My parents brought me to the airport. Because the Star Gold Counters (i.e. First Class) were occupied and another man queuing there, my father convinced me in his direct manner to use the Business Class Counter (“I know you are allowed to use First Class, but Business is free, so why you are waiting?”).
The check in agent checked me in to Bangkok and after I told her, that I had a separate ticket for Bangkok – Phuket, she was able to check the luggage straight to Phuket and even got me the boarding pass for this segment, of course without gate information. She was friendly and explained everything to me, though she mentioned with a smile “it's not really new for you, isn't it”.

While standing at the check in counter I also noticed that quite a few passengers were refused to check in since they were lovely nothings flying Economy and were friendly but insistently told to use the Economy Counters (where some more people were queuing).

After a quick stroll through the shopping arcades at Düsseldorf Airport I said “Good Bye” to my parents and went through security. It was a short wait with two people before me and than the usual “laptop-out-of-carry-on-procedure”. Since I had checked luggage this time I had no liquids and was on my way to the Senator Lounge.
The Lounge was full, but not crowed. It was easy to get a free seat and so I took a seat, grabbed an espresso and a sparkling water and waited for the boarding time. (The picture is from a previous visit)

18 May 2007
DUS – FRA
[Düssedorf – Frankfurt]
LH 815 (Lufthansa); Airbus A 321 – 100 (D-AISB / 'Hameln')
Gate A 72
18:35 – 19:30 [effective 18:31 – 19:32]
Economy Class
Seat 20 C

Boarding had started as I arrived at the gate just opposite the stairs to the Lounge. The flight was not full with many open seats and even rows with no passenger in it. No problem to store my carry on and able to switch to the free window seat. I converted the row into a Business Class seat and got a strange view by the female Purser while the other flight attendant grinned as she saw it.

We pushed back at 18:31 but had four planes in front of us before it was finally our turn. This means we were airborne late 20 minutes after push back at 18:52 and climbed into the cloudy and rainy sky above Düsseldorf area. It was quite a bumpy ride for the first 15 minutes and the seat belt signs weren't switched off. It was definitively one of my bumpier flights. As usual on this short flight to Frankfurt no beverage service was done. So I relaxed, read a bit in the Lufthansa in-flight magazine about the 10 year anniversary of the Star Alliance. Soon we began our approach to Frankfurt and the flight became very bumpy again.

We touched down at 19:30 and were on our parking position two minutes later, because it was a bus gate.

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