I just landed in Frankfurt on a flight from Almaty via Astana in Kazakhstan. I managed a solid five hours of sleep, which is not bad at all. The flight lands at 08h40 and my onward connection to Amsterdam will depart at 12h50.

Transfer in Frankfurt

The flight from Almaty ends on a remote stand. A bus takes us deep into the bowels of Frankfurt Airport and ejects us at non-Schengen arrivals in Terminal B. Frankfurt is quite busy this morning, especially the passport control and registration checkpoints for non-Schengen passengers is very crowded. Fortunately, that’s something I won’t have to deal with. I pass through e-gates immigration and follow the signs for Terminal A, from where the onward flight to Amsterdam will be leaving. De facto, that means that I have to go landside first, then follow the signs for the A gates, and eventually pass through security to go airside again.

The queue for security is very long, and for a moment my heart sinks. That is, until I realise there is a dedicated security checkpoint for Star Alliance First and Business Class passengers. There’s a queue here too, but it’s nowhere near as long as the general queue.

I’m standing in the queue with my mind in neutral when some guy approaches me, panting dramatically. “Can you let me pass? My flight leaves in forty minutes”, he tells me in German. That doesn’t seem too urgent to me. Besides, I always find it a bit dumb when people ask me to jump the queue. It’s rather pointless because they’d actually need to ask every single person in the line, not just me. Just asking me doesn’t give him license to be inconsiderate to everyone. So I tell him that everybody is in the queue because they have a flight to catch. He calls me an Arschloch – charming, I’m sure – and moves to the back of the queue. Just then, one of the staff working at the security checkpoint passes. Mr. I’m-going-to-miss-my-flight grabs his arm and begs to be let through, pointing at me and adding that “and that Arschloch won’t let me pass”. The security guy gets this twinkle in his eye. He lets the passenger through and tells me “na, Sie sind mir ja ein Böser…”, aren’t you a naughty boy. The whole queue bursts out laughing.

Lufthansa Schengen Senator Lounge Frankfurt

Once I’m airside, I head for the Lufthansa Senator Lounge on the A concourse. It must be because of the summer holidays that the place is surprisingly quiet in comparison to how busy it usually is. I grab a seat by the window and lament, not for the first time, the cruel soul that thought to put stripes on the windows that make it absolutely impossible to take photos from such an otherwise privileged vantage point.

Lufthansa Business Class Boarding

My flight is boarding from gate A69, which is the very last gate on the A concourse. On this pier there are two levels. The lower is the A concourse for Schengen flights, whereas the upper is the Z concourse for non-Schengen flights. There’s a Boeing B 747-8 being readied for its next mission outside the window, and several of the passengers on the Amsterdam-bound flight give it an appreciative look, presumably thinking that this is the aircraft carrying us away to the Netherlands today.

Just before boarding begins, a gate change is announced. We’ll be boarding from gate A52 instead. And then, for some reason, all passengers to Amsterdam stand up and start running down the A concourse to gate 52. Boarding eventually starts with a delay of fifteen minutes.

Lufthansa Business Class Cabin & Seat

Being an A 319, this aircraft still has the old cabin interior and seats. I’m not sure if any of the A 319s have had a make over yet. These seats have the absolute minimum – with no adjustable head rests or power sockets. They’re not really nice to look at either. There are five rows of Business Class for a total of twenty passengers. However, only seven of the seats are occupied this afternoon. I have a whole row of three to myself. Behind me is a South Asian couple. The husband seems friendly enough, but my god, his wife is… a lot. More of her later.

Lufthansa Business Class Service & Crew

The crew on this flight are a bit bland, certainly not as good as the brilliant crew I had to and from Almaty, and also not as good as the crew I had on the Amsterdam to Frankfurt flight on my way to Almaty. They’re okay, just utterly unremarkable. The service on the ground is limited to a bottle of still water.

Our flight time to Amsterdam is fifty minutes. As we turn onto the runway, I spot the Airbus A 340-300 which brought me here from Kazakhstan still sitting on the parking stand where I left it when I arrived this morning.

Lufthansa Business Class Meal – Lunch

The lunch service starts quickly. Which brings me back to the woman sitting behind me: the meal consists of a plate with some kind of ham with asparagus and pine nuts and a dried fruit and lentil salad. On the one hand, I think Lufthansa would really do themselves a favour if they put a bit more thought into their short-haul catering concept. Offering something like smoked ham is unfortunate on so many levels. Muslims and jews don’t eat pork, while vegans and vegetarians are also out of luck with a meal like this. Of course, one could argue that that’s what special meals are for. But that’s precisely the issue – even in Business Class it is not possible to order a special meal on short-haul flights with Lufthansa. But the woman on 2A is not having any of it. The cabin attendant passes her the tray, and the passenger asks her “is this vegetarian?”, to which the cabin attendant explains that, no, it isn’t. It’s pork. With the most condescending tone of voice you could possibly imagine, the passenger tells the cabin attendant that “that is not acceptable, you’re going to have to find something else for me”, which is not only very obnoxious, but also just about the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. On a plane, you cannot just go find something else. At 33’000 feet you’re completely self-sufficient. What you haven’t loaded on board before departure, you don’t have.

I don’t have the meat, but the lentil and dried fruit whatsit is quite nice. The tray is served with a warm bread roll and butter, and some mousse cake for dessert. The sweet thing is not so good. Overall, though, it’s not a bad meal, and it’s nicely plated. However, I do think the crew needn’t rush quite so much with only seven passengers on board in the forward cabin. I ask for a glass of sparkling water, to which the crew respond by asking if I’d also like tea or coffee – just to make clear there isn’t going to be another drink service.

And then to conclude the service, they serve small white chocolate pralines with lemon, which are not so nice. Frankly, I think I would have preferred one of the bog standard yellow wrapped milk chocolates they serve in the back of the bus.

Arrival in Amsterdam

The weather in Amsterdam is just as nice as it was when I left Frankfurt. It’s a nice, sunny day with just a bit of haze in the air. We come in for an approach from the south and quickly taxi to our stand on the B pier, which is currently under maintenance. While they’re working on it, they’ve installed these huge ventilators to provide a bit of cool air.

Conclusion – Lufthansa Business Class

Of the four flights I took on this trip from Amsterdam via Frankfurt and Astana to Almaty and back, I would say this one was the worst, although that’s not to say that it was bad, it was just clearly not as good as the other flights I took. It seems to me that Lufthansa is at least trying to make the effort. For example, it is noticeable how they made a point to address me by name in each interaction in acknowledgement of my Senator status – even on this flight. As previously mentioned, there’s still some room for improvement, though. First, the ageing and outdated Business Class cabins urgently need to be replaced. And for another, the passenger experience in Frankfurt is just dreadful, although that is mostly beyond the airline’s control.