Lufthansa A350 Business - Los Angeles to Munich

good morning from a kind of gloomy west hollywood today i'm flying lufthansa on their airbus a350 our flight this evening departed out of los angeles just as the sun had set taking a more suddenly route to take advantage of the strong tailwinds will traverse the continent and the north atlantic to arrive in munich in just under 10 hours covering some 5970 miles back in hollywood i was enjoying my 26 hour vacation the sun between work trips the weather was perfect so i spent a lot of time outdoors away from other people and their diseases [Music] so the hotel i'm staying at is called the addition here in west hollywood it is beautiful it reminds me of a beach cabin uh it is a mario banvoy property but for whatever reason they don't offer free breakfast as a perk for platinum or higher status members which is kind of a bummer because the breakfast here was pretty good and yes i know i promised that at some point i would do hotel reviews and i filmed them i'm going to edit them at some point but i just haven't gotten around to it in the meantime i do have to pack up and head back to the [Music] airport [Music] los angeles needs no introduction the second most populous city in the united states of freedomland boasts one of the most impressive cases of urban sprawl in the world this will perhaps come as a surprise to some but the city actually has a decent metro and light rail service although using it to reach the airport is really not worth the effort in most cases especially if you have luggage considering the line that comes closest to the airport will still require a shuttle bus connection hence rideshare apps such as uber lyft would be the modern way to get around fair warning though if you want to be picked up at the airport via rideshare you do need to take a free shuttle to a designated pickup area which can be a hassle by adding 10 minutes to your trip it might be easier than just the levy favors from your friends equally complicated are the airport buildings themselves which are split into nine terminals each with their own check-in and luggage claim they're divided among the major airlines and do shift in tenancy on occasion kind of analogous to the city's historic gangs and their turf wars or maybe not the only airside connection between them are a series of labyrinthine underground tunnels really not ideal if you have a tight connection even less so if you have tight pants alright just checked in here at the international terminal which is named after a former highly successful la mayor tom bradley and not tom brady the arguably equally successful american football player lufthansa along with its star line's chums occupies check-in hall c and the international terminal the number of desks here are clearly designed to handle many more passengers than what they had at the time and as a consequence there was no line whatsoever for anyone regardless of class of travel across the aisle it was the same story for turkish airlines conveniently a kova testing facility was set up on site in the terminal promising results within 48 hours if requested going to the security checkpoint now all the major airlines seem to still be flying from here you've got british airways you've got air france laptop qatar emirates on the other side there is a noticeable absence of people though a lot of the businesses are still closed [Music] past security the new concourse is laid out like an archetypal north american suburban shopping mall complete with a food court and tons of retail outlets although mind you most of them on this occasion were closed [Music] in some cases this was probably for the better like pf chang's which was cordoned off like a crime scene as it should be for the crimes it commits against authentic chinese food in other cases however it was quite a disappointment learning that the otherwise fantastic star lines first in business class lounges were also ominously taped off with caution tape but you know what this time i did my homework and i knew that this lounge was closed but i have a plan which involves a 20-minute walk over to the united terminal to use their united club and so begin my trek through the previously mentioned maze of connectors and tunnels to my destination i'm going to be sitting down for 12 hours straight so it's probably a good thing i'm getting some exercise in and really with views like this i don't really mind walking 20 minutes sadly these apron views were not to last as the majority of this commute was through underground tunnels two kilometers all right so this is american airlines terminal which is not where i want to go [Music] this is alaska and spirits terminal also not where i want to go [Music] eventually though there was a change in scenery i'm beginning to see united plains which means we must be getting close and sure enough okay i made it um 3.8 kilometers one way not too bad let's just hope that they let me in the staff were impressed that i walked all the way from tom bradley and confirmed that i could enter either as a business class passenger on lufthansa or as a star alliance gold holder now this is no polaris lounge that one's closed but you might be allowed to believe otherwise from the furniture and decor let me go ahead and confirm that this is just a united club and unlike its more premium counterpart there are no showers sleeping rooms or a la carte restaurant but as far as united clubs go this might just be one of the nicest ones in a network recently refurbished and covering quite some floor space it offers myriad seating areas and options all with a brightly lit and energetic atmosphere helpful information screens are placed throughout the space and to facilitate the conduction of business private phone rooms that come equipped for some reason with actual landline telephones more excitingly there is a dining room with a bar and buffet and an outdoor terrace sadly the buffet was not in operation when i visited [Music] instead the bar staff handed you snacks and drinks upon request mind you because this was a united club and not a polaris lounge premium alcohol was not free i had a drink voucher and decided to redeem it for a glass of champagne to go along with some snacks that constituted my lunch and decided to have him outside for the air and the view i should also mention that in the entire lounge there was only one other passenger regardless having reaped the benefits of airline loyalty in the form of costco size snack packets i began my long march back [Music] okay thank you guys take care all right back to tom brady uh tom bradley all right i made it back to get it back to tom oh god oh look at that all right anyways what was i saying oh yeah let's go find our plane the smut from the wildfires really did a number on the windows here so the views out of them weren't particularly great anyways here is the business end of the airbus a350-900 they'll be taking me over to germany and when i say the business end i mean business classes on this end of the plane the last time i flew on lufthansa i was filming in the cabin and then the cabin manager just abruptly told me to stop filming which i did hence why you didn't see that video so this time around i thought i'd be a little bit more prudent i emailed lufthansa asking them if i could have permission beforehand to film on board they were happy to give it to me and now they're letting me board ahead of everyone else to get some cabin footage so that's a thumbs down for objectivity but thumbs up for being able to make this video i guess that's a that's a trade-off that i can accept i suppose so ahead of everyone else i was invited on board hello how are you may i come aboard i did ask the crew not to give me any special treatment or a priority with the promise of also staying out of their way the cabin manager happily agreed to such but insisted that i'd be given a tour so mr buu you can go to the rear and they show you the crew rest if you like after having been shown every corner of the plane let me now show you the main business cabin on this aircraft is home to 36 light flat seats in a 2-2-2 layout as many of you will undoubtedly complain the window seats do not have direct all access the seats themselves are a slightly modernized variant of the same hardware the airline has been using for over a decade notable improvements on the a350 model include updated materials minor improvements to ergonomics and an oversized ife screen on some configurations of the airlines a350s such as this particular aircraft there is a smaller business cabin behind the number two doors on the other variant this space is occupied by premium economy which is positioned further back on this plane in a 232 fashion featuring wider seats with greater recline than those in economy the service in this cabin however is very similar to that an economy and speaking of economy it's um let's come back to this later i had the opportunity to visit the flight deck where the pilot showed me the innovations on this plane and talked me through our departure they then showed me the fly crew's rest area above the forward galley at the back of the plane the cabin crew showed me their rest areas and the sleeping arrangements they got along her flight such as this some of you might not know this but this space is actually located above the last couple rows of economy where the central overhead luggage compartments would otherwise be on the subject of arrangements my seat for this flight was 5a which came as a recommendation by the flight crew as they promised that it would offer the best views of our somewhat irregular departure pattern out of lax and so let's do a comprehensive c-tour beginning as always with the iv screen this 15 inch 1080p display can be slid out by pressing this tab and stowed by doing the same behind it you'll find the miniature footwell and on top of that the coat hook directly below the screen is the literature pocket and below that another storage cubby that came with the amenity kit and water bottle inside i'll show you how to break this later on in the flight the center armrest is home to a small drink surface and behind that the seat controls below this flap you'll find the tray table which comes out with a push it folds open and is remarkably sturdy for something that only has one point to support putting it away is a slightly more difficult task and the trick i found out is just to apply brute force anyway behind it is a compact media remote that comes out on a tether we'll have a closer look at this later in terms of the seat itself there's a reading light embedded in the headrest and the headrest itself is generously padded and able to be adjusted vertically down here you'll find the life vest and in front of the center column are two universal power outlets over on the outboard side is another small storage space housing the provided headphones [Music] now these were pretty good when it came to being a vector for disease transmission so i didn't bother using them on this flight counter-intuitively this armrest doesn't go down instead it folds up which did very little to increase shoulder space when sleeping the psu or passenger service unit which is this console above your head didn't have air nozzles and this flight did run quite warm as is lufthansa tradition for the same reason as to why i didn't have a seat neighbor the fly boarded in under 15 minutes that reason being it was only 10 full so just as the last embers of twilight disappeared and right on time we began pushing back [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] after we passed 10 000 feet the wi-fi service was turned on the speeds are good and lufthansa offers a couple of packages topping out at a reasonable 34 dollars for one gig menus were handed out before departure and this is what they look like for the winter season while you're gapping at the food choices let me take this time to tell you that i had two choices for flights on this trip i was headed to london for work engagement and could have either flown with united or lufthansa both with the layover ultimately i chose lh since their level of service was largely unaffected by covet 19 the only discernible difference being the absence of hot towels to illustrate their full seller was available on board with some delicious choices of white and red wines the syrah came highly recommended by one of you and i can attest that it was delicious the bar was also fully stocked despite the single digit number of passengers in the business cabin and given the low number of patrons the service was delivered most expeditiously i asked for a glass of champagne to start off which came with some warm nuts and a glass of water all right here's to um not dying this year oh that's actually pretty good i have more of this dinner began with a seafood appetizer scallop shrimp and a little bit of acidity from the glazed papaya cucumber salad the scallop was delicious juicy tender and full of flavor my only regret was eating it in one bite but i guess that comes with the territory of being a keeping with the seafood theme i opted for the salmon for my mane it was presented in true american form unpretentious and in giant quantities this was probably the largest single portion i've ever received on an airplane the fish was perhaps a little overdone but still had a lot of flavor as well as being expertly seasoned the rice and legumes were on the other hand perfectly cooked all in all a very welcome meal after a long day of not much to eat the flight attendant who was taking care of me lisa didn't bother asking me what i wanted for dessert she instead gave me everything which was either really kind of her or a sadistic ploy to finish me off for the night i did try a little bit of everything including the chocolate custard which tasted much like chocolate custard [Music] i also asked for a glass of port which came in an extraordinarily generous serving solidifying my suspicions that the crew just wanted me to pass out in defiance i asked for a mug of tea which came with their rebuttal chocolate pralines um you know that saying that people have what goes up must come down and what goes in must come out i bet it was talking about airplane bathrooms now i've always maintained that the a350 has the best bathrooms of any commercial flying contraption it's well lit spacious and has tons of counter space the only problem is that the lights here operate on a frequency yet to have been discovered by mathematics hence the too little too late epilepsy warning on this voyage the bathrooms were void of any lotions or cosmetics but everything else was in order and they were rigorously cleaned after every use of course there was a toilet which functioned as you would expect a toilet too after dinner the crew left out some beverages in the galleys for anyone who wanted it they also told me that there were snacks available upon request making my way back to my seat i wasn't quite ready just yet to go to bed so let's have a look at the in-flight entertainment provided through lufthansa's user interface that can only be described as taking minimalism to the maximum it was by consequence very intuitive the touch panel was well touch sensitive but from how far out of reach it is you really are better off just using the remote control which in itself was very straightforward and responsive the library of recent releases was noticeably more lean on this flight both as a result the lack of content produced due to the global pandemic and the low number of passengers also due to the same pandemic leading to fewer license acquisitions still the airline had an impressive catalog of old films and television shows american european british and everything in between which i guess would just be icelandic anyway i'm no longer an lh frequent flyer but in the 16 years that i've been flying with this airline i've never been let down with no enjoyable content to watch they really do have a very comprehensive selection of all types of media one of the best flying in the skies in terms of the route map it was provided by flight map 3d and it comes with all the functionality the discerning geographer would expect you can pan zoom and discover to your heart's desire on top of that as you may have noticed this aircraft like all the a350s in the lathanza fleet have outboard cameras for some spectacular views just not right now because it's nighttime [Music] speaking of night time i was finally succumbing to the machinations of my circadian rhythm and not helped by the fact that all my blood was diverted to my gut and liver i started feeling sleepy so with that let's have a look at the bedding starting off with a classic low tonsil pillow now this is a little too soft not too much support here you also get a thick blanket which was quite substantial especially given the already warm cabin [Music] lastly there was a mattress pad which made the fabric seats more comfortable to lie on on longer overnight flights such as this you also receive what they call a sleeping shirt now they're not pajamas because you don't get pants only a shirt but still made from cotton it was breathable and surprisingly comfortable [Music] the seat itself reclines into a fully light flat position and is noticeably wider in the head area than the foot space but even then both my arms were touching the armrests there really wasn't any wiggle room and lying on your back it did feel a little claustrophobic i don't think there are too many fans of this business seat out there and like many of you i am looking forward to the new one set to come out but in the meantime my advice for these beds would be to lie on your side there's tons of padding and vertical legroom is thankfully not an issue one other thing to note is that if you do rest your hands on the center console armrest then there's a very high chance that you will startle yourself by accidentally moving the seat since the controls are where your hands will naturally rest i set an alarm on my watch to get a head start on jet lag and after a fair bit of tossing and turning i did eventually manage to fall asleep [Music] three hours of pretty decent sleep later i woke up to yet another beautiful sunrise over the atlantic it's moments like this that make me eternally grateful to be able to travel in such comfort i hope i managed to get some of that excitement across despite my unexcitable voice but back to the practical side of things since the sun had come out let's have a proper look at the amenity kit now these change quite often on this airline this season's been a handsome leather bag that comes in two colors the more traditional brown and in my opinion a slightly better looking dart violet they unfold to reveal the content which you can see here it includes all the usual suspects along with products from la citan who have been a partner for as long as i can remember unfortunately they didn't have the highly sought after lip balm i do hope that they bring those back [Music] okay good morning um i have food and i'm gonna give my voiceover self a break we're gonna do this mukbang style i'm not very good at but uh we'll see what happens well that's kind of hot okay there's um [Music] yeah i'm already not very good at this [Music] what the heck is this thing this is egg with italian parsley mozzarella and seared tomato okay it looks pretty good it just looks like a quiche in retrospect it looked more like a frittata okay so unlike dinner the uh pastries or bread in the morning are warm you're toasted that's nice little fruit bowl and a generous slap of butter [Music] kind of weird which is not to say i don't like it there's just a layer of cheese in there it gives an interesting texture um but otherwise it is a little under season okay let's try the croissant it's pretty fluffy on the inside it smells good [Music] there's like a hint of like artificial flavoring or maybe the butter is a little bit different it has them if you had cakes in asia like japanese or chinese cakes taiwanese cakes it has a slight hint of that i'm a whitener almost which is not to say that it's not good i mean it's like not complaining i'm just trying to find things to say as i eat which as it turns out is a little bit more difficult than i had imagined that fruit is really cold if you had a cavity you didn't know about before one bite of that watermelon and you would definitely know not to say that it's not good okay i'm gonna have to stop saying that at some point after breakfast i decided to go for a little walk as is becoming tradition in these videos i normally wouldn't have moved around you know for fire spreading reasons but seeing as to how few people there were i think that you'll agree and it was [Music] fine [Music] while we're back here let's have a look at the economy seats since i did say that we would the first thing you'll notice is how blue these things are so blue in fact they're giving air france and klm a run for their money the economy cabin is laid out in a 333 configuration as is par for the airbus xwb oh by the way if you didn't know the official name for this aircraft type is the extra wide body with a name like that you really are asking to be picked on anyway let's do a proper seat or each seat comes with a if you touch screen below which you'll find a handy shelf to store your belongings beneath that is the fold-out tray table that also slides out the back side of the tray table also includes a smart little cup holder that comes out like this on the side of the seat you'll find a hook and leg room was alright it could get a little tight on longer flights but thankfully the armrests do go all the way up giving you a lot more room if there's an ftc next to you on the seats the headrests fold out and the recline was well once again pretty average i can't see how i might get uncomfortable on longer flights especially since the seat slides forwards when reclined impeding on knee room overall although the seats are relatively new it is still a pretty average economy product to wrap up there were universal power outlets beneath the seats as well as usb type a charge ports that can be found beneath the screens [Music] with about two hours left in the flight i took this opportunity to write down what i thought of this trip i should start by telling you that i did a lot of growing up in the back of lathanza a330s and 40s making a trip between riyadh and vancouver through germany many times a year i know this airline intimately as it was a fixture of my childhood so if i end up proclaiming that the german carrier is the best airline ever and will ever be well at least you know where my biases lie but in terms of its business class i'm sad to say it's not the best out there there are cases where the side-by-side seating would make sense or be of preference even for example a parent and a child who want to sit next to each other without sacrificing a window seat or adults for that matter who want the same however for the majority of potential customers the lack of privacy and overall space might steer them away i really wish the airline used the a350 as a platform to innovate on this product but i guess we'll have to wait for the triple 7x oh by the way if you want to break the bottom cubby just pull up and out on it and this happens but let's keep this little secret between you and me for now okay don't don't tell the airline i told you this i do like them i want to keep flying with them don't want to be banned anyways where was i while the hard product may leave the discerning traveler left wanting the service i can happily say is still what i remember it as this is an airline that provides consistently great service every time i've flown on it the cabin crew are among the most professional in the skies friendly attentive and enthusiastic above all about flying and traveling the food was good it's never been bad but seldom is isn't mind-blowing either and i'll leave it at that [Music] so stalker the entire crew would like to say bye-bye to you thank you for choosing lufthansa and starlights for your flight i wish you a very nice day and for showing us connecting flights thank you bye bye what are we so in the end will i fly lh on the a350 again most definitely but preferably on a daytime flight back from europe after all there are some fantastic lothanza lounges in frankfurt and munich also i want to say i'm sorry for not having uploaded for a while these videos remain a hobby for me and something i can't devote all my time to but i want to thank you all for the support and encouragement you've given me and a very special thank you to chris lisa and the entire crew on lh453 for being so accommodating with my filming i sincerely hope you're all doing well during these times and to everyone else be safe and i'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Vicarious Voyager

Views: 309,923

Rating: 4.8885722 out of 5

Keywords: Lufthansa, A350, Business Class, Airbus A350, First Class, Star Alliance, LH, Lufthansa Lounge, United Lounge, United Club, Los Angeles, Munich, LAX, MUC, A350-900, Flight Review, Trip Report

Id: hR-TihJ9S1g

Length: 33min 36sec (2016 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 27 2021