Frankfurt Rhein-Main

The security checkpoint at the A concourse was not that crowded, but my colleague quickly discovered, “They have not invented working” and as usual the officers were slow and doing many other things and were rather unfriendly. Having experienced Munich at the beginning of November, this is quite a contrast and I really did not understand, why this attitude cannot be improved.

We walked down towards the Senator Lounge at gate A 26 which was unfortunately very crowed. Lucky us, we got at least a seat, but many other guests were not that lucky. This lounge is really way too small.

We sat there and relaxed until boarding time was getting closer and decided to head back to gate A 02 where  a bus would bring us to our plane for the flight to Düsseldorf.

18. November 2009
FRA – DUS
[Frankfurt Rhein-Main – Dusseldorf International]
LH 814 (Lufthansa); Airbus A 320 (D-AIQE / 'Gera')
Gate A 02
21:25 – 22:15 [effective 21:49 – 22:44]
Business Class
Seat 02 A

We were in the first bus which brought us to our plane sitting on the tarmac. We boarded through the first door and settled down in our seats. I stored my belongings under the seat in front of me. The captain informed us, that we unfortunately had to sit on the tarmac for quite a few more minutes, since air control advised us a later arrival time in Düsseldorf. However, we were lucky, since we already got an earlier slot than we were previously given, which would have been 23:00. The flight attendants distributed water and chocolate while we were waiting.

We pushed back at 21:49, merely 25 minutes behind schedule, and taxied for the runway, where we took off at 22:00.

I tried to get a bit of sleep and dozed the time from taking my seat and landing in Düsseldorf. A service was done in Business Class, which I skipped, and also a beverage round was done in Business Class. The plane was not 100% full, at least one seat in Business Class remained empty; not sure about Economy Class. The flight itself was uneventful, at least I was not that often interrupted in my sleep.

We arrived in Düsseldorf at 22:40 and the captain really braked hard to catch an earlier exit from the runway, but then nearly missed the exit from the taxiway. Anyway, we were at our gate at 22:44 and could exit the plane quite fast, being in the second row, and were on our way to the belt, where our luggage was among the first to arrive approximately ten minutes after our arrival at the gate.

The boyfriend of my colleague was waiting for us – well more for his girl friend – but brought me home as well.

So a nice trip came to its end. A nice last longhaul flight as the last flight for 2009 and also the flight from HKG to FRA had been my 300th flight. And returning to Hong Kong and seeing old friends was of course also great. Service was okay, both crews had their good and not so good times, but I would rate them both equal and it has been some of the better Frankfurt based crews. United was okay, the crew on the flight from Hong Kong to Singapore was one of the worst crews, not smiling, rushing through the cabin. The flight back from Singapore to Hong Kong however was by far better and smiled while doing the service and also offered water and orange juice throughout the flight. Not like those on Asian Airlines, but since SQ was pricing our more than double the amount of United, it was a no-brainer which flight to choose and UA had for our purpose even the better flight times.

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