Flight review: Lufthansa business class A320neo / A320ceo
Flight#: LH887
From: Vilnius (VNO)
To: Frankfurt (FRA)
Flight time: 2h 15min
Aircraft: Airbus A320neo
This is actually not one flight report, but several in one. In fact it contains elements from four consecutive flights I took across Europe on Lufthansa’s business class, in a span of two days.
All flights were on A320s (two of them on exactly the same aircraft!), both in its ceo and neo versions and on segments of similar length. Therefore, the experience didn’t change much (so much for achieving consistency, Lufthansa!) other than some menu variations depending on the time of the day and some small differences in the fittings of the cabin interior (I guess related to the age of the aircraft in question).
Therefore, I have combined my impressions of all four flights in one single flight review of Lufthansa’s European business class. Unless I mention it explicitly, I will use the first and longest of these flights (VNO-FRA) as the main reference.
All these flights in this report were courtesy of Lufthansa.
Pre-flight experience
The first part of the experience was actually not provided by the German carrier.
Lufthansa does not have its own lounge at Vilnius airport (VNO), so business class passengers, like those of several other airlines, use the Narbutas business lounge, which is rather small, but quite nice.
The food and drink selection is nothing to write home about, but the whole vibe and style is pretty good, quiet, clean and modern, plus it has also some dedicated areas for work, such as quiet cabins for phone calls.
Since I had two stopovers, one at each of Lufthansa’s hubs (Frankfurt and Munich), I have the chance to comment on the lounges at both further down this piece.
The cabin
I took four flights on A320-family aircraft, which had all several flavours of the same product. The seat and cabin look was not exactly the same, but pretty close!
As you will see, like so many European carriers these days, Lufthansa’s business class on short and medium haul flights has pretty much the same seats as economy class, but they leave always the middle seat empty.
The main differentiating attributes are found, of course, in the service.
In the following pictures you can get an idea of how Lufthansa’s European business class looks like.
Here you can get as well an approximate idea of the seat pitch, which at 30” is, apparently, the same as in economy class.
Same goes for the back of the seat, which has two pouches, the retractable table and a small side hook to hang your suit. No differences here.
In the next pictures you can see how the whole cabin looks like and how there are few fundamental differences in terms of “hard” product (seats, etc) between economy and business (this is the cabin of the last flight of my itinerary, MUC-BCN).
There is, however, a physical separation between business and economy class.
This latest of the aircraft I flew in this four-flight itinerary was also the one with the most modern-looking and fitted cabin.
Also, unlike the preceding three, this one had USB sockets to charge personal electronic devices.
Food and drink
This was one of the most positive surprises of the Lufthansa business class experience.
The four flights I took were at different times of the day (midday-early evening-early afternoon-late evening) and we were served a very nice meal in all of them.
So this is meal #1, which was served on, both, the first (VNO-FRA) and fourth (MUC-BCN) flights of the itinerary: shrimp salad with bread and cheese cake.
As you can see, it is a relatively light meal, but this is totally ok in this type of relatively short flights (and if you are super hungry, you can also eat at the lounge).
Pretty nice presentation as well and a special mention to the bread, which is served warm.
Interestingly they are part of a programme called “Heimat” (“home” in German) - you can see the brand on the tray - by which chefs from six German cities have created menus for Lufthansa.
Below is meal #2, served on the domestic segment FRA-BER: cold cut with potato mash and asparagus, bread and butter and chocolate cake with pistachio topping.
It is quite interesting that at the end of each meal, Lufthansa’s crew distributed red apples in this practical cardboard package. The apple was really good quality, btw. I wonder whether this is part of some healthy eating programme.
They also distribute Lufthansa-branded chocolates wrapped in Lufthansa’s traditional and iconic yellow colour (which disappeared from the livery in the latest rebrand, actually!)
And here is meal #3, served on BER-MUC early afternoon flight: the star here is this really thick and gorgeous piece of salmon, served alongside some vegetables and yogurt sauce. The dessert was again a chocolate cake.
The Lufthansa Lounge at Frankfurt airport (FRA)
And, of course, passing through Frankfurt, even if I had a really short stopover, I really had to check the lounge!
The lounge is really big, as it corresponds to the home airline of a massive air hub and I am not even sure I checked it fully (too short of time!), because it is organized in different halls and spaces, some of them even looking like hotel halls.
There is also a large room that has views of the apron and the aircraft taxiing outside. The kitchen here is well assorted with a nice selection of German and international food as well as drinks and sweets.
Inflight entertainment and other amenities
There is not much to speak about in terms of inflight amenities, since these are short-haul flights. Just a couple of comments.
First the offline part: there are some print materials in the seat back pocket in front of you, but rather than containing an inflight magazine in the traditional sense, there is a shopping brochure and a menu.
Fortunately, as we have seen in the previous section, the meals are included in the business class ticket, but, this is not the case of economy class, apparently, which is something I ignored.
For illustration purposes, here you can have a look at the type of offerings and prices.
At least two of the aircraft I flew in this itinerary were equipped with inflight internet, which Lufthansa calls commercializes under the brand “FlyNet”.
As you can see, here below, internet connectivity is not free (not even for business class passengers) and it comes with a three-tiered approach depending on the use you want to make of it.
I did not contract any of them (I used the flight time to get a much needed internet rest), nevertheless it was possible to access flight status information through my phone by connecting to the cabin network (without internet). This is a feature that I certainly value.
The Lufthansa Lounge at Munich (MUC)
As part of my itinerary, I was also able to try out the Lufthansa lounge at the airline’s second hub, Munich (MUC).
Just as is the case with the rest of the airport experience, the lounge at Munich has a more modern style and vibe than the one at Frankfurt.
There was a pretty decent assortment of food and drink and, very importantly, different types of seating arrangements, including those cozy sofas (below).
I particularly liked these stylish couches (below), which, during day time have also nice views of the apron.
Our take
Lufthansa’s European business class is in some aspects, similar to many other Euro business class out there, with the “hard” aspects of the product, such as the seats, not that different from the economy class cabin.
However, the “soft” aspects of the product were all pretty good. Namely, the food, which was truly outstanding on all four flights.
The service onboard was also excellent, and here I would like to make a mention to the man that appear to be the senior crew member in my fourth flight (MUC-BCN), which imprinted his interactions with a very cordial and witty vibe.
I also liked that, in another of the flights, the crew acted fast and authoritatively when people started standing up and walking through the aisle while the plane was still rolling (this is something that, unfortunately not all airlines and their crews seem to take seriously these days!).
The lounges at both Frankfurt and Munich offered also a very nice experience, both with a nice combination of food and drinks, rest areas and views.
So, overall, a good product. Since I didn’t pay for myself this time, I am not sure how the typical price point compares in terms of value when pitched against the economy class options. However, I guess a significant portion of passengers flying Lufthansa business class in short haul do so as part of a longer itinerary that includes a long-haul segment.
As such, perhaps the best comparison is not with the airline’s own economy class product, but how it fits in terms of consistency with the Lufthansa’s own long haul premium products and those of the airlines it competes with for that market.