Imagine spending over $317 million on a brand new aircraft to only fit it out with a product that’s not at all competitive and frankly outdated, no you’re not dreaming, I give you Lufthansa’s A350-900. Heads up, if you love Lufthansa, stop reading now – you will not enjoy this, this will be brutally honest, and I imagine this will even anger some.
I’ve travelled in a fair amount of business class products now and with that comes with an array of different experiences. For the most part, I have stuck to mostly big-name carriers as they’re easier to redeem points for and LH is one I’ve wanted to do for a while.
Lufthansa being a 5-star carrier, you’d expect for the most part that they’ll offer a good/fantastic experience, oh was I wrong with this, now some will say this is harsh, but I struggle to see how they’re a 5-star airline. My experience on this flight in no way is what an actual 5-star airline would offer; we’ll call them faux five stars. As a comparison – ANA, Qatar, Cathay, Asiana, JAL, EVA and Singapore are just a few of the airlines I’ve flown and are 5-star carriers according to Skytrax.
Lufthansa A350-900 Business Class
Lufthansa A350-900 Business Class
Lufthansa A350-900 Business Class
On this aircraft, there is a total of 48 business seats, and each of them features 64” of pitch and 20” of width, LH actually has two variants of the A350-900.
How is this for a footwell, good luck to anyone with large feet:
Lufthansa A350-900 Business Class Footwell
A beverage was served before departure, and I went with the orange juice:
Welcome Juice
Coke And Warm Nuts
Lettuce and Spinach salad:
Salad
Here are the roast beef strips:
Beef
Trying To Sleep Was Proving To be Quite Difficult
Breakfast In Business Class
Approaching Singapore
Lufthansa A350-900 Business Class
I Was Glad To Get Off The Flight In All Honesty
Overall, I was left utterly disappointed with Lufthansa, and I honestly couldn’t see myself flying them for a long time. I’ve wanted to fly their First for some time, but I’m in no rush at all to do so if that’s a reflection of what it can be like.
What an absolute waste of 92,000 KrisFlyer miles and who awarded them this award, someone was obviously having some good old sweet Mary Jane at the time or was off their head drunk, either one sounds appropriate.
What has been your experience flying Lufthansa’s Business Class?
68 comments
I recently flew an A350 from FRK to LAX and was pretty disapointed with the business class situation there too. Frankly a bit of a letdown. Not bad, per se, but certainly not great. For 7k US (company’s money, round trip) I expected better.
Hey asshole, at least try to get the syntax and punctuation right. Two words; proof read.
We got ourselves an internet tough guy, right here.
Absolutely correct… Lufthansa has an average 1990 product in a 2019 plane… I avoid them much as I can! What a pitty…. Shame on Lufthansa
Actually it’s one word dumbass!
The irony of his comment hahaha
Dude, sounds like you are the whining person here…. quite the annoying post to read. Pretty immature.
Where is the like button?
I flew Lufthansa Business Class from SFO-Munich in September. Same searing product. I can’t believe that a world class airline has seat only 20” wide. Even United is wider! Food subpR too. My experience was pretty much the same as above. Won’t fly them again …
I agree with everything you said. I have always found LH crew to be rather cold and their business class seats are way behind the competition. I much prefer Air Canada for my North American flights to Europe even with a connection in Toronto over direct with Lufthansa!
I spent some miles and flew from Toronto to Munich this year. I had never flown on an A350 and was looking forward to the business class experience with Lufthansa. I must be honest that I was not disappointed. The crew was friendly, service prompt. Had express meal which was good too. Flying with Singapore in a couple of weeks on another A350 and a good 18 hours of service to experience!
Yep. Flew A350-900 MUC MUC-YYZ last month and was shocked at the seats. I am 6’4” with size 13 feet. That math does not work in J on this configuration. Such a shame. Food did suck, but at least my crew wasn’t quite as surly as yours. On the way over I went ORD-FRA on 747-8i upper deck, and even though it’s an older interior, the seats are spacious. Hard to believe these belong to the same airline. LH is definitely not a 5-Star airline; flew QR yesterday in suites; now *that* is a 5-Star carrier.
I flew Lufthansa last year from LAX to RUH, with a stop/plane change in Frankfurt. I was excited about business on the A380. Absolutely horrible experience for business class. Couldn’t agree with u more. The seat was narrow, the upper deck was mostly “business” and the service was like economy on nicer airlines. They booked the flight with only one hour for plane transfer. When I got to Frankfurt, there was no help, had to run for 20 minutes with children to make it to the other flight, and was treated rudely by security there. It was certainly my last flight on Lufthansa.
I flew from Denver to Frankfurt and then to Malaga. The crew was rude, the seats horrible, my neighbor was sleeping the entire time and I needed to climb over her to use the restroom. The crew showed preferential treatment to some people (I’m sure they knew each other) maybe off duty LH crew. There was also no food choice as they ran out of beef and I was in row 2.
I’m German but always disliked LH, I try to avoid them at all cost. This for sure was my last trip with them.
I flew on LH A380 from SFO-MUC the day after the strikes ended. Although I agree they don’t offer a five star experience, the flight was still quite nice. (Not as good as the SQ/NH though).
Food for dinner was delicious and is better than what UA offers on average, but not as good as SQ/NH. Service was warm and attentive, bedding was comfy (though not as good as UA), seat was reasonably comfy (better than SQ) although not private, entertainment options were okay.
I disliked the fact that there are no individual air vents and the cabin was pretty warm, but it got better after I asked the crew to lower the temperature. Not the best business product I’ve flown, but a perfectly reasonable one, especially for trans-Atlantic. Every airline has variation in service though.
Yes, 2-2-2 isn’t the best anymore, and it’s definitely not ideal, but a significant percentage of business products are still in this configuration today, especially trans-Atlantic. I do agree that LH shouldn’t be a 5 star carrier though.
Had the choice of flying on LH’s A350-900 TATL and opted to take LOT Polish 787. I knew about LH’s 2-2-2. LOT has 2-2-2, but no footwell, immense amount of space in front of seat and only 3 rows or 18 J seats! Felt much more roomier and comfortable than the massive LX, LH mega J class cabins. First time on LOT and it was OK, not great, but good. Service was professional, friendly, but nothing extreme on that.
Flew Iberia A350-900 J class on the flight back. Great. 36 seats with only 16 filled. Crew was friendly, food was OK, but seat was great on window single. Would fly them again. But I have to say I like LATAM. Chilean cabin crew are great, attentive, food good and even with a 2-2-2 in the 787 layout I enjoy the service. Note the pattern: Northern and Southern. Yeah, LH went cheapo with the seats. Fly Air Canada instead, much better.
Cannot agree more Zac! I took the same flight on the the 14th and echo your experience in full: terrible seat, aloof crew and substandard meals. One thing you may have missed is the obvious design flaw in this plane. For BC-passangers and crew, there are only 2 washrooms for a total of 50-60 pax. I spent 20 minutes waiting for an open bathroom. I am also a frequent PPS-Club traveller and yes, I also compare all carriers with SQ, but there are other options which offer a much better experience: Finnair is one. Thank you for this article because aviation – and LH in particular, – desperately needs a desperate make-over.
The review would have been a lot better if Mr. Snorer had been left out. That has nothing to do with the airline. I flew their A380 in First from LAX to FRA. Absolutely incredible in every way.
Not really, the seat and service alone were terrible.
Swissair 777-300ER was better 1-2-1. I hope LH improves soon. Their A380’s white interiors are yellowing and I think they will decommission before refurbish. I am very partial to their service partners however, not the friendliest but certainly very polished and professional.
On a cheap companion fare on LH J, Inbound service was rude. Seat cushion does not inflate. So i could feel the metal structure underneath. Purser came with annoyed attitude and provided extra blanket as bedding – which does not help at all. Unacceptable for J.
LH F on the other hand is a good experience. Bed is plush, soft, wide.
This article is almost unreadable. Punctuation, my friend! And grammar!
“The next part of the flight that really made me go wow was something not even Lufthansa did; it was a whining passenger complaining about the lack of English subtitled English video content. 1. You’re on a German carrier, 2. There’s more than enough English content on board, but the way he was raising his voice and being disgruntled towards staff was a joke, he kept comparing them to Singapore and was saying how much of a better carrier they. Funny, he wasn’t flying Singapore to Singapore though was he…”
Well, to be fair, Zac didn’t graduate high school. He probably skipped the day they taught grammar.
This is exactly what is wrong with society today, the person who wrote this article is an absolute loser and a whiney sorry excuse of a person. Poor little guy I would really hate to see how this person would react if something truly terrible happened. This person would more then likely curl up in a little ball and start crying or ducking thier thumb like a little baby. Maybe the airlines should invest in a boohoo room for these type of people that can not even handle the slightest amount of discomfort without having a mental breakdown. Poor baby, give me your address and I will send you a pacifier and baby bottle for the next time you have to leave your safe zone and venture out into the world. Even better just stay home and do us all a favor!
Kevin, he’s not reviewing the product compared to some of life’s unfortunate or sad events, the funeral you recently attended or the domestic violence incident you overheard next door, the point of a travel blog is to offer opinions of a product in comparisom to other airlines. And this report is a reflection of that, and seems to align with many other commentors and TRs online. Based on this I’m happy to exclude LH from aspirational J fares I’d look to redeem for, especially for 92k miles. Fitting out a new aircraft with this configuration is just ridiculous, and as some others in this industry have suggested will surely see a shift away from the LH worshipping onto carriers that at least attempt to offer a modern and competitive product. Cheerio
You sir win the comment of the day!
Actually you are commenting on a “domestic” when you refer to the unfortunate complaining passenger. As a frequent flyer, you surely have experienced before regardless of class travelled loud abnoxious fellow travellers and snorers. This is relatively common. (Had yet another one on a recent Finnair longhaul overnighter). I’m afraid it is public transport. Perhaps the crew could have handled the moaning passenger better but the Germans are maybe not the best in dealing with criticism or don’t over react. I experienced a passenger on an AA flight who like us all was quite shocked to find that after boarding the 767 we were on was “retro” a replacement for the scheduled aircraft with frankly 1980 business layout. The CSD or whatever they are called on AA could not handle it and threatened to offload the pax. A total over reaction. In summary regardless of layout the crew often makes the flight good, bad or indifferent. The passengers I am afraid are just going to be “whatever” and not always pleasant to be around.
😉
Thanks for the trip report. Now I know to avoid Lufthansa. What a shame. Those seats are terrible, no privacy whatsoever. It looks like they designed the seats with the objective of providing no privacy whatsoever. I don’t want to have a view of all of the other passengers when I fly business class. I am used to flying business class where I see very little of the other passengers, Flying business class on this plane looks like flying in a hostel.
While LH is not a great airline, and the IFE system is indeed not great, and the food is not great, this does come across as whiny. It’s a lie-flat seat, so stop complaining. Sure, United Airlines has better food, better IFE, and (if you get the new polaris seats) better bedding, but who really cares whether the seat features all-aisle access — those configurations have fewer seats, which means you would have a harder time scoring your award seats. LH made a bet that people cared more about lie-flat that all-aisle access — and they were correct. (their cabins are usually decently filled)
The one thing that Lufthansa is, is dependable with a large network throughout Europe– as long as they’re not on strike of course.
I’ve always found the product on LH to be adequate. I think there are only very few carriers that are really consistently top-notch that truly deserve that Skytrax rating. (ANA comes to mind). Certainly, there are no airlines in Europe that are significantly better than LH.
Anyway — you got your business seat, and were fed some food. It’s on you if you selected the beef, which is always — always! — the worst choice on any airline menu. I thought every flyer knew that. Whether your neighbor snored or was annoying is not the airline’s fault.
Having my frequent flyer status with Lufthansa I’ve flown them quite a bit. And I agree mostly with the post (apart from the snoring subtitle guy – that can happen on every airline and there’s hardly anything that could be done about it). I might phrase it less negative (the food is okay and so is the seat). But that’s really not good enough for an airline advertising it’s five stars and I can understand the frustration.
Fortunately, things are about to change. Starting with the 777X (whenever that will be), Lufthansa will finally get proper business class seats in a 1-1-1/1-2-1 configuration.
I can relate to your experience. Airlines are overrated! I would prefer Singapore airlines over all European airlines! The crew is nice, the food is great and the service better! Back in my corporate job, I flew only Asian airlines.
Same for Denver Munich on the A350. Zéro privacy, médiocre food was all the same temperature and texture. No smiles. Stepping over a snoring stranger to stretch my legs. Never again.
the problem is that big corporates keep buying Lufthansa flights, so they won’t improve. And their Skytrax 5-star is the joke of the industry. I also agree that their cabin crew are just so bad…Anyway, I stopped flying them and activly avoid them, and recommend friends not to fly them. We all should do the same until they learn…
You sound like a whiny little bitch … nobody cares
LX is a tad better (at least with the hard product). They seem to run sales together, so I generally try to route the long haul through ZRH instead. Oh, and MUC keeps on losing bags (more than one report of bag tags being torn off ‘by the system’, when it doesn’t happen anywhere else).
Would like to fly LX in the new year, would make for an interesting comparison.
Im amazed at how many people are triggered by this article. Really the author maybe expected too much but it does sound like a crappy flight and not the best service experience. I guess there are blind fans to every airline. The airline cant do anything about mr snore but the the bad food and crappy seat are on them and most of all the lackluster service. To all who say that you should not expect more, well this is a business class seat. I for one am glad the author posted as it saves me from a bad experience.
I find it amusing, obviously it’s going to trigger people but that’s half the fun, everyone can have an opinion and I fully accept that. – glad you enjoyed the post! 🙂
Zac,
I appreciate the time put into this review – the pictures and detail about the aircraft are great, but I have an issue with the premise of the article. I find it hard to believe that the experience could be so terrible that it warrants the title “What a Complete Joke.” In all fairness, this is a brand new A350. It’s certainly not a worn out and junked interior like some of the dated cabins found on other carriers. So, I find it very hard to accept that the experience was this negative. Granted, having just flown LH’s FC on the 748, I can appreciate comments about the crew demeanor, but if anything, I chalked this up to cultural nuances.
Now, it’s time for me to be critical of you. Firstly, if you are putting content out on the internet like this, you need ready and able to handle feedback. Quite bluntly, I find some of your responses, childish and immature. Demeaning others, and insinuating that their viewpoints are irrelevant because of their “would be” generation, or because they disagree with you is not only discriminatory but highly unprofessional. You are clearly a well-versed traveler, so we readers would expect a higher level of professionalism from your responses.
I’m curious, if you were responsible for making changes to the aircraft and the service, what would you do differently? One major point of your article was the 2-2-2 seat layout, okay, what do you recommend?
I think, considering the price point, new aircraft, and layout, that the product provided is sufficient — in the end, it’s not FC.
P.S. – The part about the passenger complaining about the English subtitles has no relevance to this sort of article. If you want to focus on Lufthansa, do just that, avoid discussing passengers.
So you asked the question as to how LH got their 5 star Skytrax rating? The answer is very obvious. They paid for it as this is what Skytrax is all about for funky airlines such as LH who wouldn’t otherwise get it.
Skytrax are a bunch of fraudsters ripping off the airlines by giving them ranking that they don’t deserve. Look them up on YouTube and you will know why.
Be happy you have flown their Business Class product. If you fly economy class on this LH aircraft from MUC to SIN you really have a reason to complain 🤫
Agree entirely. Paid cash for IAD-FRA 1st class 747. Boarding, I was told “Your seat is over there” so I followed the pointed finger, no escort to my seat. This followed by surly service and inedible food ( I was told by the purser “everyone else liked it”). Bottom line, don’t believe the raves about LH first. Never again.
Oh wow, that’s pretty poor service, I’d be pretty pissed off too, especially paying cash for the ticket.
I dont see it the same way. I had three LH first class flights his year. One was outstanding. The ohter two okay for first class. Nit bad at all. Even when you start your flight in frankfurt in the Lh first class terminal. I only fly LH firsr from frankfurt. Never on a return flight. On the return i choosed singspore airlines from asia, cathay or eva in business. From the states swiss business.
Its true LHs business class product is not good at all. I prefer swiss or austrian iver it when i fly LH group.
Too true, love Austrian BC
Makes me glad I made my A350 debut (today) on Thai. A great staggered 1-2-1 not unlike United’s Polaris but a little roomier. Only a 2.5 flight but great meal.
And to think that Lufty “earned” its Skytrax 5 star rating based on a new business class seat they haven’t installed on any plane yet. Based on my experiences of Lufty’s new cabins (748 and 744 retrofits) just count yourself lucky you weren’t in economy. As a United FF I do my best to avoid the European JV partner.
How did you like the A350? it’s such a beautiful quiet aircraft, I’d love to try TG’s version of it sometime.
Having flown YYZ-MUC and back on A350-900 in J a month ago (continued MUC-OSL on SAS), I have to agree – hard product was OK 5 years ago, but not up to current standard (I am 185 cm, and size 13 feet) , catering was crap on the way out of MUC (funny thing was that departing from YYZ catering was by Do&Co, and was actually really good), and I effen hated the LH flight attendant Helgas and Gredechins that would not be out of place as OberGruppenFuhrers at a Nazi labor camp – not an ounce of warmth in them. They really looked like they did not want to be there.
Sure, still all Germans are Nazis – it’s one thing to complain about flight attendants, but “hate” is a hard word and your comparison is absolutely idiotic and unnecessary.
Btw, there’s no such name as Gredechin. What a shitty comment.
There are so many excellent business class products out there you can easily avoid dealing with marginal airlines. My favorite at the moment is the Virgin Atlantic upper class a350 out of JFK to London. Another excellent BC is Singapore Air’s a350 from Newark to Singapore. The new a Delta One cabins to Rome or Paris are exceptional. You don’t have to settle. The internet is your friend. A quick google would have saved you all those points. I have only flown Lufthansa once and it was merely average. Airlines are like restaurants. There’s no reason to go to a bad or average one.
I had no choice in the matter unfortunately as I had to cut a large trip short as I had to be with my GF who was having urgent surgery, I would have much preferred to do SQ or even VS through HKG but there was just no availability whatsoever – it was the only option with points and the cash prices for other carriers were INSANE. I definitely now know who to avoid when visiting Europe again.
a sex doll is not a gf
And then people wonder why I do keep flying Turkish Airlines instead of Lufthansa. Am based out of Germany and do wonder how Lufthansa got the 5* star award when Turkish Airlines got only 3*.
I want to try Turkish soo bad!
Recently flew Virgin Atlantic brand new 350 “upper class” LHR JFK. 1-2-1 configuration so everybody on aisle. Crew and food great! Highly recommend!
I was going to be doing that flight a few weeks ago but had trouble booking with Virgin Australia points, I’ll hopefully get to fly it soon though!
I flew Lufthansa business class once 35 years ago and it was so substandard I’ve never flown them again. I guess nothing has changed…
Great post and my experience with them was very similar last year flying business from Orlando to Frankfurt. Mediocre food, rude staff and very warm cabin (upper) plus they didn’t even have water bottles for biz passengers. Complained a couple times and flight attendant said he couldn’t do anything because it’s the way the AC was programmed. I emailed them after to complain and they gave me a short answer saying “sorry”.. honestly I don’t think they care. A couple weeks ago I had their flight cancelled due to strike.. again there’s not much they can do since they consider strikes out of their control. All in all, I’ll avoid them in the future.
The kid is like 18 or 19….what do you expect?
And?
I relish, cause I found exactly what I used
to be having a look for. You’ve ended my 4 day lengthy hunt!
God Bless you man. Have a great day. Bye
Glad I could be of assistance 😉
I had the same level of service on summer flying from Frankfurt to JFK on 747-8 aircraft upper level. Mediocre food and service , none of stewards seemed to care about you. Had to chase down the stewardess for a second glass of wine. Lufthansa one it was the leader of the sky and now looks worse than average
Try to be nice to a flight attendant and he/she will do everything for you. Grow up!
I’m well aware of that…
I find it a pity to conclude from one flight to all lh flights. My experience has shown that Lufthansa crews are quite polite and very friendly, charming and supportive. Annoying passengers can be on board every airline, Lufthansa has nothing to do with your seat neighbors. You yourself might actually be the annoying neighbor – who knows, maybe you are snoring as well. In a nutshell, I would just wish that you’d experience more flights till you conclude and post such a sharp comment.
If you were traveling Frankfurt to Singapore and Singapore is all that, why not just fly them. I’ve flow Charlotte to Munich many, many times and have certainly received better service than any domestic carrier. Sorry you didn’t receive a complementary blow job from the flight attendant for all your inconvenience.
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