Review of Lufthansa flight from Seoul to Munich in Economy

I've always had a fascination for the A340-600. It's amazing that the plane just looks so long, when it's similar in length to the 777-300. It probably has something to do with the fact that the A340's cabins are shorter in diameter, and also not as tall compared to the 777. This fascination has lead to myself booking a flight on Lufthansa's A346, and planning a whole trip just around the aircraft, with the sole purpose of flying on it. So, I managed to get a nice offer with the itinerary shown below.

I planned on visiting the UK, France, and Germany before flying out on the A340-600 in FRA. The outbound would be to LHR, with a stopover in MUC. I would be flying on Lufthansa's A350 and A320neo on that journey. On the return leg, I'd be flying the A340-600 to PVG and then connecting to ICN onboard Asiana's 777. While I considered my last trip to Hanoi on their A330 to be the last ride on Asiana, I ended up flying with them once more.

In the Northern Summer season, Lufthansa sends two daily A350s to ICN, from FRA and MUC, respectively. Although they did send the 747 (-400 and the -8) for a few years, that became part of the past with a new FRA A350 hub. One interesting about my flight today is that it's operated by the plane that came from FRA, and not the one from MUC. 

I checked myself in from the Lufthansa app, and I just noticed I was the first one to check in.
I noticed that although check in starts 24 hours before departure, the seat selection starts earlier than that, so I ended up not being able to get a window seat where I wanted, but later changed as a seat in row 25 miraculously open up for me to grab.

Very interesting that the Lufthansa app tells you where the plane is coming from.

As always, my journey started with the bus to ICN.
The weather was far from ideal for flying, but I'd be thankful later on as there'd be a record breaking downpour in Seoul while I was in Germany.

Bag drops started three hours before departure, and I managed to arrive just in time when it started. There was no line at all for check in, which was a polar opposite experience from the one I had with Vietjet just a week ago. The Europeans do indeed like to take it slow.

I considered this flight to be a bit of a test in my enthusiasm for aviation. I had arrived from Hanoi on Vietjet literally two days before this flight, on the morning of July 13th. So in reality I only had one full day at home before I set off again to the airport. I was very fatigued, so I didn't really know how I'd behave to flying just two days after a flight on separate trips.

I got both of my boarding passes at ICN, and my bag would meet me again at LHR. Lufthansa's boarding passes have all their subsidiaries represented as well, and it's probably a cost-cutting design.

I picked up my SIM card for my three week journey and headed to security where there wasn't too long of a line as well.

All in all, I managed to get to airside just 30 minutes after getting off the bus. Pictured here is one of two Thai A350s that are getting ready for their morning flights back to BKK. The demand to BKK seems to be so huge that Thai operates two of their three daily flights to ICN on similar timeframes with a midnight departure from BKK and then a morning turnaround back.

If you just take a step back and observe, ICN's terminal 1 is pretty Airbus-dominant.

D-AIXP from MUC arrived first as LH718. While the schedules are the same for both FRA and MUC, the MUC flight is pivoted about 30minutes earlier than the FRA flight.

It's here and it's beautiful. Our plane for today, D-AIXO, arrived from FRA as LH712. As our gate was assigned to gate 50, it had to taxi all the way around the terminal. Usually, Lufthansa flights get assigned gate 41 or 43 or 48 with the occasional 31s or 32s, but recently it seems to be getting a lot of gate 50s.

Gate 50 is at the end of the terminal, so this is the best view you can get. 

The Lufthansa app gave me a notification of the flight.

HL7732 counter +1 (up to 4 now)

My enthusiasm didn't show any sign of being lowered. In fact, that moment in time my enthusiasm probably peaked. Safe to say, I'm in this for the long haul now.
I was in boarding group 4, but like all other Asian airports they didn't really enforce it very much. Not like they needed to, as all the passengers waiting around the gate all seemed pretty chill and took their time.

Our plane today, D-AIXO, is named 'Ulm'.

Warms my heart every time I see something written on the yellow box. 

The Economy class cabin on the A350. It's very smart on the looks department, but it is starting to show some signs of wear with the worn, stretched out seat covers and the change in color.

My seat for today, 25A. On A350 flights, I always make sure to sit on the last row of the second cabin, right in front of the 3rd set of doors. This is to get the wing view that I adore, with the A350 winglets and the flaps. However, as you can kind of see, the row that I'd usually prefer, row 26, has the window placed way too far ahead of the seat. This was way too much of a demerit so I went for the row in front, 26A. Still a bit far ahead, but not as bad as 26A. I think this has to do with the factory specs and options for the galley and the bathroom, because on Asiana-spec A350s, the windows on row 27 (the last row of the second cabin) perfectly align with the seats.

As you can see, rain had started pouring since boarding began. But, the view is very good. Basically what I wanted.

Vielen Dank!

There are universal power outlets under the seat, two for the three seats. It may be awkward to ask your seatmate to unplug theirs, so a USB port is available under the IFE. Do note, it is very slow. 

A blanket was provided, along with a pillow and earplugs.

We pushed back and lined up on runway 34R while an Air Japan 787-8 was landing from NRT.

NOPIK 2Y departure prodedure.

We surfed through the clouds and met the sun.

A menu was provided even for the Economy class passengers.

The lunch service started with a bag of pretzel-like snacks.

Our menu for the flight. As the catering was done in ICN, I went with the Korean option of the Ddeukgalbi. Dinner was only a single-menu service, but honestly I think after COVID this has become the new norm.

Definitely the visuals that I'd expect from a Korean meal, and it was great.

Bonus points for metal cutlery

After the meal service had concluded, the crew turned down the lights. And although I wasn't asked to close the windows, I felt like I had to close them due to the light.

Lufthansa offers free Hotspot access on their flights, and you get to use messaging for free. Pictures were able to be sent, although it took ages to upload.

As this was my first long haul flight alone, I was quite worried about the bathroom situation as a window seat occupier. I managed to get through it just fine, as the middle seat passenger followed the aisle seat passenger, and I followed the middle seat passenger to the bathroom.

With a good amount of choices for my entertainment, it's only natural that I'd be bored. I just surfed the system and found some information about our transit.

Pretty smart work from my seatmate. Shoutout to him, I had a lot of fun talking to him while boarding and during descent. I'd like to say he really set the tone for the whole trip ahead, allowing me to engage in small conversations even though Koreans really hate when strangers do that. If you're reading this, thanks a lot!

Out of all the movies and TV shows, I tried to watch some Spongebob, but quit after just 10 minutes. My attention span really holing me back here.

Of course, it is equipped with an outside camera we can see.

These Walker's biscuits were provided in the galley. Personally, they weren't satisfying my Asian taste buds. 

The seatback pocket contents.

After sleeping for a bit and browsing through the IFE system, we were about 90 minutes from arrival into Munich. As you can see, as I took this photo, we had entered European airspace.

I tried to take some more pictures, but the sunlight being in our direction made it very hard to get a clean picture. This is how I learnt that no matter where you're flying, you must sit on the opposite side of the sun. More sunlight through your window is bad, although it may seem counterintuitive at first glance.

And about 10 minutes later, our dinner was served. This is the single option menu, the Japchae Bap. It was a very basic meal, but something that was very needed. Simple, tasty, and did the job.

After about 12 hours, we started our descent into MUC.

We touched down on runway 26L in MUC.

Taxiing to the gate, I was greeted by a sea of Lufthansa planes.

Before I deplaned, I asked the crew if I could visit the cockpit and I was given the green light. The flight crew were very welcoming, and I had an unforgettable conversation with the crew.

Would love for Korean carriers to be this open about things like this, but unfortunately the conservative, outdated law prevents anyone from doing such things.

This was my plane, seen just after I deplaned, before I headed out to transit.