Review of Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Seattle in Economy

Welcome back to the final part of the series from 2017! In this post, I'll be flying a Lufthansa 747-400 in Economy Class from Frankfurt to what was my home for 5 years, Seattle. As a quick reminder, the itinerary of the trip looked like this:

When last we saw each other, I had just landed in Frankfurt after a short Austrian Airlines flight from Vienna. After a very uneventful transfer, I found myself at the relatively-new Pier A-Plus, where my flight would be departing from. I also spotted the aircraft that brought me to Europe 2 weeks before, D-ABVY.

Lufthansa A320 (D-AIZP 'Plauen')

Already at my gate when I arrived was the majestic 747-400 that would fly me across the pond, D-ABVR, built in March 1997.

I also spotted the aircraft that brought me from Vienna, OE-LBA.

Lufthansa A380-800 (D-AIML 'Hamburg') to Houston as LH440.

Today's flight info.

Shortly afterwards, it was time to board the queen.

A look at the fuselage.

Lufthansa's crane at the purser's station.

And on the IFE screen, a wonderful photo of Seattle's beautiful waterfront.

Nice to get a perspective on how massive the wing is, as it's hard to tell from the upper deck. Our neighbor was a Lufthansa A340-300 (D-AIFD 'Gießen'), which was to fly to Atlanta as LH444.

Our mighty winglet.

10 minutes after our scheduled departure, Captain Dietmar came on the PA to welcome us on board, apologized for our delay, but promised that we'd make good time due to favorable winds. We pushed back a few minutes later.

Lufthansa A330-300 (D-AIKS) to Detroit as LH442.

Air Canada 787-9 landing.

Checking the flight controls.

Flaps set for takeoff.

Our reflection and a bunch of empty seats.

Lufthansa 747-8i (D-ABYI 'Potsdam') to JFK as LH400.

FRA's tower (the active one, I think).

Lufthansa 747-400 (D-ABVX)

Air China 777-300ER with a mismatched nose.

Delta 767-400 taking off.

Lufthansa A380-800 (D-AIMJ 'Brüssel') landing.

Lufthansa 747-400 (D-ABTL) taking off.

Lufthansa A380-800 (D-AIMN 'Deutschland') to San Francisco as LH454 ahead of us.

The 747 from earlier.

Lufthansa A320 taking off.

Lufthansa A321 (D-AIRT 'Regensburg') holding short.

Another control tower.

LH454 taking off.

Lufthansa Cargo 777F (D-ALFB 'Jambo Kenya') behind us.

SAS 737-600 landing.

Our turn!

The always-beautiful Yankee Tango.

Rotate!

Climbing into the German skies.

"Lufthansa 491 Heavy, contact departure."

The classic left turn after departure (FRA edition).

Flaps coming up.

Takeoff video.

Turning back toward the US.

Headrest and antimacassar.

The large screens throughout the cabin showed the airshow for thee entire flight.

The service around 30 minutes after takeoff with Soletti.

Up next was a hot towel.

Then the drink service began. I chose tea.

15 minutes later, the main event came.

A tiny salad, which was unmemorable.

A tasty dessert.

And the main dish was a delicious pasta with cheese sauce and spinach. Not the healthiest meal, but really, really tasty.

And another dessert, this tasty little chocolate.

After lunch I went to visit the Premium Economy, which was fairly empty.

Antimacassar very similar to the ones in Business Class on LH narrowbodies.

Overall a comfortable seat. I'd like to try it sometime.

The view from 5L.

The flight attendants came around midflight with drinks. This time, I went for an OJ.

I binge-watched Veep.

Our winglet.

Over icy Northern Canada.

A 747-400 wing with GEnx engines? Hmm… ;-)

Around 1h20m before landing, another snack was served. They called it dinner, but at 10:20 AM local time it's bunch at best.

A bread roll with pudding.

And the main course was a vegetarian ravioli. It was alright, but not nearly as good as the previous pasta.

The pudding was great.

After the meal was cleaned up, the captain came back on the PA and announced the weather in Seattle as rainy and windy. Typical Seattle!

Commencing our descent over British Columbia.

Cabin during descent.

Into the clouds.

Flaps coming down.

First view of Seattle.

Lake Union.

Downtown Seattle.

CenturyLink Field and the Seattle Waterfront.

Harbor Island and the Industrial District.

On final.

Leaving a bit of a vortex behind.

Short final.

SeaTac in sight.

Almost no flare and…

…a rough landing on Runway 16L!

Retracting the flaps while still on the runway.

Landing video.

Icelandair 767-300 (TF-ISN 'Svörtuborgir').

Air Canada E190 (C-FNAN) to Toronto as the very delayed AC540.

Pulling into our gate.

IFE screen reset.

One last look at my seat.

And a final glimpse of D-ABVR, soaking in the Seattle weather.

Immigration was quick and I was home around an hour later. Thanks for coming along this trip we me, and i hope to see you in another series in the not too distant future! :-)