My 747 First Class Review
This week, I had the incredible opportunity to fly Lufthansa's First Class on their Boeing 747 from Chicago ORD to Frankfurt, through an eVoucher upgrade.
Since this is such a rare opportunity (for me at least), I want to share my experience here.
Service:
The on-board service was incredible. Whenever I needed something, one of the two flight attendants was there in an instant. The pilot went trough the First Class cabin before takeoff to welcome everyone. Since ORD was really busy that day, we were delayed by almost two hours. My connecting flight in FRA would have been almost impossible to catch. So they offered me to rebook my connecting flight, I accepted, and they handled everything. Everyone was super friendly and they made all First Class guests feel valued.
What I didn't like so much was the ground-service at ORD. After check-in, one of the staff members took me through the passport control and security check. But they didn't have a separate priority lane. Instead, we used the regular one and just cut in line. To me, it felt quite embarrassing walking past those who have waited there for over an hour.
Then they led me to the lounge and told me to come to the gate when boarding starts. Again, to cut in line and tell them that I fly First Class. They reserved a seat right at the boarding desk for all First Class passengers. Sitting there, in a comfortable chair while hundreds of Economy passengers were looking at us, felt really over the top.
Seat:
This Boeing 747 still had the old 8-seat First Class. The seat itself was very comfortable, with buttons to adjust basically every single parameter individually. During the night, they put a mattress on top which made it feel like a real bed.
But privacy was poor. There are these walls that create a sort of half-cabin atmosphere, but we were only allowed to pull those up after reaching cruising altitude. Even with the walls, there was less privacy than in a standard Thompson business class seat.
The monitor was rather small and had a really low resolution. The remote control also didn't work reliably. And you could feel how outdated the everything was: Panels and strips had become lose and some buttons were heavily scratched. The on-seat storage compartments were worn out, the ones on my seat could hardly be opened.
Given that the new 747 First Class cabin is about to roll out, it makes sense that maintenance on the old one was been neglected. But it still doesn't feel right for an experience as exclusiv as this.
Lavatory:
The lavatories were really nice. I have never seen such spacious and clean toilets on a plane. Perfection, if you ask me. There were two lavatories for eight passengers.
Food:
The food was great. Everything looked like we were in an upper class restaurant. I didn't like all the dishes, but that's just personal taste. There was nothing objectively wrong with anything they served.
Amenities:
I received a small amenity kit in their 100-year design, which looks and feels like a high-quality product. They also provided slippers that fit me! Which is rare, since they are usually too small for my feet. And my personal highlight were the pajamas. Really cool design, and comfortable.
Overall:
It was such an exclusive experience, and I am so grateful that I got to fly First Class. It was, without a doubt, one of the Top 10 flights of my life. However, I kinda expected more, especially from a maintenance perspective. I got this upgrade basically for free since I used my eVouchers that would have expired by the end of this year. But if I had spent real money on this, I would probably feel s bit disappointed afterwards.