| Lufthansa | Paris (CDG) → Frankfurt (FRA) | A321-200 | Economy Class | 02/08/2021 | Short review - 3.8/5 |
| Lufthansa | Frankfurt (FRA) → Cairo (CAI) | A321neo | Business Class | 02/08/2021 | Current review |
| Egyptair | Cairo (CAI) → Hurghada (HRG) | 737-800 | Economy Class | 02/08/2021 | |
| Lufthansa | Hurghada (HRG) → Munich (MUC) | A320neo | Business Class | 13/08/2021 | |
| Lufthansa | Munich (MUC) → Paris (CDG) | A320-200 | Economy Class | 15/08/2021 | Short review - 3.6/5 |
| Lufthansa | Paris (CDG) → Frankfurt (FRA) | A321-200 | Economy Class | 02/08/2021 | Short review - 3.8/5 |
| Lufthansa | Frankfurt (FRA) → Cairo (CAI) | A321neo | Business Class | 02/08/2021 | Current review |
| Egyptair | Cairo (CAI) → Hurghada (HRG) | 737-800 | Economy Class | 02/08/2021 | |
| Lufthansa | Hurghada (HRG) → Munich (MUC) | A320neo | Business Class | 13/08/2021 | |
| Lufthansa | Munich (MUC) → Paris (CDG) | A320-200 | Economy Class | 15/08/2021 | Short review - 3.6/5 |
Hello everyone! It's a real pleasure for me to meet you this morning at Frankfurt Airport, in Germany, for a new Flight review! Today, I'm flying on the Lufthansa A321neo to Cairo!
I just arrived in Frankfurt on flight LH1051 from Paris-Charles de Gaulle with an Airbus A321-231.
Below is a quick picture I took during my transit: D-AIXK on the left, a Lufthansa A350-900 in new livery, and D-AIDV on the right, the sublime Lufthansa A321-231 in the retro livery!
My connection between the two flights was quite tight and I didn't have to collect my luggage. So, I'll meet you directly at gate B28, the boarding gate for my flight to Cairo.
Our aircraft is not immediately there but soon arrives, towed by a pushback. It is D-AIEC, an Airbus A321-271NX, delivered to the airline in August 2019.
Due to a delay in the delivery of the catering on board, the boarding is delayed by 40 minutes. So, I wait patiently in front of my beautiful Airbus.
As far as the current air traffic is concerned, my flight from Paris to Frankfurt was full, while at Frankfurt airport, Terminal 2 has reopened, and the large aircraft have found their dedicated gangway. Most of the stores have reopened as well and a strong resumption of traffic can be felt with many people in the terminal. Considering the number of people waiting in front of the gate, my flight to Cairo is full too.
Boarding finally begins with passengers traveling with children under the age of two. The second boarding group is made up of Business Class passengers, Star Alliance Gold, Lufthansa Senator, and HON Circle members. Then there are the Economy Class passengers divided into three boarding groups: "Window", "Middle", and "Aisle". In theory, this is not a bad idea at all, as it would considerably reduce the waiting time in the aisle and the contact between passengers. However, in practice, it is a real fiasco! First of all, many passengers on this flight do not speak German or English but only Arabic, so the understanding of the principle is not obvious. Secondly, an average passenger does not necessarily know if he's sitting on an aisle seat, a window seat, or on a middle seat... And thirdly, try to separate the families during the boarding... It is a waste of time.
Anyway, I didn't have to test this concept because I'm one of the first on board!
A beautiful small fuselage shot on the A321neo with this sublime Pratt & Whitney engine.
And as always with the new Lufthansa livery, the nice little yellow welcome panel.
We arrive in the magnificent new short-/medium-haul cabin fitted on all A321neo and some recent A320neo of the airline. The seats are in dark grey leather.
I take my seat, 5A, a window seat located in the last row of Business Class.
The legroom is just amazing! I'm 1m82 and I can stretch my legs out completely without ever touching the seat in front of me.
This cabin is a European Business Class cabin, which means that It is the same as in Economy Class, except for two details: the middle seat is blocked, creating a 2-2 configuration, and the legroom is much better than in Economy Class. It is true that for a flight of this duration, a real Business Class cabin could have been appreciated, especially for the night flight LH584 to Cairo, which arrives in Egypt at 2 am. For a day flight like mine, the cabin is quite decent, especially with this legroom.
The 5th row offers a great view of the engine!
In the seat pocket, only the safety instruction card and the sickness bag. No more Lufthansa Magazin or Lufthansa WorldShop... All magazines are now dematerialized on the Lufthansa app.
No pillow or blankets on the seat. However, it is possible to ask the cabin crew for some.
The boarding is over, it's time for the crew to bring us an amenity kit, a really great attention for a 3:30 hours flight! No welcome drink though, maybe because of the current situation...
And without further waiting, we push back, facing west.
We taxi to the hold of runway 18 passing next to several planes.
A Lufthansa 747-8 in the old livery taxiing to the runway 25C.
One can see a parked Lufthansa A330-300 in the old livery and an A340-300 in the Star Alliance livery.
A Lufthansa Airbus A330-300 taking off.
We then arrive at the hold of runway 18. We line up and wait to let another A340-300 in the Star Alliance livery take off from runway 25C.
Two Airbus A320 stop next to us: one from Lufthansa and one from Croatia Airlines.
With 55 minutes delay, it is finally time for us to take off! Being quite heavy, the captain raises the power of the two PW1133G on TOGA and we take off.
The famous SID CINDY3S takes us directly to a large left turn, giving us a beautiful aerial view of the Frankfurt Airport!
We go up quite quickly until we pass the cloud layer.
As soon as the Seatbelt sign is turned off, I pull out my computer and get to work!
I notice one disadvantage to this seat right now: the tray table is way too small for a computer, especially when the front seat is moved back a bit. As you can see, my computer is almost half in the air.
However, a nice little fact about this new cabin on board: unlike the old cabin, Lufthansa finally brings USB ports to the seats, available throughout the plane! This is a long-awaited feature at Lufthansa, while the concurrence has been offering it for a few years already... There are 2 USB-A ports and 2 USB-C ports for 3 seats. Note, however, that the USB-A port and the USB-C port cannot be used simultaneously. In addition, the USB-C port is theoretically not powerful enough for charging a computer and is normally reserved exclusively for charging a smartphone. However, that didn't stop me from using it to charge my computer !
A feature that is missing on a flight of this duration is Wi-Fi on board!
While almost the entire Lufthansa fleet is equipped with an internet connection, all A320neo and A321neo aircrafts are not equipped with Wi-Fi. The reason for this is quite simple: the planes are configured in a dense manner with a large number of seats, and adding a Satcom to the fuselage at the back of the plane would create problems of weight distribution in the aircraft, or even result in too much weight at take-off. This is a problem encountered by many airlines, so only few have Wi-Fi on their A320neo/A321neo. However, Lufthansa has been working for two years on a solution that would allow the introduction of Wi-Fi on board in a different way. To be continued…
Another missing feature is that as a cabin deployed on short- and medium-haul destinations, there is no in-flight entertainment system. There is no screen available, neither at the seat nor at the ceiling/front of the cabin. There is no interactive map showing our position, which is a real shame for a flight of this duration...
We are almost at our cruising altitude when the crew brings us the menu of the day.
For the first course, I'll have Chicken Breast Slices with Vegetables Salad Chevrier, Arugula Pesto, and Crema di Balsamic Vinegar. For the main course, I'm going to have Lemon Chicken with Rice. There will also be Allgäu Wild Flower Cheese, Soft Goat Cheese, and medium-aged Gouda served with Mango and Chili Pepper Chutney. The meal will end with a Tiramisu Cream.
Before the meal, we enjoy a small aperitif - for me, a good German apple juice - accompanied by peanuts.
The meal is then served. Unlike long-haul flights, there is no real table set up, everything is on a tray. But everything is well presented, served in porcelain with metal cutlery. With the exception of dessert, all plates and containers on the tray are covered by plastic wrappers to optimize the hygiene of the dishes. For the same reason, the crew wears plastic gloves during service. Note that the bread is brought separately from the rest and there is a choice between several types of bread.
The meal is simply excellent, as much the starter as the main course and the cheeses. The tiramisu cream is a little too sweet for my taste but still good. I will add however that the portions are slightly too small for me, especially for a 3h30 flight.
After lunch, I drink an Earl Grey tea in a nice cup!
I then take care of filling in the various formalities for entering Egypt, the forms having just been distributed by a flight attendant.
We see through the window the Greek coast and start our crossing of the Mediterranean Sea.
The crew passes several times during the flight to give us drinks and biscuits.
We fly over the sea and the Greek islands.
A quick look at the toilets: although they are exclusively reserved for Business Class passengers, nothing special, they are the same narrow toilets as those found at the front of each A320 family aircraft! There are normally more things available in Business Class (refreshing towels, creams ...) but these products have disappeared with the health crisis. However, they are included in the amenity kit given at the beginning of the flight.
When I return to my seat, we are already over Egypt and slowly starting our descent towards Cairo.
Here are some pictures of our flight over the city of Cairo before landing at the airport.
The passengers sitting on the right side could see the pyramids of Giza. I had to satisfy myself with downtown Cairo.
On short final, we see on the left many parked aircraft of the Egyptair fleet.
And it is finally after 3 hours and 35 minutes of flight, with 18 minutes of delay - as a reminder, we left Frankfurt with 55 minutes of delay - that we landed on runway 05C of Cairo International Airport.
We taxi towards the terminal passing two Airbus A340-200 of Air Leisure Egypt and several Airbus, Boeing, and Embraer of Egyptair which are parked and covered.
The parking apron located at the terminal is almost deserted. Almost no aircraft are present, except for an Egyptair A220 and an Austrian A320 that has just arrived from Vienna.
Deboarding is done progressively: first, the Business Class passengers, followed by the Economy Class passengers leaving row by row.
Another small picture of the fuselage.
If the airport looked quite sad and old-fashioned from the outside, the terminal inside is quite modern and very clean.
We are checked at a counter taking our temperature, collecting one of the sheets we filled out on the plane, and checking the health passes (certificate of complete vaccination, PCR test of less than 72h, antigenic test of less than 48h, or recovery certificate). Given the speed of the check, I slightly question the seriousness of this check. The agent let us through without even checking that it was a Covid QR code and without caring about our identity. I would have presented the barcode of my boarding pass and it would have been okay !
I see one last time my beautiful A321neo in the distance.
It is time to pass the border police. For Europeans, it is essential to pay a visa to enter Egypt. I read everywhere that it is recommended to buy an E-visa online at least one week in advance, to pay less, and to wait less at the airport. Due to a lack of time, I couldn't do the procedure online, so I took it on the spot. The price was only 25$, cheaper than online if I'm not mistaken, and there was no wait to get it. Moreover, while online you have to fill in some personal information, on-the-spot cash is enough, and Euros are accepted.
If you have a connection, you can't stay in the transit area. You have to go through the baggage claim and then again through the check-in... Not very practical, nor fast. So we finally arrive at the baggage claim area.
Regarding my luggage, you should know that I'm coming from Paris and that my final destination is Hurghada, Egypt. I bought an Egyptair ticket between Cairo and Hurghada (a flight that I will soon review on Flightreviews.net), so when I checked-in in Paris, I arranged for my luggage to be sent directly to Hurghada.
However, onboard my Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Cairo, the flight attendant (after asking the captain) told us that in Egypt, each piece of luggage had to be picked up in Cairo, even if the baggage tags mentioned "HRG" as the final destination. After a first check at the Egyptair Transit Information Desk in Cairo, they confirmed that the luggage would arrive on the carpet in Cairo.
So, we decide to wait a bit (our connection being long anyway, we are not in a hurry). After about twenty minutes, nothing (logically you will tell me if my luggage is checked to Hurghada). We inquire with a person in charge of the recovery of the luggage who says to us that our luggage leaves directly on Hurghada. Quite contradictory all these explanations... We trust him, however, to pass in front of the officers of the Egyptian customs and leave the controlled zone, to arrive in the big hall of arrival almost deserted of the airport, but always very clean.
We went upstairs to the departure hall to leave for Hurghada. The rest of the trip and the adventure with the luggage (believe me, it's not over yet) is to be found in the next Flight review!
A great medium-haul flight in Lufthansa Business Class today! Perfect crews, great service, an excellent meal, and more than excellent sanitary measures! The A321neo is really pleasant, quiet, and modern as we like. It's just a pity that there is no Wi-Fi, no in-flight entertainment, no interactive map, no real business cabin... so many services that could have been really appreciated for a flight of this duration and that would have made it even more pleasant!
In Frankfurt, nothing special to say, except that it's a clean and modern airport, fast enough to transit. Everything is well indicated, you can easily find your way around, despite the size of the terminal, and the staff is very friendly and helpful. A faultless service!
In Cairo, the terminal is very clean, rather modern but really impractical and counter-intuitive... The passages of the immigration and of the various checks are done rather quickly. When you see how deserted the terminal is, it's a good thing!
Thanks for reading and see you soon for the Flight review of my next flight ;)
