Lufthansa Business [Post-Covid], Frankfurt-Gothenburg

We continue the review of my “deconfinement” trip to Gothenburg with the second segment of my outbound trip, that is to say a Frankfurt-Gothenburg in Business Class on Lufthansa. A trip carried out in full period of COVID sanitary measures what gives it a little special flavor…or not.

Reminder of the program:

Ground course in Frankfurt

If on my departure I had found terminal 2C of Roissy morbid, one will say that on my arrival in Frankfurt I found the airport “just sad”. Few people, but more than at Roissy and still many stores, bars and restaurants open.

I’m heading to the Senator Lounge at the A-gates, which you’ve already heard a lot about. Total change of atmosphere.

The lounge is almost empty, which is not that bad.

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Lufthansa Senator lounge in Frankfurt
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Lufthansa Senator lounge in Frankfurt

No buffet, no drinks, nothing.

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Lufthansa Senator lounge in Frankfurt

The only possibility to nibble something: a “snack box” provided in a bag containing a sandwich, a pretzel and a bottle of water.

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Lufthansa Senator lounge in Frankfurt

I watch around me as other passengers start to unpack their “meal”. I have time, there is no rush. And taking my time was a good idea.

After a few minutes an overexcited shrew came up to them and explained that it was forbidden to consume anything in the lounge, not even a bottle of water, and that the snack was to be taken outside the lounge.

Since I could find some French measures inexplicable and laughable I cannot, for the sake of fairness, say anything about what I saw here.

Indeed consumption is forbidden in the various lounges and sandwich shops of the airport and everything is to take away. So be it. But where can we consume then? Well, in the different areas of the airport where there are tables and seating and even on the chairs at the boarding gates.

So since we can’t eat in a lounge or in the room of one of the properties at the airport, everyone eats side by side in the hall!!! In the category of stupid measures, the French are not always the most gifted.

Anyway.

After watching a few episodes of the show of the moment on my iPad, it’s time to go to my boarding gate to finally leave for Gothenburg.

Total change. The hour of the connections passed and suddenly the immense terminal is quite empty.

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Frankfurt Airport
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Frankfurt Airport

There are a few people waiting for the boarding to Gothenburg.

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Frankfurt Airport

That’s it, it’s time to board.

Boarding in Frankfurt

The flight (operated in A319) is only half full. The boarding goes in an orderly fashion, the priorities are respected and everything goes very fast.

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Frankfurt Airport

In less time than it takes to say it I am installed.

The Lufthansa business cabin on the A319.

The Lufthansa business cabin on the A319.

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A319 Lufthansa Business cabin

The legroom is very good for my 1m88, central seat neutralized and, moreover, I will not have a seatmate.

Only the classic which does not call for more comments.

Flight and onboard service between Frankfurt and Gothenburg

We push back on time and we leave this terminal that I have never seen so empty.

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Frankfurt Airport

We take off quickly and the service is done just as fast.

No water bottle distributed upon boarding as on my first flight.

On the positive side of sanitary measures, the drink service with the trolley has disappeared. I am asked what I will drink and my drink arrives directly with the food on the tray.

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Lufthansa Business Class meal between Frankfurt and Gothenburg

The bread is fresh and warm, a real delight.

I like the tomato/burrata duo which is also well seasoned. Again, it’s fresh and light…and swallowed in a few bites.

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Lufthansa Business Class meal between Frankfurt and Gothenburg

From a distance the dessert could look stuffy but in the end it is melting and flows easily.

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Lufthansa Business Class meal between Frankfurt and Gothenburg

The impression I had on my Paris-Frankfurt flight is confirmed: Lufthansa did reduce its portions in business class. This is better than those who have eliminated all service but it’s a bit of a shame.

And that’s it! 35 minutes after departure the “meal” is finished. The meal but not the service.

The staff will go through the whole flight offering drinks, but not without explaining the rules of the game: as soon as you have finished drinking, you have to put your mask back on!

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Lufthansa Business Class meal between Frankfurt and Gothenburg

Finally, everyone will have 3 or 4 glasses and no one will put his mask back on until the approach to Gothenburg.

I will spend a very quiet flight, with no seatmate, comfortably installed to watch series on my iPad. The connoisseurs will have seen that in a great burst of nostalgia I was reviewing the full series of Nip/Tuck.

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A319 Lufthansa Business cabin

It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed a flight so much. Because I almost didn’t fly in 2020. Because of its quietness. Because I knew that in Gothenburg I would finally be able to resume a normal life (and that I had been sold the quality of the local restaurants….), because the flight ended on a superb sunset.

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Flight from Frankfurt to Gothenburg
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Flight from Frankfurt to Gothenburg

The Lufthansa crew

As usual a very pleasant and efficient staff in the business cabin. Unlike other airlines, you don’t have to beg for more than one drink service, here it is systematic until the flight is over. The “drink or mask?” amused me.

Landing and arrival in Gothenburg

The approach begins, we finish the glasses and we put the masks back on.

Beautiful landscapes.

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Arrival in Gothenburg

Contrary to my last landing in Gothenburg which had been most tumultuous (but after a magic flight on Turkish Airlines, one of the most beautiful medium-haul flights that I made), everything will happen smoothly and we will land “like a flower”.

And here we are on the tarmac of Gothenburg Landvetter.

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Arrival in Gothenburg

We come to park beside a KLM.

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Arrival in Gothenburg

For sanitary reasons the disembarkation will take place row by row…fortunately I am in row 2. We are at the gate so we should go out quickly except that…Surprise! The disembarking is done by bus!

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Arrival in Gothenburg

Second surprise, we will have the right to pass by a police control carried out with the biggest of smiles, in a slowness and a kindness which summarize rather well the country.

Funny to see, during this sequence, the masked passengers getting off the plane who see that the staff doesn’t wear any and not knowing how to behave.

Once I cleared the control, I cross the empty baggage room…

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Gothenburg Airport

…to finally get outside, in the open air and without a mask.

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Gothenburg Airport

Granted, it’s a bit of a countryside airport, but there are days when it looks like the promised land.

Bottom line.

A really relaxing and pleasant flight that I really enjoyed. I somewhat regret the reduction in the quantities served but let’s hope that it will only last for a while.

As for the service (or lack of it) at the lounge in Frankfurt, it is not attributable to the airline, it is justifiable by the health context, but the situation to which it leads is simply laughable.

Bertrand Duperrin
Bertrand Duperrinhttp://www.duperrin.com
Compulsive traveler, present in the French #avgeek community since the late 2000s and passionate about (long) travel since his youth, Bertrand Duperrin co-founded Travel Guys with Olivier Delestre in March 2015.
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