January 19, 2014

Lufthansa First Class Terminal Review

Lufthansa's Frankfurt First Class Terminal is often regarded as one of the nicest lounges in the world.  It's not really a lounge as it's in a separate building from the terminal.  The terminal has everything you could possibly want during a layover or before a longhaul flight including shower suites, jacuzzi suites, a sit down restaurant, a full bar with a ridiculous selection, a water bar, areas to relax, day rooms to sleep, and a cigar bar!

Lufthansa First Class Terminal (FCT)

But the best part is that they will drive you to the plane.  Yep...they will drive you from the terminal through the airfield zig-zagging between 747s and A380s and take you right up to your aircraft.  We were lucky enough to experience all of the above during our recent trip to Istanbul and Dubai (read this post first if you haven't already).  So sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride...



We landed in Frankfurt around 9:00 AM in need of a shower and some water.  We had a fantastic flight but ate/drank way too much.  We made our way off the aircraft and through immigration in 15 minutes.  There are a lot of confusing rules around FCT access (Lucky's recent post cleared a lot of this up) and we had received conflicting information from a few people on if we could even access the FCT.  But we figured it would be a good story either way so we stepped outside into the relatively (lots of Europeans crushing cigarettes) fresh air and set out on the ten minute walk to the FCT.

The terminal is actually kind of challenging to find until you're right in front of it.  The signs are a dead giveaway but we were unsure that we were walking the right direction until we had arrived.  We stepped into the three story terminal, made our way up the elevator and were quickly welcomed by one of the three escorts just waiting around for passengers to arrive.  The terminal has it's own security that we needed to clear first.  First, there are no lines.  Second, the security (TSA equivalent) are wearing suits.  Third, everyone is SUPER friendly.  It literally took three minutes to get through this entire process and we were finally in the FCT.  Our escort showed us around, asked for our passports and boarding passes and promised us that she'd be back 20 minutes before our departure time.  That left us with a little over two hours to relax and enjoy.

First order of business was a shower.  The shower rooms are huge and I felt much better after cleaning up and pounding some water.  Emily enjoyed her bath and her alone time with her brand new Lufthansa FCT rubber ducky.


Rubbery Ducky, You're the One
Airport bathtub

Lufthansa swag

We explored the terminal for a bit, caught up on email and then decided to get something to eat at the restaurant.  There is both an a-la-carte menu and a buffet.  I honestly can't remember what we ate/drank other than two pretzels and a boatload of champagne.  The pretzels (and whatever else we ate) were outstanding.


Water bar- You won't die of thirst in this place

Bubbles & Pretzels

After another hour of relaxing and email, our escort came to get us and told us our "ride" was waiting downstairs.  We gathered our things and she walked us downstairs to the private immigration desk where the friendly immigration officer quickly stamped our passports (always cool to get two stamps on the same page from the same place on the same day) and then we were introduced to Marie who would be driving us to the plane.  We walked outside to our idling Mercedes Benz S65 AMG which is probably the most beautiful car I've ever seen.  Marie helped us with our bags and we were on our way!  Driving across the airfield at one of the busiest airports in the world was cool.  Really cool.  We drive for maybe 7 minutes and pulled up to the A321 that would be taking us to Istanbul.  We posed for a quick picture and Marie escorted us up the elevator and onto the jet bridge where boarding was in full swing.  Once we were on the plane, she introduced us to the purser and we said our goodbyes and were off to Istanbul!!




Our ride to the plane and our ride to Istanbul
S65 AMG
All in all, it was one of the coolest experiences of my life.  I hope to be able to return soon!



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