Transferring at LHR
I arrived in on a United flight from Newark, and was connecting to Hamburg. If you want to read that review, you can do so here.
Transferring at Heathrow is a fairly easy process. I followed the usual signs for arriving at Terminal 2, and then turned right and followed the purple “flight connections in Terminal 2” sign. Once you get through there, you go through security again.
Security took some time as you need to take out all of your liquids, electronics, jackets come off, and belts and shoes come off.
Once through, you follow the signs which lead you to the UK border. It’s a quick sterilized transfer. There are two lines, one for if your final destination is in the UK, and one if it is not. If it’s not, the officer scans your boarding pass, takes a Quick Look at your passport (I mean she didn’t even open it), and sends you on your way.
After that, you’re airside in Terminal 2. It’s easy.
The Lounge: United Club LHR
The Lufthansa lounges at Heathrow are closed for renovations until mid-January. And since Eurowings is technically not Star Alliance, the only lounge I had access to was the United Club on account that I arrived in on a United Polaris flight and that I’m a United Club member. Other Star alliance lounges only grant you access if you’re departing on a Star alliance carrier, not arriving in on one.
It is strange that Eurowings is technically not a part of Star alliance even though it’s oart if the Lufthansa group, so you don't get access to the United Club if just departing on Eurowings.
I made the long walk back to the B satellite, which included taking the underground walkway until I arrived at the United Club.
I’ve reviewed the Heathrow United Club in depth before, and it honestly has not changed. You can view that review here.
The Heathrow Club has showers, and I was in desperate need of a shower this morning. I made my way to the room with the shower suites and the woman checked my boarding pass. She then allowed me to take a toothbrush and some deodorant for my use, and let me into a suite.
The suite is fairly spacious, and is similar to what you’d find in the United Arrivals Lounge at Heathrow. There is shower gel and shampoo and conditioner in pump bottles on the wall of the shower for you to use.
The shower has a rain can shower head overhead as well as a handheld shower head for you to use. Note, that you can’t use both at the same time, it’s one or the other. Which, I don’t mind, just want to make you all aware of that.
I quickly showered and put my clothes back on and made my way back into the lounge.
The lounge was busy. Very busy. It is the first weekend of the new year after all, and there were a lot of families flying home to the US from their holidays in London.
I went to the buffet area and grabbed some breakfast, then had a seat and charged my phone up for the rest of my stay.
Something out of the ordinary happened during my stay. They made an announcement stating that Someone used the restroom facilities to do something that was “not permitted” and “unhygienic.” And that we should be respectful of the facilities. They made the announcement twice, so whatever it was- it must’ve been really bad.
Keep in mind that lounge staff are not airline staff members most of the time and are typically contracted hospitality services staff members. They are not there to be berated, disrespected or to deal with large unhygienic messes, which is what I think the case was here. It’s always important to show them gratitude when they are servicing you for no charge to you.
Boarding
I left the club at 1:00 for my 1:40 boarding time, however, what I didn’t realize was that the gate wouldn’t be announced until 1:30, so I wandered around the A satellite for a bit.
We were boarding out of gate A3.
There was a sign that said “Group 1” which is where I stood.
We sort of just stood waiting for a while. There were no seats left in the seating area and we were all just crowded in the walkway next to the group 1 sign because the rest of the area was roped off by the queueing ropes. So if you had a question for the gate agent, you couldn’t even go up and ask someone.
At 1:57, they said that we were ready for boarding. Group 1 was invited to board which was all business class, Star alliance gold, senators, HON circle members, and pre boards. That’s a lot of people for one boarding group. I was probably the 50th person on board.
The Cabin and Seat
I boarded and quickly found my seat, 2A, a business class seat on the left side of the aircraft.
Eurowings, like most European carriers brands business class as their standard economy seats with just the middle seat blocked out for additional space. So, the seat itself is really nothing special.
The seat features one window.
Pre-Departure
At 2:13, the flight attendant came by and brought me a bottle of water.
At 2:21, boarding was completed. I had nobody in my entire row, which was nice.
The Flight
We pushed back at 2:24, 14 minutes behind schedule, and the purser made a welcome announcement and let us know that our flight time would be a fast 1 hour 10 minutes.
The safety demonstration began right after that. Also done in both German and English.
As we taxied out, I caught a glimpse of the Concorde that's permanently stationed at LHR.
We were lining up on runway 9R at 2:39 pm.
About 3 minutes after departure, we reached 10,000 feet, and were in our way to Hamburg.
Because Heathrow is such a busy airspace, sometimes you just hold at certain climb attitudes before continuing your climb on departure. We held at 10,000 feet for a few moments and then started climbing again. We then hit some really rough air.
Then there was an announcement that said that the WiFi was now available.
At 2:56, an announcement was made that you can order a meal for purchase through the wings bistro. Eurowings also has a bistro on board menu so that if you are in economy, you can pay for food and drinks. I didn’t find the pricing to be unreasonable. I’m used to US carriers charging you $7 for a small can of pringles, so €7.99 for a hot currywurst combo with a non-alcoholic drink seemed like a reasonable price to me. But, maybe for Europeans, that’s expensive.
At 2:58 local time in London, the purser came by to take my meal order. He said “Mr. Shivpilot14! Were are pleased to offer you something to eat and drink from our wings bistro menu! You can choose anything!” To which, I replied, “I can have anything on the menu?” He said “Of course! Except the hot food options we cannot do because they were not catered!”
I ordered some pringles and peanuts and the Krombacher Bier, Eurowings house beer. When flying to Germany, am I right?
It was served in a paper cup, but this is a low cost carrier, so what do you expect?
WiFi and Entertainment
Unlike the Lufthansa intra-European flights that I’ve taken, Eurowings has in flight WiFi and entertainment. The WiFi isn’t available until you reach cruising altitude though, and the entertainment is available from gate to gate. The IFE options were old. They didn’t have any real new releases available but they did have a large and wide selection so you won’t get bored.
Wifi was also not too badly priced at €5.90 for the entire flight. It seemed to work pretty well too.
Descent and Arrival
At 4:22 local time in Hamburg, I felt the aircraft begin to descend.
We touched down on runway 23 in Hamburg at 4:45, and parked at the gate at 4:54 pm local time which was only 9 minutes later than originally scheduled.
Epilogue: How Eurowings handled my missing bag situation
The story doesn’t quite end here. Due to the cancellation that I faced in Newark, my checked bag was still in Newark. I had confirmed this with the AirTag that I had in the bag. I checked the AirTag when I was in London.
So, I knew I would have to deal with filing a missing bag claim when I got to Hamburg, and it would be interesting to see how a non- Star alliance partner of United would handle this.
So, there was no baggage office in the baggage claim area. When I asked someone they told me that the best thing for me to do would be to exit the airport, and call tomorrow. I wasn’t going to accept that. I didn’t have a phone number to call, and I wanted this resolved ASAP so it could get here as soon as possible.
I decided to go to the ticketing desk and talk to someone there. The only problem is- Eurowings flies out of Terminal 1 and we arrived in Terminal 2. HAM's terminals are really not separate "terminals" at all, it's one building with two distinct check in and arrival areas.
I made my way to Terminal 1 and went up to the ticketing desk. A very nice gentleman listened to my story, took my documents and gave me a bottle of water for the wait. I was very impressed.
He helped me fill out the lost luggage form. Because it was only available in German. He asked for specific details of my itinerary, and explained in detail, the next steps in the process.
He said that United will typically put the bag on a flight leaving the US tonight and we should have the bag by tomorrow, and that they would deliver it to my hotel when it arrives.
He also explained to me that I can file a claim for reimbursement with Eurowings for any items that I needed.
My bag arrived the very next day, and Eurowings immediately approved and paid me for the one item that I needed to purchase. It was that simple!
