Munich Franz-Josef Strauss Airport

As I reached the terminal in Munich I looked at one of the screen showing the departing flights, but the US flight to PHL was not listed as delayed. Therefore I headed to the Senator Lounge on the G Level for additional information. In the lounge I was told to go straight to the Senator Lounge on the H Level. Unfortunately the agent could not get the ticket, as it was on US Airways ticket stock and therefore send me down to the First Class Ticket desk.
The agent there was able to get me a seat on the LH flight to EWR and made also a call to US, as I was still checked in for the flight and therefore she could not transfer the ticket. She told US also to make a note in the booking that I will be on the flight back from LGA on Sunday. I will see if this works. As I got the new boarding pass, I noticed it was in W. So I will have to ask for a credit of the originally booked flight via PHL to get the full miles.
The agent was very friendly and helpful and we chatted a bit about the crash of the US Airways flight in New York on the previous day.

After the ticket was issued she checked me in for the flight and I was back on my way to the Senator Lounge in the H concourse.

Security was fast but this time my watch caused a beep and I got an additional screening and also my hand luggage was searched.

The SEN lounge in the H Level was quite busy with a few flight to the US leaving around this time and so I took a chair and got me something to drink and to eat and a paper to read. I made a few calls, checked e-mails and the time passed rather quickly. Boarding was announced for 14:35 and I left the lounge around 14:30 and headed to the gate. Boarding had not started yet but did start after a few minutes and as I stood near the desk was among the first passengers boarding the plane.

16 January 2009
MUC – EWR
[Munich – Newark Liberty]
LH 415 (Lufthansa); Airbus A 330-300 (D-AIKL)
Gate H 08
15:15 – 18:40 [effective 15:34 – 18:48]
Economy Class
Seat 25 G

I had a seat in the smaller first section of the Economy Class cabin in the second row giving me slightly more legroom as there are only three seats in the first row in the middle part. The plane was not completely full in all cabins and so the seat next to me remained empty. The Airbus A 330 was equipped with the new entertainment system in Economy Class. The safety video was shown during push back.

We pushed back slightly delayed at 15:34 and the plane had to be de-iced. We were ready for take off at 16:00 and airborne three minutes later. The first beverage round was done after app. 30 minutes flight time, soon followed by a hot towel service. I was surprised it was not done the other way round. Meal service started app. after an hour flight time. This time the question was chicken or pasta. I opted for the pasta which was surprisingly good; they had a taste and were “all dente”. The pasta came with a shrimp salad, a slice of cheese, a roll and a slice of cake. Bitter Lemon was available in Economy on this flight, so I had a can of bitter lemon and during the second beverage round a glass of mineral water and a cup of coffee. The trays were collected after 40 minutes as we had passed the Scottish coast and were heading towards the Atlantic Ocean in a cruising altitude of 11500 m.

During meal service I had noticed, that the audio system did not work and asked for a rebooting of the system. I was told, I was not the first passenger reporting a not proper working audio system. Not a big issue at this time, as I had to finish some reports for work, which I had not finished during regular office hours on the previous days, as I was stucked in traffic jam heading back to my office from a meeting. And I also had to prepare something for a meeting the day after I returned from this trip, which kept me busy for the first hours of the flight as long as the battery of my laptop ran.

Finally the in-flight entertainment system was rebooted and after this it worked and so I was able to listen to music because no film I wanted to see was available on the AVOD system. The lights were switched off, but as far as I noticed only a few passengers tried to get some sleep, the most passengers stayed awake and watched a movie or listened to music or their iPods or MP3 Players …

During this time the crew made several beverage rounds and offered sparkling and non sparkling water as well as orange and apple juice. In addition in the rear galley water and orange juice were available.

The in-flight entertainment system was rebooted after app. 150 minutes in flights, as it was not working. At some seats in the rear part of the Y cabin the passengers could not switch on o off the overhead reading lights. So the purser decided to reboot the system in all classes which took 15 minutes. After it had been rebooted it worked properly.

100 minutes prior to landing the lights were switched on and soon later a hot towel round was done. A few minutes later the snack service followed. One got a fajita filled either with grilled vegetables or beef. I did reject the offer first as the last one I had some time ago was not really good, but the flight attendant convinced me to try them. They were indeed of much better quality than on my last flight. I asked also for a cup of coffee and water.

Soon after the crew had collected the boxes from the snack service, they prepared the cabin for the landing and had noticed that they completely forgot to distribute arrival and customs cards in the first section of Economy. I and a few passengers helped ourselves by getting them from the back of the plane were they were put in the magazine racks.

Shortly after we had taken off in MUC the purser told us to fill out the green I-94 forms also one had used the Internet for registration.

The crew was doing business as usual; they were friendly but did not offer any special service beyond this and especially nothing special for Senators and other status passengers. Not that I need this, but it would have been nice. Otherwise it was a nice and relaxing flight.

We touched down in Newark at 18:33 and reached our gate at Terminal B after a longer taxiing over the tarmac nearly 15 minutes later. The Airbus A 340-600 of SQ bound to Singapore was standing at another gate and we parked aside an Air India Boeing 747-400.

No flight attendant blocked us from entering the Business Class Cabin. Only one door was used for deboarding. There were not many passengers in front of me and immigration was empty and it was my turn after less than a minute to wait.

I barely could understand the immigration officer, who asked for the I-94 form and also wanted to see the print out of the online registration and asked when I did print it. He did not type anything into his computer, it seems sufficient that he saw it. I think this was somehow strange, there was really no difference. I was asked a few questions like what I did as occupation and when I had been in the US for the last time. My overall impression it took longer than usual. I was not asked any similar questions during my last three trips to the US. Perhaps this was because I had put another flight number and point of entry in the internet due to my original routing via PHL. Who knows, I will see what happens in ORD in February.

I passed customs and headed for the airtrain to the station where I took a train to Penn Station and reached my hotel after a transfer in the subway around 20:15.

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