Got another flight that I saw at LAX when I was going up to Portland back in April for y’all today!
After a few days of traveling across Southern and Central Europe, we’re going back to L.A. aboard Lufthansa’s largest aircraft! The iconic flying crane logo has been a frequent sight in Los Angeles for several decades now, with it featuring there on the A380 for almost two of them. I’ve only ever flown there with the pre-2018 livery on the Whale, so seeing this particular flight arrive offered me the opportunity to both do a trip report based on a specific flight I’d seen and another one with Lufthansa’s new cabin. Enjoy!
Server: Solo
Airline: Lufthansa
Aircraft: Airbus A380-800 (2018)
Origin: Munich Airport, Erding and Freising, Germany (MUC)
Destination: Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, California (LAX)
Flight Number: LH452
Route: EDDM-KLAX
Seat: 61A (Economy)
Time En Route: 11 Hours 54 Minutes
Getting ready to board at Gate L24 after spending the morning watching various Lufthansa and Star Alliance member aircraft come and go, with some other carriers in the mix. Since 2020, Munich has been the sole base of Lufthansa’s A380 fleet, with lomg-haul operations at Frankfurt being consolidated around the A330, A340, 747, 787, and now the A350. We had a wonderful experience in the revamped business class flying to San Francisco and we’re hoping the same is true for our flight in economy today.
Taxiing to Runway 08L as we join the mid-day rush. So far, economy seems to be relatively impressive. While the seats haven’t been changed, though they’ve always been pretty comfortable, the IFE system has, being much more modern than the old one. Looks promising for us!
Roaring airborne out of Munich. Despite the heavy load, we’re off the ground in no time, thanks to the four Rolls-Royce Trent 900s on the wings. Now it’s time to settle back and relax for the roughly 12-hour trip to Los Angeles.
Climbing out of Bavaria while the Trents rumble at climb thrust. Our captain has announced that we should have mostly clear skies and little to no turbulence today, so the seatbelt sign will be off for much of the flight. However, unless we’re up and actively moving about the cabin, we should remain seated with our seatbelt fastened. As an interesting aside, we managed to catch the flash of the wingtip strobe light when we took this picture.
Lunch is served several hours into our flight as we cruise at 36,000 feet over Greenland. The world’s largest island that isn’t a continent commonly sees A380s transiting through its airspace, as both British Airways and Lufthansa’s West Coast flights pass through the area. Lunch was good, with both thr presentation and the food itself being above what we’d have expected for economy on Lufthansa. However, the portions seemed slightly smaller than usual, but that’s a relatively minor inconvenience.
After a few more hours of rest and relaxation, we’ve reached northern Montana. The revamped IFE system is a major plus, being much more responsive than the old one. Lufthansa’s IFE menu includes some wonderful movies and TV shows, which we’ve taken advantage of as we’ve flown over some pretty stark terrain. When it’s nothing but boreal forest from horizon to horizon, like it was a couple of hours ago, a good movie is just what we need.
As we make our final approach into Los Angeles, we’re once again getting to hear the distinctive sound of the A380’s flaps lowering and slats extending. We’re racing a Delta Connection E175 on final, providing a juxtaposition of the largest commercial aircraft in the world with one of the smallest to regularly visit LAX. Only a few more minutes to go until we’ll be back in the City of Angels.
Mid-afternoon arrival at LAX on Runway 24R by a busy Midfield Terminal, with a similarly full Tom Bradley International Terminal further off in the background. We’re not the only Lufthansa heavy in Los Angeles today, as the iconic Retro 747-8I, D-ABYT, is parked at the main TBIT between flights to and from Frankfurt.
We had a bit of a hot landing, so we’re going to be taking the long way to our gate, taxiing across Runway 24L and heading to the South Complex before heading to the TBIT. The heavy afternoon flow at LAX continues, with yet another Delta E175 on final for 24R behind us. As we spend our last few moments aboard our aircraft, our lead flight attendant is giving the standard post-arrival speech. Ah, it’s good to be back!
Deplaned from our aircraft at Gate 154. After just shy of 12 hours in it, we’re walking away with a favorable view of Lufthansa’s A380 economy class. While the seats have generally been among the better ones of their era in Europe, they have been hampered up until now by an IFE system that has aged less gracefully than they have. With the new, larger screens, passengers now can view Lufthansa’s vast selection of movies and TV the way they ought to be viewed on an airplane. As for the soft product, it lived up to the German flag carrier’s reputation of solidity, featuring tasty food presented tastefully and a drink and snack service that was punctual and extremely detail-oriented, somehow being able to keep up with the minute variations of everybody’s orders to a satisfactory degree, which is no mean feat on a leviathan like the A380-800. Overall, the upgraded economy cabin is one we’d strongly recommend and a promising sign of the A380’s future with Lufthansa.