In the past decade and a half, San Diego International Airport has picked up a host of international carriers, including German national airline Lufthansa. Beginning in 2018, LH has served Lindbergh Field from Munich, initially with the A340-300 before upgauging to the A340-600, before the Pandemic put flights on hold. When they resumed, Lufthansa deployed its state-of-the-art A350s to the Southern California city, where the type has become a familiar sight as 1 of 3 non-stop flights to Europe.
Server: Solo
Airline: Lufthansa
Aircraft: Airbus A350-900
Origin: San Diego International Airport, San Diego, California (SAN)
Destination: Munich Airport, Erding and Freising, Germany (MUC)
Flight Number: LH467
Route: KSAN-EDDF
Seat: 8K (Business)
Time En Route: 10 Hours 31 Minutes
Watching the ground crew load bags and cargo into our aircraft as the Sun sets on San Diego. We’re flying aboard D-AIXI, named “Dortmund”, this eveningfor the roughly 10 and a half-hour flight to Munich.
Pushing back from Gate 48 as the pre-flight safety video begins. Our seat is 1 of 48 business class seats and 1 of 12 in the mini-cabin between the second set of exit doors and premium economy.
Taxiing out for takeoff. Although it isn’t as new as the Allegris seat, ours is still extremely comfortable, if quite lacking on the privacy side. The 2-2-2 configuration is outmoded, though only around half of them were occupied, with the seat next to ours that has direct aisle access being empty. Hooray for small victories!
Screaming Trent 1000 XWB Takeoff from San Diego! The short runway means that most long-haul flights out of SANn if not lightly loaded, are going to be at or near 100 percent N1 to get airborne and clear the terrain at the end of the runway while also not shaking the windows of the houses below.
Turning back in over the coast just across the border from Tijuana. Captain says it should be a smooth flight, with little to no turbulence.
In cruise over Kirksville, Missouri. Dinner was okay, although not the best we’ve had on Lufthansa. The service, though, was excellent. Despite the stereotype of Germans as a taciturn, severe, life-is-stern-and-life-is-earnest-and-we-are-not-put-into-this-world-for-pleasure-alone sort of people, the cabin crew was warm and friendly, even cracking jokes with some of us in business class as they briskly went about the meal service. Lufthansa is definitely setting the standard for long-haul soft product on European carriers.
Waking up to answer the call of nature over the North Atlantic before dawn. What these seats lack in privacy, they more than make up for in comfort. The padding was such that our seat, with its legroom of 78 inches without being reclined, felt like it had been poached from a high-end resort instead of being designed for an airline.
In a gradual initial descent over Lake Constance, near Friedrichschafen. The lake is famous for being the site of the 1900 first flight of LZ1, the world’s first successful rigid airship design. After getting up earlier and lying back down, falling back asleep was no problem at all. We were awoken somewhere off the coast of France for breakfast, which actually turned out tastier than dinner was.
We’ve made it to Munich! After gently touching down on Runway 08L, the reversers are open and we’re steadily decelerating after just a minute over our scheduled flight time.
Parked at the Terminal 2 satellite. While our flight was by no means bad, it wasn’t quite the stellar experience we had in Allegris to Rio de Janeiro on a 787-9. Despite the cabin crew’s best efforts, there’s no getting around the lack of privacy and direct aisle access. Fortunately, the Allegris cabin features both and we’ll definitely be trying it out in the near future.