Review of Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Shanghai in Premium Eco

Project 61: Quadjets + RTW! Part III (Getting to PVG)

Lufthansa Business Lounge

Flying in on business grants me access to Lufthansa’s Welcome lounge on the landside, but since there’s barely an hour left to its closing time (landed at 11:23 am, it closes at 12:30 pm) and I have wasted more time to get from the Z gates to the B gates, I decided to pay to use the Business Lounge that is closer to my departing gate. It cost 25 EUR for passengers onwards on Premium Economy, or 49 EUR on Economy.

The food options here are surprisingly lacklustre, but everything else is not bad. It’s not too busy, ready tables for grabbing a quick bite and ample working space. The shower cubicles are adequate. What’s also nice is that I can squeeze my bags into the lockers right at the entrance, so I can walk around with my tech pouch for charging and the locker key. Overall, it does have a much calmer oasis-like feeling compared to Vancouver’s smaller and busier Maple Leaf Lounge.

Preflight

For documentation purposes here, this is perhaps the first time I hear about seat upgrades at the gate, as this is not something Singapore Airlines does. Economy passengers could upgrade to Premium Economy at 269 EUR, and Business to First for 879 EUR. My immediate upgrade to Premium Economy after my online booking cost 390 CAD, so I still saved quite a bit!

I upgraded to Premium Economy partly because I was half-expecting to stick with Economy on the first two flights originally and then reward myself towards the end. I also wanted to (conveniently) visit the Economy class toilets situated downstairs.

There was an additional documentation check done at the gate, fortunately for me I was at the right place and right time, so I cleared it within a minute or two of the announcements. Not so much for the remaining two hundred or so passengers.

Aircraft

I flew on the D-AIHY, the second-oldest plane on the trip at 16 years 5 months. It’s still a good decade younger than the 747 but it’s also more than the combined age of the other two youngest planes.

Fun fact: The last time I was on an A340, the A340-300 specifically, should have been on Singapore Airlines Celestar to guess what, Vancouver!

As mentioned earlier, using the toilets downstairs is a novel experience. After the main meal, I managed to use it right before a small crowd appeared.

Route

It was announced that due to favourable tailwinds, the flight should take only 10 hours and 50 minutes, make it faster than average. It’s likely a combination of weather conditions and how stable the A340-600 is but I didn’t feel any turbulence at all only until descent, and that’s very mild too. No seat belts lights during cruising.

My overall rest period was somehow split up into two stretches of three-hour naps. I must have woken up briefly in the middle in eager anticipation of crossing past central Asia and reaching a ‘more familiar’ part of the world!

Seating, IFE

When my business upgrade on the earlier flight went through with seat 4A, I decided to pick 29A for this flight just so that 4 + 29 = 33. It also helps that since the row behind me is the first row of Economy, which is quite some distance away, I was able to recline my seat till its maximum with no intrusion behind.

There is a dedicated AC outlet for each passenger. The earbuds offered looked very basic, so I had to rely on my own Bluetooth Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) ones coupled with my own Bluetooth audio adapter for in-flight usage.

Once again, Lufthansa’s high-res satellite imagery of the plane even when taxiing at the airport is quite interesting. Because the screen here is smaller than the earlier business seat, the higher pixel density makes things look even more high-resolution. There is the same login-free “up to 150 kbps” free in-flight Wi-Fi.

Food

I opted for the rice and shrimp, which was good. While using the toilet again after my naps, I happened to spot that there was a small area set up for passengers to help themselves to shortbread biscuits or water. Breakfast was scrambled eggs with potato, which was good too.

Lufthansa App

The Lufthansa app continues to impress for this second flight. The transition from the earlier flight to this is seamless and I liked how the flight components are represented by dots in the ‘air’, and it continues to receive updates over the basic in-flight Wi-Fi.

Amenity Kits

Since this is the last of my Lufthansa flight for this trip, I decided to insert a quick comparison of the amenity kits offered across Business and Premium Economy here.

The Business version opts for a translucent pouch and black-themed socks and eye masks. It also gains an extra L’Occitane skincare accessory.

The Premium Economy version opts for a blue cloth pouch and blue-themed socks and eye masks. I prefer this cloth pouch.

Not pictured are the toothbrush/toothpaste kit (a tie-up with The Humble Co) and a mint sweet for Business.