Background
At time of booking, the flight was reasonably empty and I just took 7K:
Routing
We'll continue this series with the ~300km hop from Munich to Frankfurt:
Flight routing
- 1
- 2LH119 - Business - Munich → Frankfurt - Boeing B787-9
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
Pre-flight
After clearing immigration at MUC, I stop to check the FIDS at T2.
The flight is showing on time departing from G28.
Lufthansa Business Lounge
A long line of people in front of me entering the lounge were veering off to the Senator side, so I decided to test my luck on the Business side hoping it would be less crowded. Heading upstairs, I was immediately granted a shower room, which is large, but lacks a lot of amenities (i.e., dental kit, hygiene kit, etc.).
After freshening up, I went off towards the buffet to grab a drink. The lounge was not too full, but I opted to just take a seat in the back to get some work done before heading down the gate. I can't stop by MUC without a Franziskaner.
Boarding
Reaching the gate at the indicated boarding time, it was a zoo and there were no announcements being made.
Our plane today is D-ABPB named Wiesbaden, a 2019-built B789 that was supposed to go to HU, then was supposed to go to UK, and eventually LH snapped it up in 2023. Since cargo is still being loaded, I wandered around the duty free area to kill some time.
Boarding finally started at 18:58, which made me start to get unnecessarily worried about my connection in FRA.
Entering the plane, several crew were there to greet passengers and directed me through and to the left.
LH has Super Diamond seats on their B789s in the standard 1-2-1 configuration across 7 rows.
The screen is large and crisp, but features the old IFE interface.
The small foot cubby.
The side console features reading light, lamp, and literature sleeve.
The standard storage compartments of Super Diamond seat.
IFE remote, USB-A, and 110v universal outlet.
Long-haul headphones, but likely have not been cleaned all day so will not be used. They are noise cancelling, but on the ear style so likely not very comfortable for prolonged use.
Safety card on this B789.
Seat controls.
The aisle armrest can be retracted and features more storage.
No individual air vents on this NTU aircraft.
It will be 100% load in J and boarding completed in just 13 minutes at 19:11.
Flight
There are no PDBs offered, but the crew did come up the aisle handing out water bottles.
We pushed back at 19:18 giving some glimpses of EN and KM tails.
The safety video played as the GEnx-1Bs fired up.
Taxing out.
We took off at 19:28, ~30 minutes late.
The IFE has the old interface, which is very tedious to navigate since the movies are in list format.
The inflight map is flightpath 3D.
There is Wi-Fi on this plane, but likely not worth the money given the flight time. The free messaging (with LH account) allows you to at least read/send low data size e-mails. Screenshot is from the next flight, but the same rates apply for all intra-European flights.
I had very little time to play around with the IFE before the meal tray was delivered. The tray contained a salmon main, the Axel Schmitt bread, and a chocolate and raspberry cake. For a 35-minute flight, there is little to fault.
A very good cold salmon dish.
A refreshing towel is inside of the napkin with the cutlery.
The drink cart arrived and I took a glass of white wine.
The trays were cleared at 19:48 for landing, just 20 minutes after take off.
At ~300km, it is a very short flight.
Our route tonight with approach into FRA from the east as is typical.
Like Munich, dense low lying fog.
The red glow of the Waldstadion as we approach the runway.
We recover our 30 minute delay with an on-time arrival into FRA at 20:04.
Taxing past a LH B748.
NH B789 in Star Wars R2-D2 special livery.
We take our slot next to some LH narrow bodies.
A last look at my seat deplaning.
The center pair of seats across the aisle with retractable divider.
We were sent forward to L1 to deplane and I was quickly out and on my way into FRA.
I'll leave of this series here as I begin my layover in Frankfurt, thanks for stopping by!
Flight Information
Lufthansa, LH119
Equipment: Boeing B787-900 [D-ABPB “Wiesbaden”, delivered March 2023 (HU NTU, UK NTU)]
Departure: 19:00 (ATD: 19:29)
Arrival: 20:05 (ATA: 20:04)
Flight time: 0:35
Nice to catch a widebody on this route, especially one with a superior cabin to the standard LH J offering! Not that it really matters on such a short flight, but cool to get to see it. I will say LH have done a good job of erasing any trace of Hainan on these birds--aside from the actual seats. Often times carriers will just re-upholster seats on NTU birds and you'll still see placards in the original language of the NTU carrier, but in this case they all look like fresh German/English LH placards. Nice attention to detail. Impressed with the multi-course meal on such a short domestic flight, even if it is cold. It actually looks quite good, and salmon is always a good option for cold meals in premium cabins.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for stopping by Kevin! When they handed out the water bottle before departure, I was expecting that to be it other than a packaged item like on their CRJs, but with 4-5 dedicated FAs for the J cabin they had 2 carts up each aisle to ensure everyone was served and offered full bar service even with a full cabin. Shows that the good long-haul service on the previous flight was not a fluke.