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Upon boarding, I flashed my boarding stub to the flight attendant at the entrance who directed me towards the front of the aircraft in the First Class section. I was immediately offered a small cup of macadamia nuts and a pre-departure beverage of choice (mine was still water with lime and ice). Another flight attendant was passing out slippers, pajamas, and amenity kits to the passengers. I went with the Small/Medium set of pajamas as they tend to run big. When I checked last week, there was only three passengers (including me) in the cabin and another one showed up on the seat map this past Monday. The cabin ended up with five passengers and three seats remained empty. The flight was slightly delayed due to luggage issue of a passenger not making it on the plane but it was not much. We were on our way shortly from DFW into the sky heading towards Frankfurt.
My First Class Seat - 2A
Pajamas, Amenity Kit, and Slipper kit
Pre-Departure Drink and Macademia Nuts
View from my seat
I looked though the inflight magazine which is aptly named "Lufthansa Magazin" along with the duty free catalogue and the inflight entertainment guide. Lufthansa did not really have any movies or shows that I wanted to watch but the seats are definitely very comfortable. The seat has so many nooks and crannies for storage. There is a compartment for TV screen, shoes, magazines, bottle of water, rose, ashtray (not in use) and a space under my arm rest for my camera (when not taking pictures of the food and such). It is very wide/tall (2 meters!) and a very obese would be comfortable in it easily.
The First Class cabin had eight seats that were arranged in two rows of a 1-2-1 configuration. I had seat 2A which was an aisle and middle seat (ideal for the solo passenger). The space per seat was huge and it was very comfortable seating. The cabin reminded me of a big living room as the middle of the ceiling had no overhead bin. The overhead bins were on the sides of the aircraft only. After we leveled off, Christina, one of the pursers, introduced herself to me and greeted me by name. She presented me the dinner menu (with my name handwritten on it), wine list, and the breakfast menu. She asked if I was transiting through Frankfurt or if my journey terminated there. I responded that I was heading to Seoul after an eight hour layover in Frankfurt. She told me that I had the option of relaxing/sleeping/bathing/eating in the First Class lounge at the main terminal or even the First Class Terminal. She was very nice and gave me some wine suggestions for dinner. She even took a picture of me with my camera later in my seat during the dinner service.
Hot towel
Dinner service started shortly after we were airborne. I watched the safety video as this is my first flight on Lufthansa ever. Hot towel was served on a plate (and of course had Lufthansa written on it) along with the signature rose passed out as well to each passenger. The beginning of the video was a welcome message from flight attendants of several nationalities/languages. The safety video was all animation with the message first in German and then English. The main screen stayed on the airshow mainly with an occasional ad for Duty Free items for sale and Flyerobics exercises that can be done in seat. I had my personal entertainment system set on the airshow was I wanted to monitor where I was at the moment. I took off my shoes/socks and slipped into the slippers for the rest of the flight in order to be a little more comfortable. The Indian man next to me (the only one with a middle seat) took off his shoes, rubbed lotion on his feet, and put on the socks from the slipper set. I thought it was a little strange and the flight attendant looked at him with a face of surprise/horror but did not say anything. She did not have to say anything but her expression was priceless. They came by very promptly and placed a cloth on our tray tables. I started off with the 2009 "Semper Vivum" white wine from Germany and was served a pre-appetizer of potato salad with beef/chives (a la Mexican-style). It was pretty tasty and I quickly devoured it.
Garlic Bread, Butter, and the Signature Rose
Pre-Appetizer
The Napkin says "First Class"- Classy!
They served me wine... I could not refuse.
All done!
The appetizers were: caviar served with the traditional garnishes (some type of cream, chopped hard-boiled eggs, cheese, red onion, and lime wedge; Salmon with bulgur wheat, avocado, and pomegranate salad, soy glazed New York Strip steak with green onion skewers; and roasted corn flan with mushroom escabèche, and frisée salad. I got all of them in my tower of appetizers and was later served the caviar with garnishes later. I started with the corn flan and it was better than I expected, but not truly something that impressed me greatly to wanting a second serving. The salmon was good and I liked the pomegranate pieces that made it distinct. My favorite was the steak as it had an Asian flair with the flavor and I very much enjoyed it (and I would have taken seconds if offered). After my tower was completely devoured, I was served the caviar along with a glass of vodka. I had a small sip of vodka and could not finish it. I ate about half caviar as it was my first timed doing so. I did not really know how to eat it so I squeezed the lime over it, forked some of it on my toast along with the garnishes (minus the cream). It tasted fishy and a bit salty but not completely bad like I thought it would be. It is not something I would eat on a daily basis but if offered (or "when in First") I will try it. The garlic bread served onboard Lufthansa is really good but was disappointed that the butter did not have "First Class" imprinted on it (maybe it is only for flights ex-Frankfurt). The paper napkins had First Class written on them though which I thought was classy.
View from my Window at Dinner
Airshow in German... 8 more hours to go!
Still got a ways to go
The Signature Rose... in its home/holder
Silverware, Butter, and Salt/Pepper
Tower of Appetizers
Salmon
Beef
Corn Flan
I was served a salad with a choice of a potato cream dressing or balsamic vinaigrette and with which I chose the latter. The salad was not bad as I would rate it in between Delta and American salads. Delta is only a little better than Lufthansa but vastly better than American (still have lots of loyalty and love to AA though). By the time my main entrée came, I was pretty stuffed. I had a hard time deciding what I wanted but eventually went with the Beef Tenderloin served with Asparagus, Polonaise Mix, and Cabbage Potato Croquet. It was very good as I ate all of the beef and the croquet.
Garlic Bread/Toast
T
Traditional Caviar Garnish
Caviar
Vodka... did not drink much. Too strong!
Caviar with all the fixings on toast
Salad
Beef Main Course with Potaotes
Garlic Bread/Ciabatta Bread
All my drinks during dinner
Dessert was a selection of cheese/grapes; Cinnamon Plum Crumble with Vanilla ice cream; and Panna Cotta, Vanilla roasted Pineapple, Rum Jus and Sugar Sable cookie. I skipped with cheese/grapes and got the other two dessert choices. The Cinnamon Plum Crumble, ice cream and Pineapple were all amazing. Sadly, I was not able to finish all of the dessert.
Cinnamon Plum Crumble/Ice Cream were GREAT!
Panna Cotta, Vanilla roasted Pineapple, Rum Jus and Sugar Sable cookie
Cheese and Grapes
Afterwards, I took some decaffeinated coffee and three pieces of pralines (of my choice: white chocolate/pistachio, Chocolate/Vanilla, and Manon). We were each also given a small bar of Toblerone chocolate as well. I ate one of the pieces of praline and saved the rest for later.
I went to the bath room to rinse out my mouth after dinner and changed into my pajamas. The pants were made of light cotton with draw string and the top is a soft long sleeve shift. The bathroom had lotion, razors, shaving cream, moist towelettes, mouthwash, and make-up removing pads. It was nice that it has a window as well to have a view of the outside during flight. By the time I made to my seat, my duvet was set out by the flight attendant and she bid me a good night's sleep after handing me a bottle of water. I asked for another duvet to use as a comforter/seat liner to make the seat a more comfortable. She thought it was a good idea as no one has probably asked her about it before. I grabbed my netbook and blogged for an hour before heading off to get a few hours of sleep prior to arrival into Frankfurt. The German man in front of me in seat 1A went to sleep pretty fast as everyone else worked on their computer or was watching movies the entertainment system. He started snoring pretty loud as well so I had to put in ear plugs when I got ready to go to sleep (after watching most part of an episode of Family Guy on my netbook).
Lay-flat Bed Mode
View from me Seat... very spacious
I told the flight attendant to wake me up for breakfast as I wanted to try out the breakfast on Lufthansa. She woke me up about 75 minutes prior to arrival into Frankfurt for my breakfast which consisted of a croissant, cinnamon bread, yogurt with fruit, eggs, bacon, and pineapple and fresh squeezed orange juice. After breakfast, I went and changed back into my regular clothes and put my pajamas away for my next overnight flight to Seoul.
Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice
Selection of Breakfast Breads
Good Morning! View from the bathroom window
Bathroom Amenties
Me in my Pajamas
Bathroom Sink... it ran water automatically with sensors!
We landed in an apron position and exited via stairs. The distinct fact that one is in Frankfurt airport is the multitude of Lufthansa planes everywhere. We were bused to the terminal and the First Class passengers had our own bus but only four of us were on it. I believe one of the passengers in First is a Lufthansa Executive and he disappeared. The drive tried to get me to go into the other bus as he did not believe I was in First until the purser stopped him and she made him aware of the fact that I was to be in the First bus. Being as there were only four passengers on the First bus, we left for the main terminal. I followed the signs to exit and went through customs/immigrations with no problem. I added another stamp to my collection and it was very similar to the one in Prague.
Lufthansa Land!
At the main terminal, I looked for a place to buy coffee beans for a fellow pharmacist. There were plenty of stores around there for the shophaholic… Burberry, Porsche apparel, a pharmacy, Swarvoski, and other fine shopping retailers. I found a coffee shop but their bagged coffee was for decoration only. They did tell me to go below two levels and I could purchase coffee beans at the airport supermarket. I stopped by a Deutsch Bank (there were a lot) to get some Euros just in case I needed some cash to spend. I managed to get a big bag of coffee beans and headed back to the main terminal floor to ask the American Airlines counter for directions to the Admiral's Club.
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