Review of Lufthansa flight from Toronto to Frankfurt in Business

After arriving in Toronto earlier in the day and grabbing some lunch at a nearby Smoke's Poutinerie location (a personal favorite), I made my way back to the airport for the first long-haul flight of my journey–a 7 hour, 35 minute flight over to Frankfurt, Germany.

Booking

As mentioned in my last post, this flight was part of a longer reservation all the way from Newark to Hong Kong, booked via Air Canada's Aeroplan program. Normally, if booking this flight separately in business class, you'd be looking at 60,000 Aeroplan points plus around CA $116, which is pretty reasonable for a flight of this length.

Check-In/Airport

Normally, making a connection through Canada to another international destination doesn't require you to clear customs and immigration. However, I had entered the country for lunch, so I had to go through the security checkpoint as if I was originating there. Security was fairly busy at this time of day, with several international departures in short succession. It took me about 20 minutes to clear the checkpoint.

My flight departed from gate E78. Here's where it got a bit weird–I don't know if there was odd construction going on, or if I came in through the wrong entrance, or what, but it took me ANOTHER twenty minutes to walk back to my gate. I was already running a bit short on time, so I wasn't expecting to spend much time in the lounge, but this ruined any chance I had of even making it in. I would recommend leaving a healthy amount of time to get back to your gate.

Lounge

I didn't make it into the lounge this trip, so I'll hold off on a proper review. Normally on a Lufthansa business class ticket, you'll have access to the Maple Leaf Lounge in the international section of the terminal. This lounge is located above gate E74.

Boarding

The boarding time of 5:40 came and went, with not a word from the gate agents. About five minutes after boarding was supposed to start, they announced a minor delay due to an issue with the cleaning crew. We finally started boarding right around 6:00, about twenty minutes after the scheduled time.

Business class passengers on Lufthansa board in Group 2. Group 1 is typically made up of First Class passengers as well as the airline's top frequent fliers. This aircraft doesn't have first class, so I boarded shortly after the few HON Circle members present.

Our aircraft today was a 26-year-old Boeing 747-400, registered D-ABVM. I've flown aboard a 747 once before, on British Airways going from London to Chicago. However, this would mark my first time in the upper deck, something I'd been hoping to do before these beautiful planes are sent to their retirement for good.

Climbing stairs on a plane was a new experience for me! I made my way to my seat (81A) and settled in.

Staring at the top of a jet bridge rather than the side is an equally new occurrence…

Once I got settled in, the flight attendant offered me a dish of nuts as well as a pre-departure glass of the Champagne Duval-Leroy Brut Réserve.

In-Flight

Lufthansa's business class seat certainly isn't winning any awards these days, given that it's a 2-2-2 configuration on the main deck and 2-2 on the upper deck. The seats themselves are fairly comfortable, and the average traveler shouldn't have any issue with cramping given the bed length of 78". The control panel offers fairly simple controls for adjusting the back, leg rest, lumbar support, and seat.

The IFE is… dated, to say the least. Anyone who's flow Lufthansa recently knows the struggle of their IFE remote. The little "trackpad" in the middle of the remote (yes, that black nub is the cursor) made me feel as though I was using an IBM ThinkPad circa 2002.

The selection of movies and shows was adequate, although there wasn't much in the way of recent (<1 year old) releases. Once I got the remote to cooperate, I didn't have any issues watching a couple of movies while I ate dinner.

Speaking of dinner…

The appetizer was absolutely the highlight of this meal. I picked the Seared Scallop and Poached Prawn starter, which was a lovely little cold plate with some vegetable garnish and a horseradish cocktail sauce. Pretzel rolls are always appreciated as well. The salad was typical airline fare, nothing special. Does anyone know why everyone insists on putting radishes in salad??

Coming off of a nice appetizer, I was looking forward to seeing what awaited me for an entrée. Suffice to say, it was not the most appetizing dish I've ever seen:

According to the menu, this is the Stromboli Pasta with Mushroom Béchamel Sauce and Tomato Basil Sauce. Despite the disheveled appearance, it wasn't bad, necessarily, but it was hard to look at this dish and see a business class entrée. 

For dessert, I was brought the cheese plate as well as a cup of vanilla ice cream. Who doesn't love ice cream at 38,000 feet?

All in all, this meal was certainly not one of my top business class meals. I can't help but wonder if one of the meat dishes would've been a little more… assembled? Meal quality aside, the cabin crew was wonderful and were incredibly quick to clear dishes once I was finished and refresh my drink. They were absolutely the highlight of this experience.

Since this was a fairly short flight, I decided to forego the breakfast and try to catch a few more minutes of sleep before my day in Frankfurt.

Verdict

It's hard to complain about a business class product too much, since I'm incredibly lucky to even have the chance to fly up front. That being said, there's no argument that Lufthansa's business class aboard the 747-400 is a tired product. It's in desperate need of a refresh, and it's unlikely these old birds will see the refresh being brought to some of their newer aircraft. On top of that, the meal service on this flight was adequate at best, and this all adds up to me having a hard time recommending Lufthansa over some of the other transatlantic options.