London Heathrow

I checked in for my flight and decided to head over to terminal 1 and the new Star Alliance Lounge. This was possible to do airside. The lounge is quite big and the food selection was good with different salads, curry, rice, spring rolls, rolls, sandwiches, jam, cereals and cookies. A white and red wine as well as a rose wine was available as well as different types of beer and soft drinks. The selection of newspapers and magazines were limited to Asian and British papers and magazines. The lounge was full, not overcrowded but full and it was difficult to find a group of seats with no one sitting there. I eat something, drank two glasses of white wine and read a bit in a travel magazine.

At 13:45 I decided to move to the SEN Lounge, which was emptier but filled with passengers around 16:00 and become full and very crowded around 16:45.

I continued the work on my trip reports about the LH Italia inaugural flight on Monday, had some Ginger Ale and some coffee. A few minutes prior to announced boarding time I headed to the gate 14, which was a bit to walk.

04 February 2009
LHR – DUS
[London Heathrow – Düsseldorf]
LH 4777 (Lufthansa); Boeing 737-300 (D-ABEL / 'Pforzheim')
Gate 14
17:30 – 19:50 [effective 17.19 – 19.40]
Economy Class
Seat 11 A

Boarding hat not yet started as I entered the boarding area, but boarding began just after a few minutes waiting time. I had reserved the same seat than I had on the previous flight. I stored my belongings in the overhead compartment and waited for the passengers to board the plane. Again, the plane was not completely fully booked and the middle seat remained empty. Again I converted the seat into a business class seat but did not lower the table out of the middle seat (only during the service, since I had the tray table stored in the armrest). We pushed back ahead of schedule at 17:19 but had to queue for take off. There were a few bigger birds in front of us, among them two British Airways 747-400 and an Emirates Boeing 777 as far as I remember, while behind us was a delayed US Airways plane bound for Philadelphia. 25 Minutes after we had pushed back it was finally our turn and we where airborne. After ten minutes flight time the crew began their service, as usual with Business Class and then the usual sandwich was distributed in Economy. I skipped the sandwich, but had a sparkling water and a tea. The flight itself was really uneventful and we approached Düsseldorf International Airport from the Eastern direction and touched down ahead of schedule at 19:37 and reached our gate at 19:40.

I used the exit for passengers with hand luggage only and waited for my driver, who had not yet arrived to pick me up, since we had arrived ahead of schedule.

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