Frankfurt Rhein-Main

After we had cleared customs, we took the escalator down to the domestic / Schengen concourse next to gate A 26 and walked the way back towards the new lounge. It was good to walk and despite the fact we had not that much time, were able to visit the lounge for a couple of minutes. At the entrance to the Senator Lounge was a line, which luckily moved quickly and soon we were in the lounge. The lounge was busy, but it was not too difficult to find a free table with two seats. Despite the fact I had skipped breakfast in the lounge, I did not feel hungry and only took a coffee and a croissant from the buffet. Boarding time approached and we left the lounge at boarding time to walk over to nearby gate A05, which was a bus gate.

Boarding started late for our flight to Düsseldorf and there was not special announcement for Business Class and status customers. The gate area looked quite crowded, but it seems, the flight was not full as standby passengers got boarding passes for the flight.

28 August 2014
FRA - DUS
[Frankfurt Rhein-Main - Dusseldorf INternational]
LH78 (Lufthansa); Airbus A 319 (D-AILI)
Gate A 05
13:05 – 13:55 [effective 13: 15 – 14:07]
Business Class
Seat 03 D

We were in the first bus that drove us to our waiting Airbus A 319 on the tarmac. Our Airbus A319 to the short hop to DUS was D-AILI, which was delivered to Lufthansa on February 18, 1997. It was leased to Khalifa Airways in 2001 but remained registered in Germany. Khalifa Airways was an Algerian Airline, which started operations in 1999 with leased aircraft. It served destinations in Algeria, Spain and France. It was grounded in 2003 after failing to pay leasing rates for its aircrafts and insurance contracts. The plane was back to Lufthansa in March 2003 and then leased to Germanwings from March 2004 to November 2005 before it again came back to Lufthansa. During the time in the fleet of Lufthansa, the plane was named after the city of Ingolstadt. On March 26, 2009 the place was leased to Lufthansa Italia and named “Roma”. After Lufthansa Italia ceased operations, it was stored at Schönefeld airport before if once again returned to service on June 29, 2012 but not named after the city of Ingolstadt this time. The plane is powered by two CFM56-5A5 engines by CFMI and now equipped with 138 seats.

Since there were still passengers at the terminal boarding the second bus, there was no time to rush and we leisurely boarded the plane and stored our hand luggage in the overhead compartment. No pre-departure drinks were offered – which is standard on Lufthansa's short haul operations. The waiting time was not long and the second bus arrived. After all passengers had boarded, the flight attendant serving Business Class offered magazines to passengers in Business Class and I asked for a “Spiegel” magazine. Later the crew performed the safety demonstration and the pilot welcomed us on board as well. He mentioned that we were a little bit late and given the short flight time would not be able to safe time in the air, nevertheless he hoped not to increase our delay.

We pushed back at 13:15 and taxied to our runway. It took some time, before we reached the runway and finally took off at 13:27 followed by a turn toward the North offering a good view of the layout of Frankfurt Rhein-Main airport with its four runways.

Once the seat belt signs were switched off, the crew began the service and offered a roll, a small plate of meat and a very small salad. I again skipped the meal service, while my colleague took it and described it as small but good. I went for cup of coffee. The crew was friendly but otherwise no personal touch and one was not addressed by name and there was not always eye-contact made when offerings beverage or talking to the passenger.

As usual on this short ride, there was no service in Economy. I read in the magazine and soon, we began our descend into Düsseldorf Airport.

We landed behind schedule at 14:05 and taxied to our gate A71, where we arrived at 14:07.

We were able to get off the plane quite fast and headed down to the luggage belt to wait for our luggage. Being priority tagged it appeared quickly and it is nice to see, that Düsseldorf Airport get this finally right though the benefit of priority tagged luggage is not a benefit at Germanwings.
It was then as my colleague noticed that TSA had broken off her suitcase despite it has a TSA lock. This was of course a not so nice end to an otherwise great trip. Honestly, I will not understand the sense of a TSA lock if the TSA does not care about it.

Conclusion

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