Traveling on a Boeing 747—also known as the queen of the skies—was an opportunity I couldn’t pass on. Lufthansa’s 747-8i offers a more intimate business-only cabin on the upper deck that does feel less like flying commercial. Did Lufthansa get everything right about the experience that costs up to an eye-watering $10,000? Let’s find the answer by flying from Frankfurt to San Francisco on March 6, 2023 (LH454)!
Frankfurt Airport Ground Experience
Frankfurt airport isn’t among my favorites, and this time didn’t change that. While the selection of shops, restaurants, and lounges is impressive, getting around during a short layover can be a real struggle. Speaking of restaurants, I highly recommend checking out Hausmann’s; they have many traditional German sausages and a burger named A380.
Understandably, distances to the gates at Frankfurt are long and may take over 15 minutes in the worst-case scenario, but the passenger tunnel system leaves much to be desired. There are only two elevators on each end, which often causes huge lines for those who aren’t comfortable with carrying their suitcases up a good number of stairs. One elevator was closed for maintenance this time around, causing even more chaos. Fortunately, I had around a 2-hour layover.
Lufthansa and its partners use Terminal 1, which is great for connections. As usual, travelers must go through passport control to access Z gates, which are commonly used for flights departing the Schengen area. I was pointed to the first and business class passport check lane within seconds and the machine worked wonders.
I had under an hour remaining before the scheduled departure at that point, so I skipped on accessing the Lufthansa business lounge. There were around 10 people in line in front of the elevators, so one can only assume it was a busy morning upstairs.
Shortly past the lounge, there were multiple Lufthansa staff members with stands and separate lanes for economy, premium economy and business/first. Only a couple of people were going through the Business/First line, and it went smoothly. The agent checked the passport and boarding pass, verbally confirmed vaccination status, the existence of an approved ESTA, and put a sticker on the back of my passport with the current date. It was a short walk to the gate from there.
Aircraft and Route
Lufthansa operates two types of Boeing 747s: Boeing 747-400i with 67 business, 32 premium economy, and 272 economy seats; and 747-8i, featuring 8 first-class seats at the front of the lower deck, 80 business class seats spread out over the lower and upper decks, 32 premium economy seats, and 244 economy seats.
The 747-8i has one staircase to the upper deck near the plane’s center. Once there, 32 seats in a 2-2 configuration welcome business passengers. Two lavatories are at the front of the aircraft and one at the back. One unique aspect of the upper deck is storage bins under the windows; these are large enough to fit carry-on suitcases and even multiple backpacks.
The flight from Frankfurt to San Francisco was scheduled to take 11h25m but landed 1h14m late because of delays in Frankfurt, mainly related to de-icing the aircraft. The average delay on this route is 20-40 minutes, so this was quite the difference, but better to be safe than sorry, right?
The flight originated from Frankfurt, flying over the United Kingdom, southern Greenland and Canada, and a few US states before landing in San Francisco. The speed was 555 mph at an altitude of 30,000ft:
Boarding
Boarding in Frankfurt was efficient. Preparations took a few extra minutes, but shortly enough, first and business-class passengers were called to their electronic gates, while economy passengers had a separate gate area. Having 80 business class passengers on a plane is a quite large number, and the amount of folks eagerly waiting at the gate to board certainly confirmed it. In a few minutes, I got through the electronic gate and headed down via the escalators. Business and first-class passengers have a dedicated jet bridge that takes them to the front of the plane on the lower deck. The doors to the jet bridge were locked and it took around 5 minutes for someone to come down there and unlock them on 2nd attempt.
A friendly flight attendant pointed me to the stairs that lead to the upper deck. Shortly after most passengers were seated, flight attendants brought menus and offered a choice of water or sparking wine in Lufthansa branded glasses. I opted for the latter:
Seats
Lufthansa’s seats and cabin were designed by Pearson Lloyd over 10 years ago. They may become obsolete in another 10 once the new Lufthansa Allegris product is rolled out across the entire fleet. The current seats offer little to no privacy, window seats have no direct aisle access, and they’re quite narrow. Almost identical seats are used by other Star Alliance members Air India and LOT.
I happily got window seat 88A, which is the last row and close to the back lavatory, and I didn’t find noise to be an issue with AirPods on most of the flight. Lavatories were clean throughout the flight and were stocked with eyemasks, earplugs, shaving kits, sanitizing wipes, mouthwash and sleeping masks. A mattress topper, blanket, pillow, and a Porsche Design amenity kit were waiting at the seat.
The seat feels comfortable sitting upright or in the predefined “lounging” position. The feet barely touch the footrest while seated, and there is ample room to stretch. The headrest can be moved up and down, and I found the most upper position quite comfortable, although it kept slightly moving down throughout the flight and I had to readjust the headrest a few times.
The seat offers 7 individual points of adjustment via the panel on the armrest, plus three predefined positions for sitting, lounging, and sleeping. The armrest also has a spot for glass and hosts a large, sturdy table that requires some strength to pull out. Almost on the floor are two universal power outlets, one for each seat. The armrest on the left side can be adjusted or put down altogether, giving a more space for sleeping.
The seatback in front of me includes an IFE system that can be pulled out and moved to the right for a better viewing angle. There was a lot of glare, the panel had low resolution, and I used it mainly for a live map rather than entertainment (although the map can be quite entertaining for aviation geeks…). The movie and TV show selection was nothing to write home about, mainly consisting of a lot of German titles, a few random episodes of unpopular shows, and a bunch of movies I had never heard of before. Right under the IFE is a pocket for magazines, and a small drawer under that, which had a complimentary bottle of water, and the amenity kit.
The Most Burning Question: Can One Sleep?
Lufthansa claims their fully flat beds are “almost two meters long”. That’s funny, I thought. The exact length may depend on the seat and airplane model, and even a few centimeters could make a huge difference. I’m also “almost two meters long”, so should this be a perfect fit?
One must press and hold the flat button for 10+ seconds to get the seat to the lie-flat position. All parts of the seat except for the bottom piece move down, while the bottom part almost touches the footrest, creating a nearly even surface to sleep on. The provided mattress pad was rolled up and in a bag, presumably for sanitary purposes. It covers most of the seat surface nicely but doesn’t attach to the seat in any way, so it can move around easily.
Returning to whether one can sleep in these seats… yes, but not comfortably. The lie-flat seat seemed to be exactly my height at 6ft5in, so I could lie down, but my head was against the hard shell at the back of the seat. To get out of this uncomfortable position, I had to move down the seat just an inch, which meant my feet were tightly against the foot cubby, and I ended up trying all sorts of positions. Sleeping on the side and utilizing the space on the left for the knees seemed like a good option, but it wasn’t because the seat in front got in the way. Sleeping on the other side might be the answer for those traveling together. Otherwise, the odds of randomly touching a stranger’s legs are high.
I took a few naps in various positions during most of the flight and it was fine but not suitable for sleeping for taller folks. Fortunately, this was a day flight and I didn’t intend to sleep for a long time anyway.
Meal Service & Crew
Meal service sprung into action soon after we had reached cruising altitude. The service wasn’t very personal since multiple FAs worked in the same cabin, but they were professional and polite. I had to reaffirm that I spoke English and not German several times, but that wasn’t an issue after a few hours.
At the beginning of the meal service, crew members distributed hot towels, and put linen table cloths on the tables, which passengers had to pull out themselves. Shortly after, warm nuts were provided along with a large variety of soft and alcoholic drinks.
The menu had a good selection of drinks and three appetizers, and three main courses to choose from. I opted for the Maple Syrup cured Salmon FIlet appetizer, which tasted fresh. One caveat with sitting in the last row is that you will be the last to be served, and they had run out of the appetizer I requested. They had more downstairs, so someone brought a serving up in a few minutes. I opted in for the Beef Roulade main course and cheese plate to finish up. All of the dishes went down swimmingly, and the catering out of Frankfurt left a good impression on me. Before landing, I opted for the warm main course (Indian butter chicken). The crew offered fresh bread to go with the dishes and highly recommended getting a warm pretzel as well. I couldn’t refuse to get the pretzel since I was on a German flag carrier, and it was delicious. Metal cutlery and glasses were provided.
The crew was efficient during meal service and paid attention to how many drinks passengers had left. They offered to top up my sparking wine multiple times, and I happily accepted their offer. It took a while to collect the table cloths when dinner service was finished, and I ended up putting my table away and leaving the table cloth on the arm rest for over 10 minutes.
During meal service, one practice that raised questions was the drink carts left in front of emergency exits for an extended period. This felt hypocritical because passengers can never store items in exit rows. However, the carts were stored elsewhere during takeoff and landing.
One of the crew members went to one row multiple times and loudly chatted and laughed with two passengers. It’s unclear if they had met before or shared some interests, but I expected a quieter cabin and that crew member paid attention to all business class passengers equally.
Landing
The time had come to wrap up this flight filled with so many memories. Landing in San Francisco took longer than excepted and the plane had to circle around in the sky, possibly because there was a queue and we had missed the planned landing time. The plane quickly taxied to the gate and jet bridges were connected. There appeared to be a separate jet bridge for economy class passengers once again, so getting off the plane was easy and quick. There was no separate TSA line for business/first class, but the line wasn’t too long considering they were mostly business class passengers there at that point.
Howdy, San Francisco!
Conclusion
Getting to fly on the queen of the skies is always a treat, even when the seats are underwhelming, like Lufthansa’s current offering. Don’t get me wrong, the adjustability and comfort for sitting, lounging, working, and watching a movie were perfect. However, sleeping in this seat on a nighttime flight will not be easy for anyone who is 6ft5in or even taller.
The ground service, attention to small details, and crew were worthy of an A-, and it’s an acceptable product for day flights where you might not expect to catch a lot of sleep anyway. Lufthansa’s Business Class is outdated, but it might be worth trying if you can get it for a good price using miles or Lufthansa’s upgrade program. I had initially booked economy tickets and upgraded with cash for a price of $1,180, making the approximate cost of this one-way flight $2,000. The flight had just a few business class seats left before departure, and the prices had risen to $10,000.
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