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THE ALVIATOR'S VERDICT
A pleasantly surprising premium economy product with a comfortable seat, good WiFi, and good catering, but set back by a couple of disappointing no-frills quirks |
4.0
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In January 2024 I had the chance to fly Lufthansa’s A340 premium economy from Hong Kong to Frankfurt. I’ve flown Lufthansa’s business class a couple of times, though this was my first time trying their premium economy. I’m hoping to try more premium economy products this year, and I suppose spending New Year’s Eve in a premium economy seat was one way to commit to the cause (in reality this just worked out best, since I was hoping to be back in London by the morning of the 2nd). I also flew Swiss’ premium economy on the outbound of this itinerary, which I was excited by, since I could compare the two.
Here’s my review of my Lufthansa premium economy class flight from Hong Kong to Frankfurt. I’ll be reviewing the seat, amenities, food and beverages, service, and their interesting underground bathrooms, among other things.
How I Booked Lufthansa’s A340 Premium Economy
I paid a cash (semi-flexible) roundtrip ticket between London and Hong Kong, which set me back £1,306 (HK$12,984). I considered this to be a fairly good deal, considering I was flying home so close to Christmastime. Swiss and Lufthansa generally seem to run their premium economy products on the lower end of market pricing.
My full itinerary read as follows:
19/12 LX465 London City – Zurich dep. 17:45 arr. 20:20 [Economy]
19/12 LX138 Zurich – Hong Kong dep. 22:40 arr. 17:40+1 [Premium Economy]
31/12 LH797 Hong Kong – Frankfurt dep. 23:45 arr. 06:50+1 [Premium Economy]
1/1 LH1520 Frankfurt – London Gatwick dep. 10:05 arr. 10:35 [Economy]
I credited my miles to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, where this premium economy segment from Hong Kong to Frankfurt earned me 5,689 miles.
Lufthansa’s Premium Economy Ground Experience
I booked my ticket through the Swiss website, and selected seats for my Lufthansa flight there as well. Selecting a seat a month before departure set me back £53.10 (HK$528). Paying for seat selection isn’t fun, though I decided to bite the bullet anyway – I really value my seat preference on a longhaul premium economy flight, especially at night (this is a window seat in the last row of the cabin, so I don’t recline into anybody else’s space, and can lean against the wall if I want to take a nap). Otherwise I would’ve been able to select a seat for free during online-check in, which opened 23 hours before departure; those with HON Circle or Senator status (not Star Gold on another Star Alliance airline, though) would’ve been able to select a seat for free.
I arrived at Hong Kong Airport at 9:45 PM, two hours before our scheduled departure time. Lufthansa and Swiss share a check-in counter at Hong Kong Airport. Unfortunately, flying Premium Economy on Lufthansa doesn’t grant you a separate check-in queue (the check-in counters don’t even acknowledge premium economy class as a separate cabin); however, checking in online grants you access to a separate “Bag Drop” queue. This was fairly long ahead of the Swiss flight at around 9 PM (some friends were sending me off at the airport, got there before I did, and let me know that there was a long queue), though there were only around five people in line by the time I got to the airport.
This was good news, though unfortunately the queue moved super slowly, and it took 15 minutes before my bag was checked in.
Lufthansa check-in Hong Kong Airport
Security and immigration is a breeze when passing through Hong Kong as a resident, and I was out in no time.
Lufthansa’s Premium Economy Boarding
I don’t remember the last time I dedicated a section of a flight report to the boarding process, though flipping heck it was a mess. I decided to spend some time at Intervals, the restaurant and bar situated at the airport’s Skybridge, and had a great time – I’ll write a post about this soon. I decided to head down to the gate 15 minutes before boarding time (at 11 PM, ahead of our flight time at 11:15 PM). I quickly snapped a picture of our A340-600, especially given this was the first time I’d ever taken one (yes, it’s been a while!).
Lufthansa A340 at Hong Kong Airport
To my surprise, everyone by the gate area was already lined up for boarding, 15 minutes before it was scheduled to start. Not only this, but there was no priority queue for premium economy passengers – all economy and premium economy class passengers were lined up in the same queue. I wouldn’t consider this a small thing, though put up with it, schlepping to the back of the queue.
The most disorganised part of the process is when premium economy passengers (Group 3) were called separately for boarding. A couple of us (including myself) broke away from the queue, went to the front, only to realise that there wasn’t a separate entry point for premium economy passengers – Groups 4, 5 and 6 were quickly called in succession, less than 20 seconds after Group 3 was called for boarding.
One of the economy class passengers saw that we’d come to the front, took pity on us, and let us cut the queue – I’m thankful for that, as there would’ve been no cabin pictures otherwise. Although this worked out in my favour, I was generally struck by what a mess boarding was (and this seems to be a Lufthansa thing, since my Frankfurt boarding experience wasn’t much better).
Hong Kong Airport did feature snazzy facial recognition technology where I didn’t even have to take out my boarding pass, though that was a small win in a largely chaotic boarding process.
Lufthansa Flight LH797
Sunday, December 31, 2023
Origin: Hong Kong (HKG) Gate: 27 Dep: 23:45 (23:50)
Destination: Frankfurt (FRA) Gate: Z62A Arr: 06:50+1 (07:20+1)
Duration: 14 h 5 min (14 h 30 min)
Aircraft: Airbus A340-600 Reg: D-AIHZ
Seat: 29K (Premium Economy Class)
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Cabin and Seat
I boarded through the second set of doors, and passed the rear business class cabin on the Lufthansa A340, before finding a larger cabin featuring both premium economy and 73 economy class seats.
Lufthansa has two A340-600 configurations, with various business class cabin sizes (the more premium-heavy version has 56 business class seats, whereas the less premium-heavy version has 44 business class seats). We were on the version with 56 business class seats, which featured 28 premium economy seats right behind in a 2-3-2 configuration. The over-wing door sits right at the front of the premium economy cabin in this configuration, making the first row an emergency exit row.
All premium economy seats were laid out in a 2-3-2 configuration.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class
I’d picked seat 29K, the right window seat in the last row of the premium economy cabin. As you can see from the picture below, there isn’t a bulkhead between premium economy and economy class, but rather there’s just a really small divider. Thankfully the first row of economy class features a ton of extra legroom, so I felt like I could recline my seat without severely impinging on the space of the passenger seated behind me (his TV was mounted on my seatback, though).
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Seat 29K
The seat’s width and padding were okay, perhaps in line with what I’d experienced on Swiss’ A340. However, the most pleasantly surprising aspect of the seat was the recline, which felt very substantial.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Recline
Reclining in premium economy class is always a double-edged sword. I’d say I felt like there was a comfortable amount of space in front of me when the seat in front was reclined, though I definitely wouldn’t have been able to leave my seat if someone was next to me (at least without waking them up, or uncomfortably lunging past them). Still, though, in premium economy class I value seat comfort over manouevring ease, and generally was pleasantly surprised by seat comfort.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Recline
Do note that apart from front row seats, Lufthansa premium economy seats don’t feature legrests – instead there’s this fold-down footrest to provide some foot support. This does make a difference when you’re reclined (particularly if you’re short), though doesn’t provide as much support as a footrest would.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Footrest
This makes the first row of Lufthansa’s premium economy the primo spot to sit, as there are legrests. I tend to avoid bulkhead/emergency exit rows due to the lack of floor storage, though you might prefer to choose a seat in the first row if you’d notice the difference – they tend to go for about 50 EUR (HK$428/£43) more on a flight of this length, or you can select any remaining seats during check-in for free.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Legrests in First Row
I also found the adjustable headrest to be genuinely comfortable.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Headrest
Seat pitch is listed at an industry-standard 38″, and there’s certainly enough space to get comfortable here.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Legroom
After settling in, I got acquainted with my seat. The largest storage nook was definitely below the TV screen, big enough for a phone, glasses, a watch, or even a wallet. I was very happy to see some storage space here (this is arguably already better than what their business class seat offers).
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Storage
There’s a little cupholder space that houses some water bottles during boarding, though obviously you can also put some other items here if you wanted.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class
There’s a little leather belt to the side of the seat, where the amenity kit is tucket. I felt like this was a missed opportunity to make a separate smaller storage pocket, though that wasn’t a massive issue, given how much storage space was available underneath the TV screen. The seat pocket is enough to store larger flat items, such as a laptop. You’ll also find the seat controls situated here, on the inside of the armrest.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Storage
The seat features 110V power ports and USB-A charging. There’s no USB-C charging here, though there is a single-prong headphone jack, in case you brought your own wired headphones.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Power Options
A double-pronged headphone jack can be found underneath the armrest, close to where the tray table is deployed.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Headphone Jack
The tray table itself was a little bit of a letdown – it was small, not very adjustable, and not bi-fold. It wasn’t the biggest working surface, yet sometimes I felt like it was in the way when I just wanted something small down. Many other airlines have more well-designed tray tables in premium economy class.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Tray Table
There’s also a smaller cocktail table between armrests, good for a small beverage.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Cocktail Table
The TV screen in front of me was high-definition, and responsive, though not overly so. Despite having the glossy appearance of an iPad, the screen had very similar functionality to a “good” older touchscreen interface.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class TV Screen
There are no overhead air nozzles, though I did find the cabin to be comfortably cool upon boarding, and it stayed that way throughout the flight.
All in all, I found the seat to be very comfortable, much more so than I was expecting, especially given the lack of a legrest. The storage nook below the TV screen was really helpful for storing small items, though I personally felt there were a couple of missed opportunities, such as the tray table. This also isn’t the highest-tech seat – there’s no USB-C charging, wireless charging, Bluetooth headphone capabilities, etc.. However, it was more than enough for this overnight flight to Frankfurt.
It’s worth noting that Lufthansa’s Allegris product is in the works. They’re planning on introducing a premium economy seat more in line with what I experienced on Swiss. I actually found that seat to be marginally less comfortable (especially on the width and recline front), though not problematically so.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Amenities
At my seat was a pillow and blanket, both of which were the same as what was provided in economy. While the pillow was definitely on the small side, I found the blanket to be perfectly fine – though Lufthansa definitely doesn’t lead the pack on the premium economy class bedding front.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Pillow and Blanket
I was pleasantly surprised to find a very sleek Porsche amenity kit at my seat. The amenity kit featured the basics such as a toothbrush, toothpaste, an eyemask, socks, earplugs, and a wipe, though I found the bag itself to be high quality. This definitely was a “win” on the amenities front.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Amenity Kit
However, soon after the crew passed by with headsets. I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen such a weak headset offering in premium economy. These were disposable earphones with terrible sound quality.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Earphones
All in all, Lufthansa is fairly middling in the amenities department, with no dedicated premium economy class bedding, crap earphones, but a surprisingly good amenity kit.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Pre-Departure Service
After the hectic boarding process was completed and everyone was seated, the crew came round to offer (boxed) mango juice as a pre-departure beverage. There was no other choice of beverage, and it was served in a plastic cup, which didn’t feel particularly high-end.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Pre-Departure Beverage
Soon after, the crew came around with menus.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Menu
Menu orders weren’t taken before the meal service – instead, the crew just came around with a trolley and asked what we wanted to eat. I do like the fact that menus were offered in premium economy class, though.
That being said, the pre-departure experience also didn’t feel particularly premium, from the lack of pre-departure beverages options to the plastic cup.
Lufthansa A340 Economy Class
As aforementioned, there isn’t a bulkhead between premium economy and economy class. This meant that I had full view of the economy class cabin featured behind. Economy class is generally quite comfortable on the A340, with the 2-4-2 configuration, though I did feel like Lufthansa’s seats were thin and not very well-padded.
In the first row of economy class, you do get basically infinite legroom, so that’d be one of my top picks (you could even put your belongings under the premium economy class seat in front of you, though the two gentlemen seated in these seats on my flight didn’t do that).
Lufthansa A340 Economy Class
I had the chance to have a look at a an economy class seat later in the flight. Width is an adequate 18″, though there really is a fairly limited amount of recline (and it’s not impeded in these seats, despite them being in the last row). I’d take this configuration over a 3-3-3 or 3-4-3 configuration on an A350 or 777 any day, though.
Lufthansa A340 Economy Class
Each of these seats features USB power ports, and there’s one 110V power port shared between every two seats. There’s also a fair bit of in-seat storage under the TV screen, which is appreciated.
Taking Off From Hong Kong Airport
At 11:50 PM, the captain came onto the PA to welcome us onboard, saying that we’d receive further details of our flight soon. Afterwards, the purser came onto the PA and did the same. If they communicated a flight time during the announcement, I missed it.
We were parked next to a Cathay Pacific 777.
View of Cathay Pacific 777 at Hong Kong Airport
Boarding was complete at around this time. There were a few empty seats in the premium economy cabin, including the one next to mine – score! Economy class had a few empty seats as well – I’m not sure about the loads upfront. There was someone directly in front of me, though the seat next to his was empty as well. The aisle seat across me was also empty, though all other seats seemed to be occupied.
Glad to have nobody next to me in Lufthansa’s A340 Premium Economy
After boarding, the crew came through the cabin to pass out little bags of pretzels, which I enjoyed.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Pre-Departure Pretzels
Soon the cabin lights were dimmed, in preparation for our midnight departure out of Hong Kong Airport.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Dimmed Cabin Lights
It’s worth noting that this is a flight that flew over New Year’s Eve, though no festivities were done to mark the beginning of 2024. In fact, we were watching the safety video at this time, right as we began our pushback and started our 14-hour journey to Frankfurt.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Safety Video
We were taking off from runway 09R, so we taxiied there for around 20 minutes, passing by the Midfield Concourse, which Hong Kong Airlines seems to have returned to.
Taxiing past Midfield Concourse at Hong Kong Airport
We took off at around 12:20 AM. While runway 09R sometimes affords great views over Hong Kong, unfortunately we veered right shortly after taking off, and circled past it before heading north with the city on our left. Even so I would’ve struggled to capture great views, since the entire premium economy class cabin was situated over the wing.
Taking off from Hong Kong Airport
We did have good views over Shenzhen and Dongguan as we continued our climbout, before disappearing over some clouds.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy WiFi
Lufthansa’s entire longhaul fleet is equipped with WiFi, so it’ll be available on any aircraft equipped with premium economy. On my flight, WiFi cost:
- 5 EUR for inflight messaging
- 15 EUR for a 2-hour pass
- 25 EUR for a full-flight pass
This isn’t the cheapest WiFi pricing I’ve ever seen, though at least there are no data caps, so I’d still call this a competitive offering. WiFi is generally fairly reliable on Lufthansa – I’ve only encountered once in recent history where WiFi was completely down on a longhaul flight. There were a couple of dead spots when flying past Eastern Europe, though WiFi worked for a vast majority of the flight (in stark contrast to my experience when flying Swiss’ premium economy).
You can pre-pay for WiFi here (and email to have it refunded if WiFi isn’t working on your flight – they’re generally quite good with refunds in this regard), though the only reason you’ll have to do this is if you don’t have access to a credit/debit card in the air. WiFi was fairly fast for a longhaul flight, and measured 2.50 Mbps down and 1.87 Mbps up.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Entertainment System
I also took the chance to check out Lufthansa’s entertainment system.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Entertainment System
I’m glad WiFi is a strong offering on Lufthansa’s A340, because the entertainment system really isn’t great, with only 324 films. There are 312 TV shows, most of which I hadn’t heard of, and there were very few complete series.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Entertainment Selection
As is usually the case on longhaul flights nowadays, I only had the moving map up throughout the flight. There’s some cool information on the moving map (including a window view, etc.), though it also isn’t the most interactive thing in the world.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Airshow
It’s a shame that Lufthansa’s entertainment system genuinely isn’t very good, since the airline flies some pretty long flights (including this one, which was over 14 hours gate-to-gate).
Lufthansa’s Cool A340 Underground Lavatories
Here’s my favourite source of entertainment on this aircraft, exclusive to Lufthansa’s A340-600s. There aren’t any dedicated premium economy lavatories, so I had to walk to the back of the forward economy class cabin. Instead of having multiple lavatories scattered throughout the cabin, all five of Lufthansa’s A340-600 economy class lavatories are situated between economy class cabins…downstairs! The entrance to the facility is placed next to a small galley, where there are a few rows of two seats that are just situated next to a wall (the entrance to the lavatory and the galley add up to two “seats” wide).
Lufthansa A340 Economy Class Entrance to Lavatories
Once down the stairs, you’ll find five economy class lavatories – one of these was inoperable throughout my flight.
Lufthansa A340 Economy Class Lavatories Hall
Not only that, but these are the most spacious lavatories I’ve ever seen in economy class. They’re fairly modern, and there’s heaps of counter space – what a treat! The lavatories themselves are otherwise nothing special, and don’t feature any branded amenities.
Lufthansa A340 Economy Class Lavatories
While there was occasionally a wait for the lavatory, the queue generally moved quicker than if lavatories were scattered across both aisles of the cabin. Five lavatories for 217 passengers also isn’t a horrible ratio for economy/premium economy class (it was slightly worse on this flight since one of the lavatories was inoperable, though still never resulted in far too long of a wait).
If you’re unable to use the lavatories due to mobility issues (as one man on our flight was), the crew will escort you forward to the rear business class lavatory, which you’ll be allowed to use throughout the flight.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Post-Takeoff Meal Service
Around 30 minutes after takeoff, the crew came round to distribute hot towels to all passengers (including in economy class). The towels felt a little more like hot wet wipes, though it was a nice touch.
The meal service in Premium Economy began about 50 minutes after takeoff. The menu read as follows:
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Menu
I’m glad an appetiser was served, though two main courses is on the limited end for premium economy. I did appreciate that there were two breakfast options, however.
The drinks menu wasn’t thrilling either, it read as follows:
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Drinks Menu
Meal service was done by trolley, and for some reason, despite being handed a Western option, I was also handed chopsticks. The meal came with an appetiser (which I far prefer over a sad leafy salad), a dessert, and a piece of pretzel bread.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Meal Service
I selected the parika [sic] chicken, which was good. They used chicken thigh, which was tender and flavourful. The vegetables and mashed potato were nothing special (and I’d go as far as to say the mashed potato was quite lumpy), though all in all this was still a good dish. The smoked duck and potato salad appetiser was good as well.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Meal Service – Pa(p)rika Chicken with Mashed Potato
The pretzel bread was amazing – warm, fluffy and moist, easily one of the best pieces of bread I’ve ever had on a plane.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Pretzel Bread
The carrot cake was fine as well, though I’ve gotta question how much vanilla sauce you should have to add before you list it as an item on the menu.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Carrot Cake with Vanilla Sauce (or lack thereof)
All in all this was a good meal service, with all three courses being quite tasty, and elevated by the awesome pretzel bread. Trays took a while to clear, though not as long as on Swiss (I also was able to put it on the tray table of the seat next to mine, which helped).
The flight attendant serving drinks was a delight. I asked for some sekt (sparkling wine), and the flight attendant asked “how about some white wine as well?”. Upon every drinks run I was asked whether I wanted a second drink, and she’d also ask for my glass, saying it was a “nicer presentation”.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Service Between Meals
Lufthansa has no formalised service between meals in premium economy, though there was a little selection of galley snacks by the bathroom, including water, caramel Kit Kats, and pretzels. This is on the less extensive end of midflight snacks (even for a premium economy product), though better than nothing.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Galley Snacks
I woke up intermittently throughout the flight. The crew didn’t come round through the cabin proactively, and also weren’t consistently the friendliest, though were happy to answer any requests.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Pre-Landing Meal Service
I was quite pleased by how far the pre-landing meal service was pushed back – I could see the lights in the business class cabin come on before ours did. The lights did get turned on quite abruptly, though that’s probably more of a function of the older A340 than it is Lufthansa’s choice.
This was served about 90 minutes before landing, and I was happy to see another piece of wonderfully fresh pretzel bread.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Pre-Landing Meal Service
I selected to have the pancakes, as I didn’t feel like having eggs and sausages at the time (which was the other option). The pancakes were soggy as could be, though fortunately the pretzel bread was enough to fill me up.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Pre-Landing Meal Service
I also enjoyed the müesli on the side. I remember having overnight oats in Lufthansa business class last year, which I didn’t enjoy, though this müesli was much better.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Pre-Landing Meal Service – Müesli
I asked for a black coffee when the drinks trolley came round, and once again I was asked whether I wanted a second drink. I asked for some orange juice on the side as well.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Pre-Landing Meal Service Beverages
Breakfast is never delightful in economy/premium economy, especially on a European airline, though I’m happy there was a choice.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Service
The cabin crew serving us on this Lufthansa flight in premium economy were friendly and eager to please. I especially noted the fact that we were always asked whether we wanted two drinks. They weren’t particularly proactive, though I’m not expecting this when you’ve got 217 passengers to take care of on a flight.
All meal services were executed by trolley, and we were simply served first before economy class passengers, as opposed to having a dedicated meal service run. There’s not much personalisation available there, so I don’t really have many points for improvement.
I do notice that Lufthansa tries to elevate their service structure with elements such as hot towels and a chocolate before landing, though it wasn’t enough to differentiate the experience from other airlines for me.
Landing into Frankfurt Airport
Around half an hour before landing into Frankfurt Airport, the crew came round to hand out some cute chocolates. Apart from the wrapper, the chocolates themselves were branded with the Lufthansa logo, which I enjoyed.
Lufthansa A340 Premium Economy Class Pre-Landing Chocolate
We flew northward as we started our final descent, before heading west to land on runway 25C.
Landing into Frankfurt Airport
While there was a sunset breaking through the horizon, it was very much still dark as we descended into Frankfurt.
Landing into Frankfurt Airport
We had beautiful views of Frankfurt’s sprawling nighttime cityscapes in the distance, albeit the fact that it was fast approaching 7 AM.
Landing into Frankfurt Airport
After landing, it was a short taxi to gate Z62A, where I got off the plane to connect to my next flight.
Traffic at Frankfurt Airport
We got to the gate at 7:15 AM. Everyone deplaned through the forward door, so I got to quickly peek at the 8-seat first class cabin on the way out.
Lufthansa A340 First Class
Frankfurt Airport’s Z Concourse also has elevated walkways on the way to immigration/connections, so I had a beautiful view of the A340-600 that had taken me on the 14-hour journey to Frankfurt. What a sleek plane!
Lufthansa A340 at Frankfurt Airport
I did quickly pop by Terminal 2 to do a Priority Pass lounge hop, before my 10:05 AM flight to London Gatwick (unlike with Swiss lounges in Zurich, you can’t purchase lounge access into one of Lufthansa’s Frankfurt lounges as a Premium Economy passenger).
Conclusion: Lufthansa’s A340 Premium Economy Class
While Lufthansa’s business class is underwhelming, I was happy with my flight in Lufthansa’s premium economy class, and it exceeded my expectations. The seat was plenty comfortable despite the lack of a legrest, and the amenity kit, catering, and service structure was much better than I expecting. There’s fast and reasonably priced WiFi on all Lufthansa longhaul flights as well, which I really value on a flight of this length.
There were a couple of elements of the experience that made the experience feel more low-cost than it should’ve. The ground experience was quite weak, from the lack of a dedicated check-in counter to the chaotic boarding process. Additionally, the pillow and blanket were the same as what was provided in economy (albeit still comfortable enough), the earphones were terrible, the pre-departure beverage felt like an afterthought, and the drinks selection wasn’t any different from what was available in economy. Many of these are easy fixes/reasonable investments, so I’m hoping to see some of these changes roll out, particularly as Lufthansa introduces its Allegris product.
It’s worth noting that Lufthansa is planning to adopt the same premium economy seats as what I experienced on Swiss (with fixed seatback shells), which I found to be marginally less comfortable, but not much so. I found Swiss to have a marginally more premium soft product, though I wouldn’t hesitate to fly either of these airlines again if the price was right.
Have you flown Lufthansa’s premium economy before? How was your flight?