Introduction
Getting to and from Amsterdam airport is not so straightforward right now. They‘ve been working on the railway station for weeks. As a result, the number of trains to Amsterdam Central is rather limited.
I spend the night at the CitizenM Schiphol airport.
Check-in
The Star Alliance group of airlines is spread out all over the place at Schiphol. The Lufthansa airlines all check in at Departure 1, row 1.
There‘s a long queue for Economy Class, but the priority lane is not busy.
Behind the check-in counters is the automated checkpoint for security. The actual security screening takes place one floor up and there is a separate queue for passengers with priority. There are two lanes open.
The nice thing about going through security in Amsterdam is that there‘s no need to remove liquids and laptops from hand luggage.
There are only two people ahead of me in the queue, but it‘s taking a lot of time to process the bags on the belt. I‘m guessing some of the security staff are still quite new.
Amsterdam Star Alliance Lounge
The Star Alliance has its own lounge one floor up from the public area and the KLM lounge.
There is direct access behind security to the main lounge area.
Entrance to the Amsterdam STAR Lounge.
The lounge is nice, but it doesn‘t really feel pleasant or welcoming. First, the other guests are all talking in whispers, as though it were a church. Then there‘s a whole group of middle management suits who clearly think they‘re the next Steve Jobs by merit of the fact that they‘re wearing white sneakers with their suit.
The decor is more functional than comfortable.
The gold on the ceiling, I’m not so sure of.
I won’t be here for long anyway, so I just grab a bottle of water and while away the time until I have to go find my gate.
Boarding
My flight arrives from Frankfurt ten minutes ahead of schedule. Even so, boarding for the return flight starts with a delay of twenty minutes, for no apparent reason and with no explanation either.
The A 319 is getting harder to come by in Europe.
Not sure when they’re expecting to open the provisional corridor (in blue).
The Cabin & Seat
I‘m seated on 1F, the bulkhead row, so leg space is good. There are four rows to the Business Class cabin, for a total of 16 seats.
As far as I can tell, 15 seats are occupied.
The tray tables are mounted on the bulkhead on the first row.
The flight time is announced at 45 minutes by the crew. They don‘t bother explaining or apologizing for the delay either.
We take off in a southerly direction and make a left turn to point us in the direction of Frankfurt.
The Meal
I think what really amazes me every time about Lufthansa is how little variation and change there is in their menus and their product in general. Last year I flew with them from Larnaca to Frankfurt in Business, and I was served meatballs. Then I went to Oslo and… meat balls.
Five months later, they‘re still serving meatballs, for crying out loud. How much of this stuff did they get anyway?
The Kartoffelsalat is okay, though.
But the dessert is way too rich.
The Service & Crew
The crew on this flight have achieved a state of dispassionate lethargy that can only be achieved when you really, absolutely hate your job. And it shows. When the meal service begins, they don‘t even bother with a polite „would you like something to eat“ or so, and just unceremoniously shove the tray in my face. They then close the curtain until we‘re well into our descent.
Just before landing they distribute little chocolates filled with a hazelnut cream.
Arrival in Frankfurt
The weather in the Frankfurt area is definitely better than it was in Amsterdam.
The approach brings us in over the river Main.
We land about ten minutes behind schedule and taxi to our gate on the A pier.
As we taxi in, I catch an increasingly rare glimpse of two B 747s being readied for their next missions.
I’m going to miss them when they’re gone.
I step off the plane and have ninety minutes to make my connection. I have a connection in First Class, so I was kind of expecting a car to pick me up at the gate, but apparently not.
William——Another indifferent LH Biz class bit of ‘service’——— they were great ONCE.Much prefer SWISS—– the LH correctness but with humour—–almost always. Look forward to your F class trip——where to?.
LH does tend to have little variation in it’s catering. Still a decent meal (or snack?) for a 45 minute flight though, I guess.
I did hear LH will be replacing some board members soon, so hopefully that might lead to better things with LH. The roll out for their new business class has to be one of the most embarrassing airline product launches in…forever.