Round The World and other travels

Flight Log 3: LH1167

Lisbon (LIS) - Frankfurt (FRA)

By a stroke of good fortune, this flight was operated by Lufthansa's Airbus A321 D-AIRX, looking resplendent in its retro-style livery. The flight was completely full, even in Business Class. The premium cabin had three rows of seats on the left side and two on the right, with the 'B' and 'E' seats blocked, making ten passengers in total. There was nothing retro about the interior: Lufthansa's latest short-haul cabin featured the now-familiar, severely anorexic seats by Recaro, which thankfully I had previously found (to my considerable surprise) to be a good deal more comfortable than they looked. Boarding was completed at 1230, ten minutes after the scheduled departure time. We pushed back 17 minutes down and left Lisbon behind at 1245, the full load necessitating a noticeably long take-off roll. I advanced my watch by an hour to Central European Time.

The initial route took us over northern Spain and out across the Bay of Biscay, making landfall over La Rochelle. Service started with a round of drinks, but only after food had been distributed in the Economy cabin. I had a glass of white wine, which needed to have an ice cube added as it was insufficiently chilled, and nibbled on some roasted almonds. This was the longest short-haul sector that I had flown on Lufthansa since introduction of the Neue Europakabine, so it was interesting to see the usual 'tasting menu' offering replaced by a more traditional full hot meal. As if to emphasise the distinction, a full-size menu card set out the options:

Welcome aboard Lufthansa Business Class It's a pleasure to welcome you aboard. Here you'll find a selection of culinary highlights which we offer during today's flight. In our Europa Cabin you can look forward to ever new, regularly changing variations to make your stay on board a true pleasure trip of the senses. Here's wishing you bon appétit and an enjoyable flight!

MENU Hors d'oeuvre Smoked swordfish, grilled carrot, black olive, grilled zucchini Entrees Grilled zucchini and carrot, grilled pork noisettes, black olive Maître d’Hôtel, roasted potato with peel or Codfish, browned potato, sautéed Portuguese cabbage, coriander, lemon and oil Cheese and dessert Azores cheese, nut, Terras Raia cheese Lemon pudding with strawberry

It amused me that while the introductory blurb waxed lyrical about 'ever new, regularly changing variations', the starter and the pork main course had a massive overlap, with carrot, zucchini and black olives all featuring in both! I nevertheless decided to go with the pork, only to find it a bit tough. In fairness, though, I thought the rest of the well-stocked tray was beautifully presented and pleasant to eat. We continued our established course across France, finally entering German air space in the vicinity of Trier.

Service concluded with a round of hot towels. Bruce spotted our Asiana Airlines 747 on the ground, seconds before we landed on Frankfurt's new runway at 1622 local time. After a long taxi to the main apron of the airport, we had a frustratingly long, Heathrow-style wait for Gate A28. Once we had been given the the all-clear, a final few metres of taxiing brought the journey to an end at 1640. Like the British Airways Club Europe flight a few days earlier, this was a pleasant enough experience, but not outstanding.

Date: Tue 13 Nov 2012

Aircraft: Airbus A321

Scheduled dep: 1220

Actual departure: 1237

Scheduled arrival: 1630

Actual arrival: 1640

Cabin: Business Class

Seat: 3A

Next Flight

Previous Flight

Home | Major Trips | Short Trips | About this site | Index