Düsseldorf International

I had a meeting earlier the day and dropped my colleague at our Düsseldorf office before fueling up my rental car on the way to the airport. If you drive to Düsseldorf Airport, there is an Aral Station at Freiligrathplatz and it is usually cheaper than the petrol station at the airport and only three kilometers from the airport.

Finally I reached at the airport around 14:15 after and returned the rental car at the Sixt outlet. I headed down to the first class check in counters, which were empty and I was able to check in for my flight to Munich without waiting.
The agent asked me, if I l would like to get on an earlier flight, since the flight between Düsseldorf and Munich were running late due to fog and snow in Munich in the morning and my scheduled flight departing at 16:35 would probably be delayed. I asked when the earlier flight was about to depart and was told at 15:00 but this flight was already delayed by 15 minutes. Anyway, I accepted this offer and got my boarding pass for the earlier flight to Munich. I checked one piece of my hand luggage since this flight was only in Economy Class and I was not in the mood about arguing about two pieces of hand luggage despite the fact that I am holding Senator status with Lufthansa.

The security lines were busy and I walked to one of the economy class lines as there were more lines in use. Business and First Class had only one line and there more people queuing in the Business Class lines than at the lines for Economy Class passengers. It took approximately around 10 minutes before I was through security. I headed to the Senator Lounge which was busy, but I had no difficulties to get a seat.

In the lounge I get something to drink and some vegetables from the buffet as I ran into juan516, who was heading to Barcelona with his wife. We chatted a bit about the upcoming trips of him and of me before the lounge agent came over the intercom announcing the plane to Munich ready for boarding at gate A 72 around 14:48.

I said goodbye to juan516 and his wife and left the lounge and walked to gate 72 which was not far away. Boarding was already underway and there were no lines anymore and the most people had already boarded the plane.

15 February 2012
DUS - MUC
[Dusseldorf International – Munich Franz-Josef-Strauß]
LH 2011 (Lufthansa); Airbus 319 (D-AILW / Donaueschingen)
Gate A 72
15:00 – 16:15 [effective 15:08– 16:10]
Economy Class
Seat 08 D

As I stepped into the Airbus 319 D-AILW / Donaueschingen I was greeted by the purser and one of the flight attendants. My seat 8 D was in the second row of the Economy Class Cabin and I stored my belongings in the overhead compartment. The window seat was taken, but the middle seat remained empty, so seat blocking worked on this flight, which was pretty full and from what I heard from other passengers, quite a few were rebooked on this flight from later ones. You cannot ‘stand by’ for earlier flights on Lufthansa flight like in the US for some US Airlines. But Lufthansa allows this, if they benefit from rebooking as well by getting passengers out of their way in certain situations like delays or bad weather.

I expected the load of this flight by around 80 %. The most middle seat in the first few rows were empty and seat blocking seems to work for status passengers.

We waited for two delayed passengers. Let me use this time to let me share some information about our Airbus A 319 D-AILW. D-AILW was delivered to Lufthansa on August 3, 1998 and thus an older plane. It made its maiden flight on June 25 in the same year and was equipped with 132 seats at the time of the delivery. As usual the seat pitch is the same for Business and Economy Class, but the middle seat is blocked in Business Class. In 2011 the plane was equipped with the ‘Neue Europakabine’ (NEK) and now it has 138 seats, i.e. one row more in the cabin. The change to NEK meant that the armrest could not be moved and the middle seat could not be converted into a tray table.

The Airbus was equipped with two CFM 56-5A5 engines. This engine type is built by CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric Aviation and Snecma, and has a thrust of 23,500 lbf or 105 kN and a weight of 2.2 tons.

Finally the two passengers had arrived and the announcement “boarding completed” was made. The captain welcomed us on board and informed us about the weather in Munich and the flight time. He also hoped to speed up things, as Düsseldorf was not that busy and expected an on time arrival. A few second later the crew welcomed us as well and mentioned the flight time to Munich. The safety demonstration was done while we were pushed back at 15:08 and taxied to the runway and took off in Western direction at 15:15.

We climbed into the sky above Düsseldorf. After ten minutes in flight the beverage service started. A chocolate bar was offered soon followed by the usual beverage service. I opted for a coffee and water.

The flight was uneventful and a smooth ride. The captain updated us and expected an on time arrival as the situation in Munich was better.

The items from the beverage service were collected as we already had begun our final approach into Franz Josef Strauß airport. We touched down at 16:07 and taxied a few more minutes to our bus gate which we reached at 16:10.

We disembarked through the front door. Three Mercedes S-Class limousines were waiting for connecting first class passengers and Hon Circle Members, but for me and the hoi polloi it was just a bus.

At the terminal I slowly walked to the luggage belt for my checked luggage. The belt had not started yet but it was not a long wait until the belt started and the priority tag worked, as my luggage was among the first ones on the belt and I was able the catch the 16:39 bus towards Schwaig Sportplatz, which departed even earlier than the scheduled shuttle bus to the Sheraton Airport Hotel.

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