Welcome to this trip-report reviewing Lufthansa Business class onboard their A330-300 from Chennai to Frankfurt. The Chennai to Frankfurt route was operated by Lufthansa CityLine for a short period in 2017 but since then it has reverted back to Lufthansa.
I was going to Detroit for a business trip and the only one stop option was Lufthansa and Jet Airways-Air France. The Jet Airways - Air France was too expensive and the cheapest option for me was Lufthansa anyway.
My trip was simple
Lufthansa Business Class Chennai - Frankfurt A330-300 You are here
Lufthansa Business Class Frankfurt - Detroit B747-400
Lufthansa Business Class Detroit - Frankfurt B747-400
Lufthansa Business Class Frankfurt - Chennai A330-300
I arrived at Chennai International airport hours before my flight. Outside the airport was the passport and ticket check. This process is very annoying as the lines are very long because there are so many international flights at this time.
Lufthansa has specialised Business class kiosks. The check -in agents worked for Air India as Air India and Lufthansa are star alliance members. Air India employees also work for Thai Airways and Singapore Airlines in the Airport.
Some pictures of the check in terminal.
My boarding pass for the flights. The boarding passes in Lufthansa are beautiful.
Immigration and Security check took a really long time and they have no specialised business class lines. The departure schedule for the day. As you can see the departure schedule is heavy during midnight. During the day the terminal is almost empty with just a few international departures departures to Colombo( SriLankan Airlines),Kuala Lumpur( Malaysian and Batik), Dubai (FlyDubai and Emirates) etc….
The new international terminal which was not really an effective upgrade from the old terminal to my eyes.
The terminal also had a connection to the old terminal.
I visited the travel club lounge in the new terminal. keep in mind there are only 3 lounges in the terminal. They are the lounge in the old terminal, travel club lounge in the new terminal and the Air India lounge in the old terminal. I was suprised to hear that Lufthansa passengers are not allowed to use the Air India Lounge. The travel club lounge was good anyway so nothing to complain. The other lounge in the old terminal is too chaotic and i dont recommended it.
The lounge had a good variety of food it was bland but i appreciate there effort. I didnt eat a lot anyway because it was midnight.
The lounge was almost empty which i liked
Some pictures of the lounge
Then it was time to board the flight. My flight was departing from the old terminal just like Cathay Pacific, Thai and Air India.
The boarding gate
Boarding began and Business class passengers were called first. We walked through the corridors to our bird.
We were greeted by the lovely flight attendants
My seat was with a blanket and a pillow .
The flight attendants soon came around with welcome drinks.
They also distributed some slippers that were comfy
The content of the seat pocket
The very soft blanket that gave me some good sleep
Some features of the seat.
A unique kind of remote that i have never seen in an aircraft before.
The menu for this flight. Lufthansa has a good selection of vegetarian food which is a good attachment.
A coat hook is placed next to the screen.
They also had over ear noice cancelling headphones which were nice.
I unfortunately did not have the window seat but we departed on time . I made a visit to the lavatory . It was clean and neat.
Trays were up a few hours after take off and i was served the vegetarian option. The food was nice and i am impressed by Lufthansa.
They offered us an amenity kit in the beginning of the flight. Here are the contents of the kit
Not quite sure where i am
The screen onboard the flight. The entertainment was diverse and featured many languages. The flight is also equipped with Wi-Fi
We landed on time and one last picture of my seat
We deboarded and did went through the transit area.
Thank you for reading this trip-report and i hope you enjoyed it . Please check out some of the other trip report i have created
Including:
Air India B787-8 Shanghai to Delhi Economy
link
Thai Airways B777-300 Chennai to Bangkok Economy
link
China Eastern B777-300ER Shanghai to New York Economy
link
ANA B787-8 Shanghai to Tokyo Economy
link
Lufthansa is definitely a nice airline to enjoy, however I find their Business class on longhaul lacking. The seats are quite narrow and the footholder is tiny. Thanks for your report.
Hi, thanks for sharing this thorough report. The airport experience doesn't seem so great, as you point out, and the lounge just ok, though it was nice that it was mostly empty. On board the product looks good despite being in a 2-2-2 configuration, though the footwells do seem very small. Thanks for sharing!
Hi, really nice report, enjoy reading it!!
FEW TIPS:
As Star Alliance Members, AI is really NOTORIOUS, for playing dirty tricks..... I assume the lounge is not bust at all, if they do not let you in, is more likely that they try to DITCH you. To me AIR INDIA is even worse than AIR KORYO, from every single perspective.
Next, try to depart from Larger Airport Next Time, like BKK. They have MANY fabulous Star Alliance Lounges, like Eva Air and Singapore Airlines. I've been to both, all of them are, AMAZING!!
For LH, how much did you pay for your round trip? To me you really have to use Air Canada Lounge @ Frankfurt. New Lounge, food offering is amazing, better than LH own lounge////
LH is doing budget cut for Business Class Product, its J class seats look HORRIBLE...... Even on the new A350, is certainly a bad design.
Thank you for all the opinions . I have visited the Thai Airways lounge at BKK but that still does not rival Eva Air or Singapore . Honestly I do not exactly remember how much I paid for the trip because it was like 6 months before the actual flight. Air India does not allow any airline to use the lounge(sources: One if my friends and the gate agent). To be fair the travel club lounge is much better than Air India .
Good article! Been to Chennai 5 times (most of the time via Frankfurt) and one thing which really pisses me off is not being able to connect to wifi @ Chennai Airport. Tried every single time with no luck. It should be a common sense, that if someone travels from US (or any other far away land)- they might need to inform family, that they landed safely or order Uber. But, no ... wifi works only for people with Indian phone providers. I am with T-mobile in US and no luck (my coworkers tried as well, no luck). Soooo dumb! Sorry, but it is 21st century and it really should be basic