British Airways cancelled my flight. Specifically, what they cancelled was my flight from Larnaca back to Gatwick in a week’s time. But for reasons I don’t fully understand, that meant that they also needed to change the outbound. So that eventually, I was rebooked to fly from Heathrow to Larnaca with Lufthansa via Munich, instead of taking the direct British Airways flight I’d originally booked.

Getting to the Airport

My flight to Munich will be leaving at 07h40 in the morning, and I’d rather not have to rely on London’s temperamental public transport. Which is why I return to Heathrow the evening before. On a side note, Heathrow Express have teamed up with the Star Alliance. If you’re a Gold member, that entitles you to a complimentary upgrade to First Class.

In any case, I’m staying at the Hilton Garden Inn at Heathrow Central, which is accessible on foot from Terminal 2 arrivals at level 1. The hotel is located at the far side of the multi-story car park. The next morning I exit the hotel at 05h45 and make my way back across to the Queen’s Building and then up to departures on the fifth floor.

Check-In

I have a suitcase to check in, so I’ll have to stop at a check-in counter anyway to drop it off. Which is good, because trying to check in online to obtain my boarding passes proves impossible on the Lufthansa app. The Lufthansa group checks in on row D, with counters D20 to D26 for manned check-in. All six counters are open. Five are busy with passengers, while the sixth is lazily fiddling with her mobile and clearly couldn’t care less. I step up to her counter and she just keeps typing, pretending she hasn’t seen me. I wait. And wait. Aaaand… then I loose my temper: “Are you serious right now?”, I ask her. Instead of an apology, she simply explains, without even looking up, that she “was just finishing a quick whatsapp”. I tell her that, frankly, that is none of my concern, and that I’m quite sure Lufthansa doesn’t pay Swissport for her to sit around curating her social media. She reluctantly puts down her phone to actually do some work, but she can’t even be bothered to stick my baggage receipt to the back of my boarding pass and just hands me the receipt like she’s holding a dog turd.

From that charming encounter I head for security. The fast track line is completely deserted. It’s not often you get to see Heathrow looking this empty!

The Lufthansa Senator Lounge at Heathrow T2

Behind security I head for the Lufthansa lounge. The frumpy lounge dragon at reception wordlessly scans my boarding pass and hands me the QR code to enter the Senator lounge at the back of the regular Business Class lounge.

Being Sunday, the lounge is quiet when I enter. I take a few photos and then get myself some breakfast.

At some point, another person enters the lounge. And for a moment I feel the excitement of David Attenborough at the discovery of what could be a new species. I think I may have already mentioned a few times the typical Senator lounge dweller. You know the one: male, dark suit, no tie, blindingly white sneakers, and terminally hip. That one. Well, this new type, is all of the above, and, more specifically, in his early thirties, has airpods (ready to take that incredibly, really important call from the CEO at a second’s notice) and struts around in what I’m guessing is an attempt to exude big d*ck energy, but instead comes off looking like a slipped disc. Ah, to be young again… no thank you!

Boarding

At 07h15 the flight shows up as boarding from gate A 24. The flight is not at all full, and as I pass the gate I hear one gate agent say to the other that 44 out of 50 passengers have already boarded. The maître de and the red cap are having a bit of an argument as I reach the L1 door. Apparently, the ground staff have strict instructions to start boarding on time, no matter what, whereas the crew are annoyed because boarding started before they were fully ready.

The Cabin & Seat

This aircraft has Lufthansa’s latest European short-haul product with the new seats. They’re definitely more comfortable and have better padding than the previous seats. Other than the electrical power outlets, though, it’s a fairly basic seat without adjustable headrest. I also notice that the Business Class sign that used to be mounted on the forward bulkhead has been removed.

Leg space on row 1 is very good. Better than I remember, actually. The only disadvantage of sitting on row 1 is that the armrest cannot be raised, as it houses the tray table. Which means that you can’t really spread out sideways.

On today’s flight there are three rows of Business Class, for a total of twelve seats. However, only five seats are taken this morning. I have all of row 1 to myself, which makes the cabin feel cozy and private.

The Service & Crew

There is one cushion at every seat when I step aboard the aircraft. Once boarding is completed – which doesn’t take long with only fifty passengers – the crew hand out small bottles of still water. There are four crew on the flight, with the maître de and another flight attendant working the Business Class cabin.

The announcements by the maître de are absolutely atrocious, to the point of incomprehensibility – in all languages. He pauses at the wrong place in an utterance, his enunciation is horrible and he tends to drop words that are not verbs or nouns.

Other than that, though, I must say that the crew are lovely and do an excellent job taking care of passengers. Especially the young lady is attentive and when she speaks, she actually looks passengers in the eye and seems genuinely interested.

We push back more or less on time and make our way to the holding point for runway 09R, at the far end of the field from Terminal 2. Heathrow seems surprisingly quiet this morning. Our flight time to Munich is 95 minutes.

The Meal – Light Breakfast

The meal service starts quickly once we’re airborne. First off, the crew places a paper tablecloth on the tray table. I don’t think I’ve ever had that before on Lufthansa. The young lady asks me what I’d like to drink. A short while later she brings me my coffee with milk, and an apple juice that I hadn’t even ordered.

When the tray arrives, it has on it a plate with cheese and cold cuts, a yoghurt with some fruit compote, and butter and jam for the bread. However, there is only one round with the bread basket, so the ratio of bread to cheese seems a bit unevenly distributed. I guess that’s a cultural difference between the Swiss and the Germans. In Germany you’d just take two rolls out of the basket when the crew comes through, whereas in Switzerland most people would likely just take the one and then hope for a second serving.

Once I’m done, the tray is quickly removed and the young lady brings me another coffee with milk. Shortly after we start our descent, she passes through the cabin with a box of little praline cubes. The maître de makes a further horrific announcement advising passengers with short connections of the departure gates for their onward flights.

Arrival in Munich

Apparently, we’re doing an automatic landing in Munich. The weather is horrible. Visibility is very low and the temperature on the ground is an unpleasant-3 degrees Celsius.

We taxi to our remote stand and the moment we stop, the maître de jumps out of his seat and rushes to the Economy Class cabin. A short while later he pushes his way through to the front again with a small suitcase in his hand and a female passenger in tow. He apologises and tells me she’ll need to disembark first. It turns out that once the doors open, the police are standing at the top of the stairs waiting to take her into custody. I’ve no idea what that’s all about – but the poor woman looks distraught. Once that is done, the rest of us are cleared to disembark and head for the bus waiting at the bottom of the stairs. I now have one hour before my next flight.

Conclusion

This was a nice flight with Lufthansa. The crew were great, especially the young lady. Flights that are not overly full are always a pleasure. It was also nice to be able to enjoy the peace and quiet of the SEN lounge in Terminal 2. The check-in process was beyond belief, though. I guess it really takes all kinds… Other than that, I’m still trying to figure out what Lufthansa is up to with its CityLine brand. I just don’t get it. They just keep adding brand after brand and none of it makes sense because the product is always the same. At least to me, as the passenger, it isn’t fully clear what supposedly distinguishes the different brands.