It felt like ages since I last flew in business class, much alone wrote a review about it. Last month, I flew from Frankfurt, Germany back home to Los Angeles on Lufthansa A350 Business Class.
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Lounge
Originally, I flew from Cairo, Egypt going to Frankfurt, Germany for a layover at around 5 am. Upon deplaning, the terminals were like a ghost town. Due to German laws and COVID-19 protocols, the majority of lounges and shops were closed. The only business class lounge I was able to enter was about a 25 min walk in the next terminal. Inside the lounge, the passengers must have their masks on at all times. In addition, you cannot eat or drink inside the lounge. They did have a small tabletop with a person offering hot coffee, small pastries, fruit, and sandwiches for passengers to eat outside the lounge door. I felt this restriction was quite silly as there was less room outside to keep a 6-foot distance from one another and everyone had their masks off to eat and drink.
Business Class Seat and Controls
The plane I was flying on was an A350-900 and their business class seat configuration is in a 2-2-2.
It has a collapsible section right below the monitor to store your tablet or ebook reader. On the bottom of that was another compartment that had my leather amenity kit which consisted of a toothbrush, toothpaste, socks, and an eye mask. I was expecting a little bit more like a designer brand lotion, eye cream, or hand sanitizer like I usually find on other business-class amenity kits. The beddings included a padded mattress topper, a blanket, and a fluffy pillow.
On the bottom middle divider is two 110v outlets to power any small electronics. Unfortunately, there is no USB port to power electronics without a wall charger.
On the side of my seat was a compartment with AKG noise-canceling headphones to use with my monitor. I did not check out the noise quality as I had my Bose headphones with me.
The plane was equipped with WIFI but I did not purchase the plan to evaluate the true speed connection or if there’s any connectivity issues. Their cheapest plan consisted of the following, Flynet Chat – $8 USD or 2300 miles (Speed is limited to 64 kbps).
The onboard entertainment was good with the latest Hollywood blockbusters and foreign films. The interface was slightly sluggish when trying to choose a movie selection or navigating through the menus however, it does not have any effect when the movie is playing.
Meal Service
Shortly after takeoff, I was given warm nuts and my choice of welcome beverage. I went with some champagne to celebrate my first flight of the new year. For the appetizer, I chose the pea mash with king oyster mushroom, artichoke, parmesan cheese, and olives. For my main course selection, I went with the Ricotta Cannelloni with Lemon Thyme sauce enhanced by Cream Spinach. The pasta was delicious and the cheese was so creamy.
For dessert, I had coffee and Italian ice cream.
During the flight, I got up to use the lavatory and they had snacks available. Gummy bears, chocolate, orange juice, and water were offered. I was surprised the flight crew didn’t bother to cover the drinks with a lid as a sanitary precaution.
There were no traditional breakfast meals for breakfast and it felt like a second dinner so I chose the Palak Paneer, Chana Masala with steamed rice. The food was cooked well and I enjoyed my meal.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I was pleasantly happy with Lufthansa’s business class service and food amid a global pandemic. The flight crew was friendly and did their best to provide the best service they could with COVID restrictions on the plane. Throughout the whole flight, all the passengers in business class followed the facemask policy and only removed it to eat and drink. The meals weren’t reduced to box meals which were one thing I was worried about before booking my flight.
