because the Area A Senator Lounge (Covered earlier in this TR) and this lounge are actually very similar. I would say that this one, in Area Z, is a better, upgraded version of the Area A Senator Lounge.

I took a stroll around.

[yflyer]

There was a bank of 4 semi-enclosed phone booths by the dining area. I thought this was a great idea, because nothing ruins the ambience of an airline lounge more than hearing one side of a heated business conversation that suit-clad road warriers, with phones superglued to their ears, are so fond of having.



A few lounge chairs with a gentle electric rocking mechanism…



Excellent coffee and tea-making facilities…



A smoking room…

[yflyer]

Signature lemonade, a new lounge feature…



Some of the wines on offer…





Full self service bar…



…and beer on tap…



Good selection of bread and cold cuts.





Sausages and cold potato salad…



Hard boiled eggs are very popular here.



A fairly basic selection of hot food, but what was available was quite tasty.

Tomato soup…



Meatballs in creamy sauce with rice…



Goulash and potatoes

[yflyer]

I helped myself to a little of everything…

[yflyer]

The work area was not especially large, but it was not busy when I was there.



Complimentary wifi internet access was provided, with pretty good bandwidth.

There was a small sleeping area tucked into the back of the lounge as well, although with just a few beds (I think just 4-5) I would not count on being able to get a bed at peak periods.





I took a shower in the lounge before my flight. The shower room was spacious and well appointed.







There were also convenient lockers to store your carry-on luggage.

[yflyer]

The gate Z62 was just under 10 minutes walk from the Lounge. There were a fair number of shops and F&B outlets along the pier as well.

By the time I got to the gates, boarding had already commenced, but premium pax could board using a dedicated automated lane, just by scanning their boarding pass. Once scanned, the gate would open automatically to let you in. A very efficient system.



Today’s flight was operated by A380 reg D-AIMM, named “Delhi”, one of the newest A380’s in the LH fleet, first delivered in March 2015. On my outbound SIN-FRA, I flew the 2nd oldest A380 in the fleet, D-AIMB “Munchen”. Today, I would fly the 2nd newest…



I stepped onboard...

[yflyer]

This aircraft had an all-Y main deck, as well as a small Y section in the rear of the upper deck.

I was seated in the rear of the main deck. I noticed that LH boards upper deck Y passengers through the front main deck entrance. They go right to the rear, then up the rear stairs to their seats. I took the opportunity to head upstairs to check out the upper deck.



This is a fairly small Y cabin, a lot smaller than the SQ A380 Y upper deck, laid out in a comfortable 2-4-2.



Unlike SQ, who have 2 rows of 2-seaters in the rear center section of the upper deck, LH manage to have a row of 3 seats in the rear of the center block.



Ample recline in the last row of Y on the upper deck (and on the lower deck as well, for that matter).

[yflyer]

While upstairs, I took the opportunity to make an incursion into the J cabin to snap a few pictures.



The LH J cabin is laid out 2-2-2. The two seats in the middle block are angled towards each other, which means that the passenger’s feet almost touch at the far end of the seat, separated by a thin barrier.



I didn’t get a picture of the window-side seats, so I’m not sure what the footwell looks there, but they do appear, from the seat map at least, to be angled in the same direction, and not towards each other (Can anyone confirm?).

[yflyer]

Back downstairs, I took stock of the Y seating in my section.



Y on the main deck is conventional 3-4-3. The cabin felt fairly roomy and spacious. There was decent seat pitch and not much of an obstruction in the footwell, although the aisle seats on the left (“C”) side have a slight obstruction caused by the metal IFE box.



Recline is fine. The front of the seat does not move forward like the SQ seat, but overall the seat was quite comfortable both in upright and reclined mode.



The headrest, with a fabric headrest cover, is height-adjustable and has movable wings.