Review of Lufthansa flight from Rio De Janeiro to Frankfurt in Economy

Welcome to the third part of this flight report series from my trip to Italy.
The whole trip itinerary:
- AEP – IGR on LATAM Argentina A320
- IGU – GIG on LATAM Brazil A320
- GIG – FRA on Lufthansa Boeing 747 YOU ARE HERE
- FRA – LIN on Lufthansa A320
- FLR – ZRH on Swiss A220
- ZRH – EZE on Edelweiss A340
LH501
Date: 22/05/19
Origin Rio de Janeiro – Galeao GIG
Destination: Frankfurt – International FRA
Departure: 22.10 (22.30 real)
Arrival: 14.30 (14.15 real)
So, I had arrived in Rio de Janeiro Galeao Airport at 18 hours from Foz de Iguassu. When I deplaned, I started following the path towards Terminal 3 (new one). I had arrived at Terminal 2 (old and renewed one).

Tonight departures. There was a GOL flight to my hometown, Rosario.

After some 15-20 minutes of walking on deserted corridors I found myself on the security check line. Immediately after that was migrations area. Both were really quick.
Once on the airside, I got to the Duty-Free area. There were so many shops, food courts, and bars packed together. I thought I was in a mall!

Later I found out why it the shops were packed. Terminal 3 is like a long empty corridor. So, all the shopping area is on the beginning of it.

The gate for my flight was the farthest. So again, I had to walk a couple of minutes to get there. I couldn’t stop watching this Boeing 747. It was my first time flying this aircraft and I couldn’t be more exited!

To kill some time, I made use of some comfortable sofas on the boarding lounge and enjoyed some good free Wi-Fi. Then I saw a LH agent preparing the desk for boarding so I asked him if I could change my seat for the FRA to LIN flight. I wanted a window seat. He checked on the system and said I had an emergency exit seat and asked me If I was sure I preferred window. For just an hour of flight I rather have some views of the Swiss Alps than stretching my legs. So, he changed this for me and printed new boarding pass.

Waiting areas

Norwegian Boeing 787 about to leave for LGW

Almost an hour before departure boarding was started. First passengers flying First Class and Business Cabin. Then the rest. My seat was 36K.

As I mentioned before, this was my first time on a Boeing 747. My first impression was how tall the celling is and how spacious it feels.

My seat was in the middle compartment and almost all the seats were taken. There were many different nationalities on this flight, Argentineans, Brazilians, Germans, Russians, Israelis, Asians and others.

Nice legroom. I’m 1.75 m tall.

Inflight entertainment system screen.

At 22 the crew introduced themselves in German and English. They announced we were a little bit delayed because of the high runway traffic (?). The FAs handed some hot towels.
Finally, at 22.30 we took off and headed north. I thought to myself how different the take off feels on this heavy 747 than on other widebody aircraft that I flew. I hope to be on a 747 again soon.
Security card (so dirty!)

A couple of minutes later the FAs served some drinks and pretzls. It called my attention how young some members of the crew looked and how senior some others looked! All of them were very friendly.

One hour and a half after take off they served the dinner. The choices were chicken goulash and vegetarian pasta. I took the pasta. It was tasty but the portion was very small. For dessert, rice pudding (yuk! I never thought this coalified as dessert). I expected something better. The goulash seemed good, but the portion looked even smaller.

After dinner I started a movie and they served more dinks. Later the FAs collected the trash. Minutes after they passed offering hot beverages and some alcoholic drinks. I took a Bailey´s shot.

After my movie ended, I put the airshow. I was quite amusing. Before leaving the American continent, I started trying to sleep.
Magazine onboard.

Some hours later I woke up. I saw on the map we were flying over Africa. I tried to open my window shade and a FA came to ask me to close it down. So, I put another movie and approximately 2 hours before landing they served the breakfast. It was an omellete with vegetables. I personally don’t like this kind of breakfast, so I didn’t try it.

While we were flying over France the captain announced we were descending. After some turnings we crossed Frankfurt city from west to east. Finally, at 14.15 local time we landed. I was planning to run because I had a little more than an hour to pass through security and migrations and find the gate for my next flight.

Commerzbank Arena

FRA tarmac

Once on the ground we headed to Terminal 1, concourse Z. Luckily the gate for my flight to Milan was pretty close to the exit of the checkpoint. I found there is a special lane on the checkpoint for tight connections, but my flight didn’t show on those screens. So, I passed through the regular checkpoint.

Last view of B747

The security checkpoint was fast, although it was packed. I heard a lot of Argentinean accent; it seems that LH flight coming from EZE had just arrived too. The agent asked to see something on my backpack. After that I passed through passport control, and after some questions about my trip I was ok to enter Schengen Area.

As I said, luckily the gate for the LIN flight was very close, so it took me just a few steps to get there.