Flight Review: Lufthansa A320-200 Business Class, OSL-FRA

Introduction: Late Summer in Scandinavia
Flight Review: American Airlines B737-800 First Class, MEM-DFW
Flight Review: Finnair A350-900 Business Class, DFW-HEL
Flight Review: Finnair E190 Business Class, HEL-CPH
Lodging Review: Fairfield by Marriott Copenhagen Nordhavn
Our Time in Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Best Western Hotel Hebron, Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Next House, Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Story Hotel Studio Malmö
Our Time in Malmö and Ystad, Sweden
Lodging Review: IKEA Hotell, Älmhult, Sweden
Our Time in Älmhult, Sweden and High-Speed Train to Stockholm
Lodging Review: Motel L Älvsjö, Stockholm
Our Time in Stockholm
Flight Review: SAS A320neo Economy Class, ARN-OSL
Lodging Review: Comfort Hotel Grand Central, Oslo
Our Time in Oslo
Lounge Review: SAS Lounge, Oslo airport
Flight Review: Lufthansa A320-200 Business Class, OSL-FRA
Flight Review: Lufthansa 787-9 Business Class, FRA-MSP
Flight Review: Delta B737-800 First Class, MSP-MEM

Why I Booked This Flight

Now that our international trip for the year was complete, I had to get home! I searched for business class award space from Oslo to just about anywhere east of the Mississippi River – and even a few places west of it – that have non-stop flights to Memphis. I will say that I did not look for award space to the New York area. Frankly, I hate flying through there and since JFK has no non-stops to Memphis and Newark has exactly two non-stops (one that leaves very early afternoon and the other that gets me to Memphis at midnight), I don’t think it’s even worth my time to look for space there.

How I Booked This Flight

I booked this ticket in January 2024, before United’s most recent changes to MileagePlus. I was able to use 88,000 United Airlines MileagePlus miles plus $100.40 for this segment to Frankfurt and the connection from Frankfurt to Minneapolis-St. Paul. Those 88,000 miles are worth about $968 and the cash price for these two segments was $4022, so I definitely got the better deal. It’s entirely possible I could have used fewer miles with Avianca or Air Canada but I have never been comfortable using Avianca miles – only because I’ve heard of issues in case of irregular operations – and I did not realize the search engine I’d been using was having issues communicating with Air Canada at the time so it was not displaying that option.

LH 865 (OSL-FRA)
Airbus 320-200
Seat 5A (Business Class)
Depart: 06:35 AM (actual 06:37 AM)
Arrive: 08:40 AM (actual 08:40 AM)

Pre-Flight

I left the SAS lounge above gate E2 about 45 minutes before my flight’s scheduled departure time because I did not know exactly where I was going. Naturally my gate, A20, was about as far away from the lounge as you can without transferring to a different concourse!

A Lufthansa A320-200. This image was originally posted to Flickr by tjdarmstadt at https://flickr.com/photos/152414129@N08/35564400803. It was reviewed on 6 August 2017 by FlickreviewR and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.

Boarding

Boarding was supposed to begin at 6:05 AM. While HON members and those who needed extra time boarding were called earlier, they were basically just put into a holding area behind the counter set up for that purpose. It was a little after 6:05 when they were allowed to go down the jet bridge.

Once boarding began they used both the front and rear doors as those in rows 17 and higher were asked to board from the back of the plane.

The plane was set up with the standard intra-Europe business class – just a regular row with the middle seat blocked. It’s possible there was a little extra legroom but I’m not sure. At least they have air vents!

I was boarding so quickly my photo was blurry. But this one from Yann Arnould on flightreviews.net looks just like it!

In lieu of a full-service pre-departure beverage we were offered small bottles of water. And you know what? For a two-hour early morning flight, that’s just fine.

The jet bridge was detached at 6:32 but we stayed in place while the safety demonstration was performed. Five minutes later we were on our way.

In-Flight

Breakfast service began about 30 minutes after take-off. It was brought all on one tray, which was fine. I really enjoyed the apricot jam on the croissant and the yogurt. I’m not much of a meat-eater at breakfast but I ate all of the bacon (? the meat between the salami and the walnuts) and about half the cheese. Of course the OJ was the first thing I finished, along with the walnuts.

I was the last to be served – does being on an award ticket make a difference? Or perhaps everyone else had some sort of airline status. I ate rather slowly and while the rows ahead of me seemed to have their trays cleared rather quickly, it almost felt like I’d been forgotten. It was only when one of the flight attendants who’d been working Economy came through our cabin that my tray and a person on the row ahead of me had ours cleared. Otherwise the crew was friendly and efficient.

Arrival

We arrived right on time at 8:40 AM at a remote stand, which was disappointing. We then piled into the buses and were driven to the Z concourse.

In the end

While the flight wasn’t noticeable in any particular way, sometimes normal is good. It was efficient, I got a meal and we both departed and arrived on time. And really, isn’t that all we ask for?