München Franz-Josef Strauß

I went to the First Class Lounge, where rcs85551 had already informed the lounge agents about my arrival.

Since I was a bit late, we cut the time in the lounge short. In the lounge we meet another frequent flyer, who had just returned from Hong Kong and was now flying to London.

Around boarding time we headed for the gate. Boarding had not started yet for the masses, but people with children and a few passengers with wheelchairs had already boarded. But the waiting time was short, the boarding announcement was made shortly after our arrival at the gate..

After a passport check at the gate, my boarding pass failed . Unfortunately it was not an operational upgrade, since there was not a new boarding pass printed. Due to the upgrade in Düsseldorf, they somehow had unloaded me from the plane and so my seat was given away. That means I had to get a new seat. The agent was friendly, but could not op up me, since the plane was not full. But at least I was able to get a seat in a row where the two seats next to me remained empty. Since he was helpful and friendly and two free seats next to me, it was not that worse.

03 June 2010
MUC – YUL
[Munich Franz-Josef-Strauß – Montreal Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport]
LH 474 (Lufthansa); Airbus A 330-300 (D-AIKJ / 'Bottrop')
Gate H 28
11:50 – 14:15 [effective 11:57 – 14:11)
Economy Class
Seat 34 D

I headed to the back while rcs85551 made the famous left turn toward the first two rows of business class.

I stored my belongings in the overhead compartment, my laptop under the seat in front of me and settled down in my seat. Blanket and pillows were already placed on the seat. The remaining passengers boarded the plane. The load in Economy was about 80% and there were quite a few free seats left – to my luck I have to say.

We had to wait for two connecting passengers, as the captain told us, but he also expected a smooth ride and an on time arrival. As expected the seats next to me remained empty, a few passengers changed seats but no one took one of the middle seats.

The safety video was shown while we were pushed back at 11:57 and during our taxi to the runway.
At 12:11 it was our turn, the captain accelerated and we climbed into the rainy sky over Munich.

The seat belt signs were turned off after approximately 15 minutes and the crew went to their stations and prepared the first beverage round and distributed the headphones. rcs85551 made a quick visit to see how I was doing without exit row, which was very kind of him. He also brougt me the amenity kit from business class, which was a special one as the first Lufthansa A 380 was now starting the scheduled service to NRT..

I started my laptop, as I wanted to use the flight time to put some effort in this trip report and also updated a few other reports as well. I also received a few e-mails requesting some offers for hotels and car rentals which I had to reply to.

The purser came for a quick visit and mentioned, that rcs85551 had informed her about my bad luck losing the exit row. We chatted a bit, and she told me, if I would prefer to have some wine from the Business Class or a glass of champagne I should let her or one of her colleagues know. It should also not be a problem to move up to the Business Class for the last minutes before landing.

The first beverage round started soon later and I got a glass of water and was offered a glass of Chardonnay from Business, which was a really nice touch.

After the beverage round hot towels were offered and soon later the lunch service started. I skipped lunch, but the flight attendant offer me a refill of my wine from Business Class which I accepted and a few seconds later I could enjoy a glass of wine from Business. While she was getting my glass refilled, I was able to have a quick look at the passenger manifest. There were only three Star Golds in Economy, including me, and one Star Silver.

The most passengers of Economy Class enjoyed their food. The offerings were either beef or chicken. It was accompanied by a salad and a slice of raspberry cake and did not look that bad.

After the meal service was done in Economy, one of the flight attendants came and told me she could offer me a meal from Business Class. I thanked for the offer, but told her, I would have skipped lunch also if I had been in Business Class, since I really was not hungry.

Trays were collected soon later for the passengers and the crew offered duty free items. The cabin light was dimmed, but only a few passengers seemed to sleep. The most passengers were either watching a movie, listening to music or read in a book or a magazine. There were not many people with a laptop on this flight.

The first officer, who flew us today, gave us an update of the weather situation in Montreal. It looked like if it became a rainy day and we should expect temperatures in the 16ies – luckily Celsius and not Fahrenheit.

Our flight took us over England and Ireland towards the Atlantic. We flew south of Iceland and entered the American Airspace north of Newfoundland.

App. 1:50 before landing the lights were switched on again and soon later another round of hot towels followed. The cabin crew began to prepare the snack service, which was a panini with turkey or a vegetable pizza. A beverage round soon followed. I opted for a coffee and an additional water.

In the meantime I had shut my laptop down and listened to music and read in the magazines I got in the lounge. The items from the meal service were collected and the purser came and asked me, if I would like to move to the Business Class for the last 50 minutes. She brought me much to the bewilderment of my seat neighbors to the Business Class Cabin. Rcs85551 had a free seat next to him and so I could enjoy the last minutes of the flight in the luxury of the Business Class.

I was offered a cup of coffee and rcs85551 chatted a bit about the frequent flier communities and the last developments of frequent flier programs and the FT awards.

The remaining minutes of the flight passed quite quickly and soon later the fasten seat belt signs were switched on and the crew prepare the cabin for the arrival in Montreal.

We touched down at 14:01 and taxied for our gate, where we arrived ten minutes later.

We were able to leave the plane through the first door since both jet-bridges were in use.
Immigration was a 15 minutes wait before we finally were allowed into Canada.

The lines at the counters for the bus 747 to downtown Montreal were long, since there were no ticket vending machines and the information desk was not able to sell them. The service is great, but buying tickets especially for people from outside Canada is a major nightmare. There is much room for improvement. Anyway, we decided to safe on time and took a taxi to downtown Montreal.

Top

next flight