Introduction

Welcome to the third installment of my MTY-MDZ Journey. Here the FRA-EZE flight in F is covered. Please enjoy and feedback is appreciated.

Date: Tuesday, November the 30th, 2010
Flight: Lufthansa 510 FRA-EZE
Fare: F, seat 83A
Scheduled Dep: 22:50
Departed: 23:15
Wheels up: 23:30
Plane: Boeing 744, D-ABVB second LH 744!! Bonn, Incredible coincidence. What are the chances that I get to fly on D-ABVA on the MEX-FRA route and then immediately after on D-ABVB for the FRA-EZE route?. And there was another one, of which I will talk later. I suppose those are the two oldest 744s in the LH fleet correct?
Top of descent 09:00 EZE local
Touchdown: 09:35 EZE local
Time en route 13hrs.55.mins.
This is the route, according to Great Circle Mapper that we took

View Large View Medium Photo © Alexander Karmazin

View Large View Medium Photo © Darryl Myers

I got off D-ABVA from MEX at 18:30 local FRA time at gate B16 (I believe) and essentially had no clue where to go. So I did something my globetrotter mother told me years ago which was to follow the other people. I was determined to get to the First Class terminal, having heard so many wonderful things about it, so I proceeded to passport check and immigration in order to exit the airport and try to find myself my way there. Dumb, of course. But in my defense it was my first time in Frankfurt.
Lovely D-ABVA after I got off at FRA

I arrived at the passport counters, as I said, in my naiveté I wanted to exit the airport, first to get some fresh air, and then to get to the F terminal.
The passport officer at the immigration office asked me very nicely why I was there? "You don´t need to be here."You are in transit." I explained to him why I wanted to go landside in order to get some air and go to the First Class Terminal. "No, no, no. You don´t need to exit FRA. That won´t be practical for you. Not to worry he said, I´ll sort everything out for you”. American ICE agents need to learn from this. This German guy was at least 1.90 mts and the complexion of someone who works out with massive weights daily and had a big gun (I think). He was so sweet and actually got out of his passport booth to point me in the direction of the LH transfer desk. He even walked with me until the transfer desk was within sight.When the desk was in sight, he bid me good luck and said, “Have a great short time in Germany, those people will help you out, and I really hope you come back for a longer stay"

I never considered Germany to be a place high up there in the list of places I´d like to visit (with all due respect to my German friends here on a.net (and everywhere else.) But after these experiences, it´s now. No..1 up there in the places I will go for vacation next.

Arriving at the transfer desk was another matter entirely. Let´s go back a few paces, shall we? Why did I need the transfer desk? Because I actually had two tickets. One MEX-FRA in C and one FRA-EZE on F. While my luggage was able to be sent straight on to EZE from MEX, I actually needed to check in for the FRA-EZE flight. Thus the need to get to the transfer desk.
E-Ticket FRA-EZE

The transfer desk at FRA was total chaos. Fortunately there was a line for First/Business passengers but it was not respected by most of the Egyptair flight passengers who had just arrived and had a connection on what I surmised was an LH flight to NYC. They would push and shove and get in front of you and had no concept or respect whatsoever of what “queing” stood for. I had to elbow a few of those gentlemen myself (after being elbowed in first) The German lady who I am not sure was wether was a FRA airport employee or an LH employee who was trying to introduce some semblance of order in the lines on the transfer desk was in the verge of hysterics and pretty upset.

The rudeness of these Egyptair passengers was unbelievable and their sense of entitlement striking. Their body smell disgusting, pungent and so unpleasant it really was a trial to be in that line. They did not even care wether they were in the economy line or the first/business line. It was them and about them only. They even yelled and showed their passports up in the air as if it was some sort of VVIP bio pass. Striking. Never have I seen that behavior before, let alone at an airport. What an unpleasant experience. To be fair though, part of the problem was LH´s own fault for not adding more staff to the semi riot going on.

In synthesis, unnaceptable. LH ought to have a separate kiosk for its connecting F transfer passengers, not just a row of counters next to the Economy ones where on complicated days due to delays these things are bound to happen.

Fortunately, my turn in the line came and I got my BP for my LH 510 and my directions for the F lounge in Terminal 1, next to gate B22
The Boarding Pass

I was in no hurry, and I proceeded airside but I was impressed by the security check point. It was pretty thorough but at the same time the agents were so courteous and amiable that you just wanted to comply smilingly. TSA, take a hint. The whole security check point must have taken about 20 mins but with the niceness of the agents it seemed like a breeze. One of them actually apologized for asking me to take my boots off.

After passing through security. It was off to the F lounge next to gate B23, which was pretty convenient as my flight 510 was departing from B26 and that F lounge was just perfectly located.

I finally entered the F lounge and WOW. I must have looked like a mess because immediately two attendants were upon me . The Asian attendant saw me and said “A shower for you sir?” -Yes please- finally giving up to the evidence. He immediately took my backpack and bid me follow him to the Spa part of the lounge, which looked like the lobby of the best 5 star hotel I´ve ever been on. Before that, I gave him my insuline and told him to please put it in the refrigerator and the gel packs in the freezer so they could refreeze again. That was done with the utmost professionalism and he even asked me if I wanted a doctor to check me out.

He conferred with the Spa attendant and she promptly gave me soap, a shaving kit (after asking if I wanted one, which I took that as a courtesy because I obviously needed one) deodorant and shampoo. I really do not understand why, because everything, except the deodorant was already in the shower room. Which, by the way, is a room, not just a shower stall. She very courteously conducted me to my shower room.

They told me to take my time, my flight wouldn´t be depating for at least three hours and if I needed anything, to please call them. And boy did I take my time. The temperature of the water was perfect, the pressure was ideal. One of the most relaxing showers I´ve taken in a while.
The entrance to the spa area, the pic is deceiving, it´s huge.

I proceeded to the shower and hung my clothes once in there

Views of the shower area:
To the left and back of the sink is the shower and next and behind that bench you see at the end, that´s where the potty is.

Another view of the sink and it also shows you pretty much the whole bathroom. You can compliment your perspective with the other pic. You can see the incredible amont of amenities in the sink, and useful too. By that time I was feeling sweaty and dirty. The shower is behind.

Close ups of the sink area


The shower:
The wall part

The roof

The temperature and pressure of both areas of the shower is just perfect and you can regulate whichever you want. Thinking back, that shower was a life savior.
One tip, while they have all the amenities you can think of, they don´t have deodorant. Mine did not work antymore so I needed some. I just asked for it and got in three seconds. But it´s not part of the standard amenities, I wonder why.
After exiting the shower, drying up, shaving, deodorizing myself and dressing again, I left and proceeded to the lounge. I thought about using some of the Babor Spa Services but the prices were ridiculous.
There was obviously a shift change because the people that welcomed me were not there anymore but other, just as competent, staff was in its place. I proceeded to the lounge chairs that look upon the terminal in front, which I guess was Terminal A? I grabbed a couple of pics of the LH retrojet but they did not come out right. The following did come out right, it was "Koln" I don´t know where it was headed. First I thought it was my rie to EZE but flights were departing in an hour´s bank to EZE, Johannesburg, GRU, Dubai and TLV I believe, but I´m not sure about that last one.
Koln approaching

Koln deep in thought

A few minutes passed of relaxation until I decided to hit the bar. And boy, was that a fantastictally stocked bar. They have, for starters, the best collection of single malt scotchs I´ve seen anywhere. Plus the usual spirits, wines and champagnes. Problem is, if I had taken advantage of that museum worth collection they would have had to carry me to my LH 510. Not classy. The downer though was that the poor bartender was a teenager girl who just seemed out of high school and seemed completely out of her depth and had not much idea of what was in her work area, which was that fantastic bar. I had to explain to her what a Perrier was. I find this inconsistent and strange on the part of LH. Probably she was just a temp. But LH ought to have paired her with someone more experienced.

I then went to the buffet foregoing the sit down restaurant. I got some German and other European delicacies (Veal cheeks in red wine sauce), Jabugo ham, Black forest cured venison, Halibut, Parmesan cheese and some other delicious buffet food I wil not mention anymore, for fear of clogging my arteries, just by remembering. And let´s not even talk about the á la carte restaurant of which I decided to forgo for the buffett.

So, after the shower, the bar, and the food, I found one of the curved chairs by the huge windows and relaxed. Whipped out my netbook and took advantage of the free Wi Fi. If I recall correctly I still had about 2.5 hrs until my flight to EZE departed and for the first time I actually started to relax. You have to remember, by that time I had been travelling about 23 hours. I will add some pictures here to complete this part of the report.
One pic of the F lounge, more to come later

The curved chairs. The look towards huge windows that due to the location of that F lounge, the one close to gates B-22, I assume that the terminal I had in front was terminal A. No matter how much an A.netter enthusiast you are, it gets to take its toll. Specially when the LH 499 took off from MEX with a three hour delay. I chilled and passed the time.

These chairs are extremely comfortable and I guess look towards terminal A as explained previously.


Obligatory leg shot from those chairs

The bar, which this picture really does not do it justice

The buffet.in two pictures. They had one leg of Jabugo, and another leg of some wonderful ham, a German one I suppose. In the trays there is Veal cheeks in red wine sauce, monk fish in white sauce, mashed potatoes and goose, and a couple of other dishes I dont´ remember but have I mentioned it before? The buffet was outstanding. and that round yellowed thing you see in the other picture is an entire round piece of Parmesan cheese, carved on its center. I could have gained so many pounds by staying in the F lounge I would have altered the Earths gravity field. The cold cuts were on that side. I really don´t remember the desserts. I do recall they had bread pudding. Since I am a diabetic desserts is not something I notice anymore.


This is the restaurant at the F lounge

Another view

And a close up of a table

I of course remembered to give the staff my Insuline so they could put it in the refrigerator and the ice packs in the fridge. Again, this was handled with the outmost professionalism, care and attention that to this day I am still highly impressed . Keep in mind, I gave them everything separate, the ice packs, the insuline, the little thermal carrier and 20 mins before my flight was called, they brought back everything together perfectly packed, the carrier with the insuline inside between the gel packs without me asking for it, Just like that. Amazing. It´s those type of details...Thirty mins. before departure I bid farewell to everyone at the F lounge and proceeded to my gate.

Ah, I forget. before taking all the picutres of the LH F lounge, I asked one of the concierges (I guess that is their title) Her response was: What? I can´t hear you. What did you just say? Oh, well, since I can´t hear you, I can´t give you an answer. So I started clicking away. To be fair, I tried to not disturb any other customers and really, by that hour, there were very few.
Pics from the F lounge:
To the right of this picture is the entrance to the F lounge, and tha person you see at the end is at the concierges desk


Part of the bar is seen here and the chairs. You can also glimpse Terminal A

Another view of that fantastic bar

At that point I decided to leave, although my gate was close by. I thanked everybody and left. On my way to my gate I believe it was B25 I saw all these cots. This pic only shows a few. I supposed they were expecting lots of flight cancellations due to winter weather. There were actually families sleeping in those cots. Anybody knows who feeds them? Takes care of them in general?
Cots

When I arrived to the gate I found the same issue I did at MEX. There was a huge line for F and C passengers and that does not seem right because LH has 16F passengers, but 66 on C and so many premium passengers (that´s 82 if the flight is full, which it was) standing in the same line seems kind of not top notch. As I said before, the difference in fare is too much to be stuck at the same line.

Of course, I understand that on the actual Lufthansa Fist Class Terminal if your flight starts at FRA, then that is not an issue as you are driven to the aircraft on a Mercedes, but if you are connecting as are a huge number of premium passengers on LH specially at FRA, that Mercedes lovely innovation becomes a moot point. Probably thought out by some LH summer intern.

Five minutes later we were called on board using the left bridge, the C masses and the F voyageurs. At the door of my D-AVBB I wasn´t too much impressed by the male Flight Attendant. He just gave a boring passing look at my boarding pass and told me to go up the stairs.
Ah, the magical sights


In case you have any doubts where you are?

Once up the stairs things seemed a bit rushed. Of course, I will never know, but my impression is that the First Class FA´s were not told in advance their passengers were coming up. No problem, Maria Mossa, which became my favorite FA throughout the flight smiled at me and told me where my seat was, 83A
My seat 83A, I can say that whatever seat guru.com says, it has to be taken with a grain of salt. I flew 83A on the 510 and 82A on 511 and they are both as comfortable as the rest.

In the resting position

And me resting, with the pijamas on

The cabin from the perspective of my seat, notice the tray wth all the roses. We are still on the ground

Another view. The tray is now in the back being filled with the departure drinks choices

The Head F class Maria Mossa gave the pijamas, the flip flops, and the amenity kits to everybody except me. Once she started asking the orders for the departing drinks I had to ask her about those F class thingies. You know, the ones that make the difference between C class? She turned beet red and immediately passed them on to me and apologize to a degree that was certainly not necessary.
The pijamas. The little gray in the middle is the pouch where they come in. The pants are made of some very thin cotton weaving, and the upper part seems to be a blend of cotton and a synthethic weave. They are very resistant and I am still using them.

The flip flops. In the pic you can see them, the bag they come in and the socks. The socks are too thin in my opinion, but the flip flops are resistant enough to permit you wear them for a flight or two. Don´t expect more or to to use them at home, they´ll come apart soon.

The amenity kit, it contains:

I´m not sure about the brand of the bag. It says nothing but the zipper has a nice quality and "Bogner" brand.

There is Pearls and Dents Toothpaste
Lamarin MEN Hydro Vital 24 hr creme, a "La Mer" product
The pouch you see is where the eye mask comes which boy,is a great eye mask. Big and thick and woolly on the inside. That goes on the inside of your face.
A shoe fitter
Ear plugs, in the little white box
A little brochre advertising "La Mer" products
A little gray comb/brush, useless really, which is not in the pic of the bag, but you get the idea

There are two fixed F class FAs and a third that helps out once in a while in the upper deck. One of the main FAs, Maria Mossa was really a lovely Austrian lady. F class was full and sitting next to me on seat 83B was a German I swear must have been an actor because I have seen him repeatedly in a number of films in some villanous roles but I was too discreet and shy to ask him about it . In the 14 hour long duration flight to EZE we shared not one single word.

I always wondered wether the F class on a 747 ought to be on the nose and the airlines moving it to the upper deck had made a mistake. I can tell you that at least on LH, the F class on the upper deck is perfect. The sensation of privacy, coziness and amplitude it gives is sensational, There are also two bathrooms. One in front, after row 81 and one in the back behind row 84 and they are huge. Each bathroom has a window, a full size mirror and you can pretty much powder yourself up there to your hearts content if you want to prepare for an elegant arrival.
The bathroom. Below that window, is the toilette. To the right is the sink and the mirror, see next pic. The water in the sink is sensor operated.I was never able to operate it properly. Either I got no water at all or too hot or too cold.


To the right of the sink is this rack with all the lotions tha LH provides to its customers, including mouthwash

To the left of the sink there is a wicker cest with the following contents, the picture comes above.
A razor blade (excellent, by the way)
Shaving cream (excellent too)
De-maquillage
More mouthwash
And fresh wrapped moist towelettes.
The brush/comb you see in the picture is the one that comes in the amenity kit

Having flown C on the nose less than 6 hours previously, I can tell you that what LH has done up there with its F class by moving it up to the upper deck has resulted in an excellent product I would never suggest to be moved back down. I suppose that the trick is that the airline makes you feel by using a different combination of services starting with stellar FA´s, a private bar available throughout the flight, A full galley, three FA´s at your beck and call at whatever hour, pijamas, slippers, two bathrooms, incredibly comfortable seats, a good AVOD (in theory), pillows, blankets and other things I´m forgetting that you are on a 16 seat (if fulled) private jet. I suppose that is the trick. It would never be the same to fly F class on LH if it is moved backed down on the 744, because by having it up there along with the rest of the other things I´ve mentioned is how they differentiate themselves from the competition. And in particular I believe those two huge bathrooms, do make an important difference specially for the female customers.

A few related notes:

The other F located on the upper deck that I had travelled previously was the one on the Aerolineas Argentinas 747´s and they were a nightmare. Not only was there no storage space, but the crew used it as their private recreational room, gossip room, party room, smoking room and was generally very unpleasant. Even with us passengers sitting up there.

The other 747 upper deck I travelled was on C on an RG 743 GRU-MIA and it was just Blah. Uncomfortable seats, bad attitude on the part of the crew members, terrible food, a lousy experience in general. And, I suspect, my seatmate, had tuberculosis!

That is part of the reason why I was always partial for an F class to be located downstairs and if it wasn´t there, "It wasn´t really First class" I´ve been proven wrong.

In conclusion. LH has a pretty well thought out F class product, and SPECIALLY, by having it up in the upper deck.

So I finally received my goodies and my champagne. I then went to the bathroom, changed into my pijamas and slippers and returned to my seat. As in other airlines, I thought there would be a rush to give you the menu and take the dinner orders, even before pushback (Hello AA, UA, CO) but the FA´s were as cool as ever. They were either checking overheads or chatting up passengers. At this point, Monica, the purser, a strikingly young, pretty woman came and introduced herself at knee level to each of us F passengers. The whole 16. Of course, she did not say anything beyond the basics you would expect, but it was certainly something that impressed me. She came up once every couple of hours to check on things.

At this point the Captain came over to inform us that FRA-EZE was LH´s network longest sector and due to the particuloar on this flight cargo was needed to be offloaded. Otherwise we would be above max takeoff weight. The offload would take at least 20 mins. He seemed mortified by the delay.

It was a full flight today. Later, Maria told me that in the entire plane there was only on C seat open and 9 Y seats open. F was, as I said before, full.

Soon enough the order was given for the FA´s to occupy their stations and we made our way slowly to the runway. It was a very powerful takeoff. You could here those CF6 screaming but I guess because of the hour (23:30) and the cold temp it was not such a long run. Certainly shorter than the MEX-FRA one.

On our way. We must have been very heavy beause the initial crusing altitude and being that it was almost 00:00 local was 29,000 ft. We never climbed above 36,000 ft. the entire journey.
Leaving and climbing


After the 10,000 ft chime sounded the three FA´s spread into action and then came along with the menus. But before they did that, they set up the bar.

The bar, is actually in front of seat 83H on the aisle, next to the emergency exit. It might seem it ruins that seat, but it actually makes no difference. Well, I´ll actually qualiphy that. Maybe the FAs constantly going there at some point may become bothersome but he distances between the rows is so great that I doubt they´ll be noitced.
The bar, as the service is being prepared for dinner

The Menu. I will show the printed menus before showing my food choices. You can scroll down if you wish.

His essay: Nice and pretty,lacking in substance though.

The menu, finally. Please be aware. At the end of the menu, and I apologize for not being to include it in the picture, there is a legend “LUFTHANSAClassics Rediscover the charm of traditional recipes . We are happy to offer you the choice of a favourite dish from international cusine in the addition of the suggested menu of our star chef.” Well. More about that later

Without wanting to cut off the whole menu, I added these two pics. You judge them. Publicity in my opinion

The wine list: "Vinothek" I apologize for the red streaks on the top. They are not part of the decoration. They were smeared when I did a blood sugar test.

These sheet came loose with this particular “Vinotheck”

The champagne was just excellent. It was the winner of the LH blind tasting

White wine

Red wine
I am partial to red wines and I have to say that the 2003 Chateau Pédesclaux is one of the best red wines I´ve had ever

According to LH´s "Vinothek" this cognac is compared to the second coming of Christ. To, me, it was, frankly bland and without any interesting flavor. Almost like drinking strong tea. Their sommelier need s to take a refreshing course.

The teas

The other alcoholic beverages

In reality, whatever is in the drinks menu, the crew willignore it and prepare anything you want for you. Given certain limits of course. Don´t expect a Long Island Tea. From the wonderful attitude of the ncrew you might get it, sure,but I´d be doubtful aboutits flavor.
The Lufthansa wine cellar is, if not the best in the world, up there in the top 5. I was really impressed.

The breakfast menu was handed later in the morning, which I thought was a nice detail, because it differentiates the meals and does not give you the impression that the FAs want to get everything over with and go chat in the galley.

I have calculated that the actual meal service started here:

While the orders were taken, an amuse bouche was brought over. It was some fish in a crispy Gazpacho sauce which I am not sure was crispy due to the outside temps or the Chef´s experimentation.

Amuse Bouche, it wasn´t salmon, tuna, It was too tender. I think it trout.

My table in its initial, unravished stages

Then I ordered the Caviar, of course. Who would be flying F without having Caviar?

Ashamed to admit, second portion

Afterwards I had the salad, which was pretty original, it consisted of Bacalao (Cod) oranges, black olives and black olives. Some Radicchio and assorted lettuces were added I guess for show but it was an original and delicious dish. It hd never occueed t me as a Latin to eat Bacalao during December or Easter.

For the main course I chose the Roast Goose with Red Cabbage, which I frankly did not like. The goose was too dry in my opinion and the red cabbage too sweet. The only redeeming thing about that dish were the potato dumplings. Curiously, this dish was outside the main menu offerrings being touted separately as one of "LufthansaClassics" Note to myself, avoid the classics. But to be fair. I had never had goose. Maybe that is how goose is, and I was expecting something more in the order of a duck.

For the dessert I had a debate. I wanted to have both. The Truffle cream of chocolate or the Cream of Lemon salt with Raspberry sherbet. I could have had both, but then no insuline in the world would have taken me out of my coma. So I chose the second one, which did not disappoint. It was also floating on crushed Ducca Hazelnuts. I did have to wait a while because the raspberry sherbet balls were so frozen solid that if thrown against a window would have surely caused an explosive decompression. TSA ought to think about that. Ban sherbet. I do not recommend this dessert.The crushed hazelnuts stick between your teeth very uncomfortably.

The cognac followed and it dissapointed as I mentioned before, so I had more of the lovely red wine.

As opposed to other airlines, considered "top", like AM, LAN, Alitalia, TAM sometimes, AA, CO, UA and others the LH crews do not pick up everything hurriedly after the meal service. Not even in C. They spent the next 40 mins. making rounds to see if anybody wants tea, coffee, digestiffs or whatever else, even more dessert. Afterwards, they pick everything up and close the blinds, very politely. Lights are then turned off, but the truth is that by this point, of the 16 up there I was the only one not sleeping. The FAs come over and cover you in blankets. Very motherly in my opinion.

The nice thing is that I chose to remain awake. So I noticed how every 20 mins an FA would do a round the cabin to see if anybody needed anything, except for me. No matter that they knew everybody was asleep and the cabin was dark. Which she knew, because every time she came over to my seat and asked if I wanted anything. The result was that I asked for and drank Champagne all through the Atlantic crossing. During one of her rounds, she asked if I wanted anything to eat, as "it has been a while since you had your goose, Mr. González, do you want me to fix you anything?" At my vacant stare, she just strode to the galley mumbling "Don´t worry, I´ll bring you my famous mid-night snack.” And boy, did she bring something. She fixed about 5 little finger sandwiches with the cold meats she had up in the gallley. Delicious.

Sorry, sandwiches mostly one left

After that time I decided to follow the airshow, because LH IFE is rather weak in content though good in quantity.
Again, I tried to use Lufthansa Media World which is exactly the same they have down in C, but those are not touch screen. The thing is that while the screen is touch screen and that makes it very practical and comfortable, it is too small compared to the one down stairs. In any case, the programming is pretty weak. A sore point in my book. In terms of IFE, LH is not competitive at all. As I said in my previous report, movies are so so and the TV series are old. I entertained myself with my netbook and IPOD until I had an idea that blew me away:

This idea was to open the window and tried to do some star gazing. I then saw so many shooting stars, with such frequency and intensity that I remembered we were at the end of the Taurids period. Boy. What a great spectacle and being able to watch that at 36,000 ft. is much more than a priviledge. It´s just those things that are handed to you by someone, you are welcome to call it God, and just told "enjoy". Beats any IFE out there. I wonder if pilots up front still enjoy those things. I was mesmerized for at least 2 hours.

By now we were nearing Recife and the Sun had started to give its first stirrings. It was also at this point that I took some time to remember AF447 and said a prayer for the peaceful rest of the souls lost and the lessening of the pain of the families that remained behind.


About 40 mins later than the time I took the pics of the maps above, the sun made itself known with that lovely crimson ray.

Then the following ones announcing a beautiful morning over Brazil



And Hello RA!!!. For the first time in 39 hours I benefit from from your warmth

Close to landfall in Recife


Sunrise happened here, just over and a bit beyond Recife

To be honest, I was already looking forward to the sun appearing. Keep in mind that with my crazy itinerary and with the previous LH flght 499 being delayed 3 hrs, it had almost been 48 hrs since I had seen anything more than a few minutes of sun rays.

We continue following downthe Brazilian coast, down to Salvador and then on to Belo Horizonte and Curitiba. I suppose it´s a good idea to avoid the Brazilian civilian fleet rush hour, by skirting Rio and Sao Paulo, as I noticed we did through the Airshow.

This was one of the best parts of the flight. Daylight, finally and this fantastic machine quietly flying above Brazil. At this point I went to talk to Maria and she asked me about my itinerary. By then I was famous among the entire crew. Everybody wanted to know about the guy in 83A who was going to EZE from MEX via FRA Why, she asked? When I said that I really had no choice except COPA and wanted to avoid the USA, she said I should have tried LX. Sure, but LX no longer flies to SCL or EZE and landing in GRU and changing planes on to TAM was something I did not even consider. I mean, I knew the option, but I wasn´t going to event think about it.Too tiresome and the reviews I´ve gotten from TAM are mixed. She did make a comment I won´t repeat here, PM if me you want, but it did surprise me.
To be honest, I was already looking forward to the sun appearing. Keep in mind that with my crazy itinerary and with the previous LH flght 499 being delayed 3 hrs, it had almost been 48 hrs since I had seen anything more than a few minutes of sun rays.


Two welcome, lovely sights. Keep in mind I had been flying at night for now over 36 hours.

Bad angle, true, but still, seeing those machines is like hearing a concert

Above Curitiba, Blinds were raised, and breakfast menu cards were distributed. And a good time it was I was very hungry by then.
It is very classy by Lufthansa to give you a separate menu at its right time. They don´t make you feel rushed to order your breakfast 14 hours before, even before the dinner order is set.

Lovely juice. I was very thirsty and I needed some sugar by then, so I did not wait for the elegance of the linens. It tasted, smelled and had the consistency of freshly squeezed. But it is not. They serve it from Cartons back in the galley

I already talked about the bread on the 499 trip report. It was always consistently warm, fresh and doughy. In all meals. Excellent. And what was striking also was the variety. White, multigrain, croissants, buns, toast for the caviar, with seeds and some more.

For breakfast I ordered the fruit plate, the Grisons Meat, the Canadian Bacon, the Salame and for Cheese, the provolone, and at tat point At that point the FA asked me if i wanted some fresh scrambeld eggs with spring onion and mushroom, as well as bacon on the side.
I got first the fruit and the cold cuts.

Then the eggs


And here´s a secret revealed.: How do they managed to cook those perfect scrambled eggs? Lookk at the menu, they are cooked with spring onion and mushroom, You really have to be an idiot to screw up scrambled eggs with onion and mushroom
It took a while for Maria for letting me take a picture. She actually went and gave it a wash before she allowed me to pic. And her´s where they make the fresh eggs.


It took a while for Maria for letting me take a picture. She actually went and gave it a wash before she allowed me to pic.it. You have to consider that by that stage we had been in the air upwards of 12 hours and where willingness to give a simple wash can ony be commended.
Afterwards the FAs came around asking anyone if they wished anything else for breakfast. Cereal, fruit, whatever. Their attitude, I will say again was as fresh and cheery as if we had just left Frankfurt.

So they started preparing the cabin and just relaxing while checking on passengers. There was no rush to the toilettes as there are two so everybody was pretty realxed. I went to change and freshen up, as well as shave. How I fit in the clothes I was wearing, is something I wonder to this day.
Almost there


Over central Buenos Aires, from the North of the “The Microcentro” We crossed the River Plate on our descent and entered Buenos Aires throught Puerto Madero. As a matter of fact, you may be able to see that white thing called "The Woman´s Monument, I believe. Maybe some friend from Argentina can help me.

The cabin ready for landing, views from my seat, 83A


The galley at the back of the upper deck almost ready for landing

Me, prior to landing

The cool pilots I posted before. This time in the right report.


We kept descending over Bs As, over suburbs until we had a lovely touched down on Ezeiza. The end to a fantastic flight.

Some pics I was able to spot at EZE:



This LAN Argentina jet probably just arrived before us. It either went technical or had a late departure because it was moved to the apron, its front door opened and remained there at least until 17:00 which was when I left EZE for MDZ see: Journey: MTY-MDZ; Part 4 EZE-MDZ, AR 1420 Y (by AR385 Jan 2








The following AA jet also arrived before us. I don´t know what it was doing,probably waiting for a gate because every time I saw it, it was moving around.



And of course, my lovely D-ABVB, Bonn. Thank you for an excelllent, flawless flight!



And thank you all for taking the time to read this report. I hope it was not too long and the quality of the pictures was better. Next in the series is EZE-MDZ on AR, one of the worst experiences on a trip on a long time, not only on this journey.

Regards.

[Edited 2011-02-10 05:57:22 by SA7700]