As a consequence of missing my LATM Chile flight to Frankfurt I had to buy a ticket from Lufthansa at Madrid airport. Lufthansa was the only airline with availability that day, but it was an eye-watering €602 for a one-way business class seat!  The first ‘benefit’ of the business class ticket was access to a very quiet, calm and peaceful ‘Fast Track’ security lane; probably the least stressful security check I’ve been through.

I was invited to use a Business Class lounge right above Gate E69, from where flight LH1115 was to depart.  The lounge was spacious and not too busy and it had great views over the apron in front of Madrid’s Terminal 2.  Seating was comfortable enough for a short stay, but the food and beverage offering was somewhat sparse.  I later discovered there are other lounges available, and while the second lounge I visited seemed even more spacious with even fewer pax, the food and beverages were the same.  It was from the lounge that I saw that my flight was operated by an Airbus A321 aircraft, registered D-AIDV, and painted in a retro last used by Lufthansa in the  1960s. I thought it looked really cool, as it reminded me of an old B707 back in the day.

Of course, onboard was decorated and equipped in line with Lufthansa’s current, modern fleet.  Business class seats are laid out 3-3, identical to those in economy, but the middle seats were left vacant and had a small table between the armrests.  There were no power sockets by the seats and no inflight entertainment screens at all.  Legroom was so-so; sufficient for a short flight.  We boarded late, at 17:00, due to an unexplained delay, but at 17:25 the captain announced to his pax that it was due to poor weather across Central Europe. He made this announcement, and others during and after the flight, in fluent  German, Spanish and English, which impressed me!  We only pushed back from stand at 17:39, some 40 minutes late, but we were given a glass of Champagne before take-off, which I gather (from reading other review sites) is not standard practice on Lufthansa’s intra-European flights.  Menus were distributed before we took off at 17:50 from runway 14R.

I was quite pleased with the meal tray I received. I had a small chicken Caesar salad, then a starter plate of Serrano ham, tomato, mozzarella, parmesan and black olive tapenade. Then, under foil, there was a hot dish of chicken breast, mashed potato, asparagus and gravy, and a dessert of some sort of chocolate cake.

The flight was uneventful, but it became very bumpy as we approached Frankfurt, because of strong winds and thick cloud.  But I want to point out that I was disappointed only to have an aisle seat, and then really irritated that a gentleman across the plane with a window seat kept his blinds shut for the whole flight (except take-off and landing).  This isn’t the first time I’ve experienced this, but, as an autistic spectrum person I must tell you it really irritates!  If you don’t want to look out of a window, why book a window seat?!

Aside from the above, I enjoyed my first flight in years with Lufthansa.  Their product quality was high and their customer service was noticeably better than other major European full service carriers.  It genuinely motivated me to fly with them more often.  But my overall score is just 6/10 because of the high density seating you get on shorthaul business class these days in Europe. It really was not worth the fare!  (by the way, Lufthansa still provides free snacks and drinks in Economy, and in hindsight I wish I’d saved some money by flying in that cabin!)