The Big Win: MMX-ARN-FRA-LAX-PHX-SEA-YVR-SEA-LHR-ARN incl. LH F, US F, BA J..

[Concorde]

Unfortunately I seem to have no way of recovering the PW for the other photosharing service so had to resort to my good old photobucket account. Which unfortunately now downscales/compresses photos for significant loss of quality :td:

Anyhow, back to the report:

After the astonishingly good salad at Cheesecake Factory and good company with ZOL, it was time to head back to the CP for last packing, check-out and a shared cab to SEATAC with fellow BAEC mod LTN Phobia. oh but first I had to drop another glance at the incredibly beautiful young woman sat in the both behind us.

Approaching SEATAC... Bob Marley Airlines as I like to call them.


The BA 747 for our ride to London. They may be old and somewhat flimsy, but I still find travelling on the Upper Deck one of the best methods of travel.




Check-in was a breeze and calm. Good ground staff.






Security a non-event, quick and easy. One last cup of Starbucks while buying more beans for the machine at home. BA departs from one of the satellites which means a train ride and no access to main terminal, I think?


Main terminal view.




Packed to last inch.




Stairs from the train.


I have to say that the staff at the SEA BA Lounge where outstanding. Friendly, genuine and service minded. The F lounge is tiny, with seats for perhaps 20 people, but view was amazing and two staff looked after us, getting drinks (Champagne, what else?) and making sure the experience was good.

Lounge beverage of choice...


Some views of the beast (Queen of the skies).




Boarding via Fast Track was straight forward.


63J. Flight was packed and I had booked late so no prize seat available. It did the job though with a couple of inches extra leg room. Snoozed for a few hours.


Upper deck of a BA747.


Food and service was dire to be honest. Crew seemed very disinterested and the food as mentioned was very poor. Breakfast an insult. Luckily I would spend a few hours in the BA Gold Lounge, Galleries First, which after the catering change shambles had begun to get back its game in the Autumn. In other words, a proper full English breakfast was to be had...

more shortly.

 

[Concorde]

Fick tag på bilderna igen. Dags för avslut.
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After the rather poor flight in BA Business (Club World), mostly due to inferior food and highly uninterested crew, I was looking forward to the Galleries First lounge. Standards had picked up again after the poorly managed catering firm change over. Breakfast on board is now so poor on the East Bound BA flights from North America that I did not even bother taking pictures. Hence lunch in the lounge would be filling to stave of hunger.

Spicy Asian Beef with vegetable:

Tattinger Prelude, nice fizz:

The Blue Label is a welcome treat in any frequent flyer lounge!

JWB works a treat together with Coffee and Sorbet:

Lounging...

The inside Terrace is as lovely 6 years after T5 opened.

I've looked down on this establishment since the day T5 opened and never visited. It looks great and I keep telling myself "next time", yet always forget.

Terrace view north, AC773 West bound.

Back to lounging. Crashed for 1.5 hours.

The view was not the primary factor for choosing this spot...

30 minutes prior to my late afternoon departure to ARN I made my way to the gate. Priority/fast track was in place for a smooth entry until the air bridge. I would be slumming it in Traveller (that is BA fancy name for coach) as it was a points ticket. The first row behind the curtain has the same space as the Club Europe/Business seats, and depending on time of the day, you get a more filling meal!

5A:

Flight was perfectly fine for an intra- European coach flight and what one would expect. 8 days of intense but thoroughly enjoyable travel on mostly my own had come to an end. I found LH F to not live up to my expectations. Summary to come next. Thanks for reading.

 

[Concorde]

Epilogue:

Thoughts on LH F:
The ground experience with especially FCT is brilliant. Security is what First Class should be like. Private, personal, quick and friendly. It puts other major European carriers such as BA to great shame.

Service and food was impressive, not far off some 1 Michelin star establishments and definitely of Bib Gourmand quality.
Wine selection was somewhat underwhelming however and they need to up their game in this department.
The shower and bath rooms are huge and impressive. But, I found it quite disappointing that they do not have cabanas and showers combined like for instance BA do over at the Concorde Room. That being said, the FCT showers are of much better quality.

Being driven and escorted to the plane is also a great touch. Again BA for example have completely messed this up in their First experience. Their team really should do some mystery shopping on the LH F experience.

However, and this is a big one. Unless one is FRA based, the benefits of FCT are greatly diminished. But overall LH F ground experience is miles ahead of most Carriers.

Cabin and service:
On paper LH 748 brand new with 8 seats compared to BA New F with 14 in the nose is a no contest. But, I have to say that even with 6 more seats I find the BA seat more private. Sure, the LH seat is wider and has much better storage space around it. But for privacy, I find BA better. As a bed LH is nicer and softer. But for lounging I like the BA seat more. While LH have opted for bright colours, BA have gone more futuristic and sleek. I guess it is a matter of tastes but I prefer the darker colours of BA here.

Service: I suppose LH suffer from the same issues as other carriers; it depends on the crew. Crew was good but not spectacular. Food wise LH offers much more sophisticated experience and better food overall. You actually get two proper meals unlike BA which offer the boring Afternoon tea, albeit in higher quality in First.

Unfortunately, my flight was Octoberfest themed hence not very exciting food.
The Caviar was hugely disappointing and of low quality. Quite bland with little salt.

Next time I will try to catch an LH flight not during Octoberfest and hopefully they will blow me away like many others have been.

Thanks for looking and a new TR is around the corner.

 

[Ikaros]

Mvg! Perfekt rapport conconrde!