Posts Tagged With: Lufthansa

Flight Review: Lufthansa 787-9 Business Class, FRA-MSP

Posted on December 10, 2024 by 2btravel

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

I booked this flight as I found reasonably-priced award space from Frankfurt to a US city with a non-stop flight back to Memphis. As I mentioned in the last post I was basically searching the whole eastern half of the US, looking for an award flight back. As it turned out, flying into MSP would allow me to catch a flight that would get me home earlier than from anywhere else, so that was a bonus.

How I Booked This Flight

I booked this ticket in January, before United’s most recent changes to MileagePlus. I was able to use 88,000 United Airlines MileagePlus miles plus $100.40 for the segment from Oslo to Frankfurt and this 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.

Boeing 787 – photo from lufthansa.com

LH 482 (DFW-HEL)
Boeing 787-9
Seat 4K (Business Class)
Depart: 11:10 AM (actual 11:19 AM)
Arrive: 01:15 PM (actual 01:14 PM)

Pre-Boarding

I’d planned to write a review of the Lufthansa Business Class Lounge near the Z gates, but it was so crowded that I didn’t feel comfortable taking photos. It wasn’t over-crowded, I was able to find a seat, but I was glad I wasn’t traveling with anyone because finding two seats together felt impossible. I just had tea and a scone before making my way to gate Z15, which was only a 2-3 minute walk. Continue reading →

Categories: Award Travel, Flight Review, Lufthansa, Star Alliance, Trip Report | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

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

Posted on December 9, 2024 by 2btravel

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.

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Categories: Flight Review, Lufthansa, Star Alliance, Trip Report | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

2023: The Year in Travel

Posted on December 31, 2023 by 2btravel

Another year has passed and I’m just thankful I got through this one without injury. I cracked my tibial plateau while on my European trip in 2022 which meant I didn’t get to ski but for a few hours this year but I still went on the trips I had planned and had a very good time anyway.

The Year in Travel – 2023

January

My first trip of the year was a visit to Winter Park, Colorado, a place I hadn’t visited in nearly 30 years. I was so looking forward to it because I really couldn’t remember much about it and had only been skiing a year when I visited last time. Sadly I spent an hour each day rehabbing my knee instead of skiing though I did get to go tubing one day.

I enjoyed a quick non-stop flight from Memphis to Denver on United and we took a bus right to the lodge. We stayed slopeside at the Zephyr Mountain Lodge where the location of your room can make a big difference.

Zephyr Mountain Lodge Slopeside Building
photo from Planet of Hotels.com

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Categories: American Airlines, Autograph Collection, Award Travel, California, Colorado, Condos, Croatia, Cruises, Europe, Greece, Hotel, Iberia, Italy, Lufthansa, Mammoth, Marriott, Montenegro, North America, OneWorld, Ship Review, Star Alliance, Tours, UNESCO World Heritage Site, United, United States, Viking, Winter Park, Year in Review | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Flight Review: Lufthansa A340-600 Charlotte-Munich

Posted on December 20, 2023 by 2btravel

Trip Report: Athens and a Mediterranean Cruise
Lounge Reviews: The Club CLT and Centurion Lounge Charlotte Airport
Flight Review: Lufthansa A340-600 Charlotte-Munich
Lodging Review: Academias Hotel, Autograph Collection, Athens
Our Time in Athens, Part I (Acropolis and Museum)
Our Time in Athens, Part II (Roman Agora, Hadrian’s Library, Ancient Agora)
Our Time in Athens, Part III (Kerameikos, Temple of Zeus, Panathenaic Stadium)
Our Time in Athens, Part IV (Restaurants and Observations)
Ship Review: Viking Neptune
Our Time in Ancient Olympia (Katakalon, Greece)
Our Time in Corfu, Greece
Our Time in Kotor, Montenegro
Our Time in Dubrovnik, Croatia
Our Time in Zadar, Croatia
Our Time in Venice, Italy
Flight Review: Iberia A330-300 Madrid-Chicago

Booking the flight

I had originally booked my flight to Athens as a 1-stop from Memphis to Newark and on to Athens in United Airlines economy for just 33,000 United miles. It was a deal that was hard to beat! But I really wanted to fly business class and United never made any saver award space available on the longhaul leg. I kept searching, utilizing award search tools like PointsYeah!, Roame.travel and Seats.aero and eventually found space out of Charlotte via Munich for 70,000 Air Canada Aeroplan miles. I was going to transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards Points (UR) to my Aeroplan account as there was a transfer bonus going on and it would have only cost me about 58,000 UR points but I hit a snag.

For years my Chase cards had all been in my “called by” first name rather than my legal first name. Years ago I was able to successfully connect my UR and United accounts but now I was unable to connect my new Aeroplan account. I’d had a similar issue with Amex Membership Rewards awhile back and ended up getting all my Amex cards changed just by uploading a photo of my ID and filling out an online form. No such luck with Chase. They had to snail mail me a form. About a week later I saw in my daily USPS Informed Delivery email that the mail piece was to be delivered soon but a week later I still had not received it, so I contacted Chase to send yet another form. That one I did receive but it was at least two weeks after that before the name was changed on my account. So, word of caution, make sure the name on your credit card matches the name on your frequent flyer account!

A few days before my flight, Lufthansa made first class award space available to partners. I have never flown Lufthansa First and seriously considered doing the upgrade for an additional 30,000 Aeroplan miles but I decided to conserve my points and stick with business class.

Now that I had a longhaul flight, I needed to get to Charlotte. As CLT is not a Star Alliance hub, if I could have found award space on United to include with my longhaul flight, I’d have had to connect via Chicago, Houston or Denver. I decided the easier path was to take the American Airlines non-stop. Unlike when I try to get to Chicago or DFW on American, there always seems to be plenty of award space on flights to Charlotte. So I spent just 15,000 British Airways Avios on the non-stop flight in domestic first class. Did I really need to fly in first? Of course not but this is my big international vacation of the year and I like to make it special. I won’t review this flight except to say it was on time and my luggage made it, which were the important parts. There were three flights that would have gotten me to Charlotte in time to make my flight though the first one was extremely early. I decided to take the middle flight which would put me in Charlotte six hours ahead of my Lufthansa flight. Even though that was a long layover for a domestic flight, it left plenty of time in case of irregular operations or lost luggage as there was another flight after that. What didn’t occur to me until about a week before the flight was that the Lufthansa counter would not be open when I landed. Fortunately there was one pre-security restaurant open amidst all the construction in the lobby and baggage claim areas of the Charlotte airport and I was able to have a leisurely lunch until the Lufthansa counter opened at 2:30 PM, 4 hours before the flight.

Lufthansa 429 CLT-MUC A340-600
October 17, 2023
Boarding – due: 1755 actual: 1805
Departure – due: 1830 actual: 1851 – takeoff 1952
Arrival – due: 0915+1 actual: 0856+1
Seat: 6G (Business Class) Continue reading →

Categories: Award Travel, Flight Review, Lufthansa, Star Alliance, Trip Report | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lounge Review: Lufthansa Lounge, Cologne-Bonn Airport

Posted on March 21, 2019 by 2btravel

Introduction
Lodging Review: Novotel Torino Corso Giulio Cesare
Attraction Review: Museo Egizio
Lodging Review: Hilton Bonn
Lounge Review: Lufthansa Lounge, Cologne-Bonn Airport
United 777-200ER Old Style vs. Polaris Business Class

I had a very early start to the day for my return trip. My flight from Munich to Chicago departed at 11:25 AM so I wanted to be sure I had plenty of time to connect – and even to catch a backup flight should my original flight get canceled. So I was booked on a 6:20 AM flight from the Cologne/Bonn airport to Munich. I booked a ride with Suntransfers and my only complaint was that they were non-negotiable as to pickup time and that was at 3:55 AM. At that time of day, with no traffic and it’s a short drive anyway, I was at the airport around 4:30 AM and the Lufthansa ticket counter didn’t even open until 5 AM so I had to stand there for half an hour with my bags. Ah well, certainly better than being late.

CGN airport is quite small. In fact, on their website, the motto is: so simple. There are two terminals. Terminal 1 handles Lufthansa, Germanwings, Austrian and Star Alliance partners and Terminal 2 handles all other airlines. Each Terminal has a lounge. In T2 it’s a generic business lounge for all the airlines while in T1 it’s a Lufthansa-branded lounge.

As the airport is small, so is the lounge. However with Lufthansa being the dominant carrier I can see that it might get crowded with elite travelers gaining access even if they’re on an economy ticket. It opens at 5:30 AM so I had to wait a bit for entry.

The lounge is circular in shape and one side of the room has the comfortable lounging chairs while the other side has tables and chairs for dining.

Lufthansa Lounge CGN Casual Seating

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Categories: Europe, Germany, Lufthansa, Star Alliance | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Danube Trip: Budapest to Chicago

Posted on April 10, 2017 by 2btravel

Danube Trip: Chicago to Brussels
Danube Trip: Brussels Adventures and Getting to Prague
Danube Trip: Marriott Courtyard Prague
Danube Trip: Prague, Czech Republic
Danube Trip: Boscolo, Autograph Collection
Danube Trip: Prague to Nuremberg
Danube Trip: Viking River Cruise Boats – the Njord and the Bestla
Danube Trip: Nuremberg, Germany
Danube Trip: Weltenburg Abbey and Danube Narrows
Danube Trip: Regensburg, Germany
Danube Trip: Passau, Germany
Danube Trip: Wachau Valley and Göttweig Abbey
Danube Trip: Vienna, Austria
Danube Trip: Budapest, Hungary
Danube Trip: Hilton Budapest (Castle District)
Danube Trip: Budapest to Chicago

My return flight left Budapest at 6:30 AM.  I had booked this leg of the trip using my Miles & More points, hoping that shortly before I left Budapest, Lufthansa would open up space and I’d be able to fly first class via Frankfurt.  But the space never opened up so I had to “settle” for business class.  Poor me.

My friend and I shared a taxi to the airport even though she was returning on Turkish Airlines and her flight was nearly three hours later.  Sure enough, when we arrived she couldn’t even check her bags as no one was at the Turkish counter that early.  So we said our goodbyes and I headed through security to the lounge.

The lounge I was directed to was very small and nearly full.  It did have free wi-fi but didn’t even have its own restrooms.  It was a contract lounge, not a Lufthansa lounge and while it was better than sitting the terminal and had some free beverages, I was completely under-whelmed.

Eventually though we boarded our flight for the relatively short flight to Frankfurt, which was very uneventful.  Like many intra-Europe flights, business class was simply economy with blocked middle seats and nice service.  We did get an edible, if unremarkable breakfast.  Before long we were in Frankfurt where I was able to enjoy the lounge for  a couple of hours.

When I got to the gate, I admit I was surprised.  Where was the German efficiency I so appreciate?  With Frankfurt being a Lufthansa hub, there are naturally a lot of people with elite status who are not flying in First or Business class.  So they hover around, waiting for priority boarding to be called instead of queuing up. I don’t think I’ve ever seen priority boarding be so chaotic, though my experience is not that widespread.  At any rate, eventually I boarded through door 1L and found my seat.

LH 430
Frankfurt (FRA) – Chicago O’Hare (ORD)
Depart 10:40 AM
Arrive  2:10 PM
Duration: 9h 30m
Boeing 747-8
Seat 6D (Business Class)

As I was traveling solo for this leg I selected a seat in the middle section so I wouldn’t have to worry about climbing over anyone or being climbed over.  Waiting for me at my seat was a blanket and this pillow.  I loved the color scheme.

LH 430 Business Class Seat

LH 430 Business Class Seat

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Categories: Award Travel, Lufthansa, Star Alliance | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Trip Report: Danube River Cruise

Posted on March 6, 2017 by 2btravel

I have a group of friends that like to travel together and one of them knew of another small group that was doing a Danube River cruise with Viking River Cruises.  Having cruised the Rhine with Viking a couple of years ago, we were excited to join that group for another European float.

One of my good friends who lives in Chicago agreed to be my travel partner for this excursion. We looked at the trip extensions Viking offered: a pre-trip extension in Prague before the cruise began in Nuremberg, and post-trip extension in Budapest, where the cruise ended.  As we looked at what was offered, we decided to do our own versions of these extensions and use our hotel points (mostly) to pay for our rooms.

Naturally we used airline miles to cover our flights in business class.  We both used United miles to fly to Prague with a long layover in Brussels.  My friend also used UA miles for a return flight from Budapest on Turkish Airlines via Istanbul.  I used my Lufthansa Miles & More miles via Frankfurt, hoping to be able to upgrade to First Class as the time for our flight grew closer, but it wasn’t to be.  No first class award seat ever opened up on the FRA-ORD leg on my flight date.  Note to self: in the future, don’t fly on a Monday.  Loads of business travelers!  I saw award seats on both Sunday and Tuesday around my date but by then the rest of our plans had been set so I had to “settle” for business class.

Our outbound flight connected in Brussels and I have a Twitter friend who lives in Belgium.  Though we’d never met in person, she was kind enough to drive down to Brussels and meet us for lunch and take us on a walk around the area near the train station.  I love the way the world gets smaller with social media!

danube-flights

My flights in red, my friend’s flights in cyan, joint flights in green

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Categories: Austria, Award Travel, Cruises, Europe, Germany, Hungary, Lufthansa, River Cruise, Star Alliance, United, Viking | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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