FRA Lounges
I had quite a bit of time during my layover in Frankfurt, so I made the rounds to check out the lounges I could access. The arrivals lounge and the LuxxLounge in the PPS area both required clearing immigration, so my only real options were Lufthansa and other Star Alliance lounges.
I arrived at gate Z66, so I first headed to the Lufthansa Business Lounge in Terminal A. This lounge was less crowded and felt a bit newer, but the food was pretty underwhelming. The only hot item was a soup with a tiny bit of meat in it, and it was especially bad. In the end, I just had some dessert since I wasn’t that hungry anyway.
Getting from Terminal A to B was quite a hike, and I had to go through security again. After that, I first visited the Lufthansa lounge, hoping the food selection would be a little different, but it was exactly the same. It was also much more crowded, and the facilities were more average. So if you have plenty of connection time, you may want to stay in Terminal A a bit longer. Later, I remembered seeing signs for Air Canada’s Maple Leaf Lounge on the way. Even though boarding time was getting close, I decided to walk over and take a look. It was pretty far, but much less crowded than the Lufthansa side, and the environment was nice. There were a few private little cubicles, though the food was still nothing special.
Frankfurt to Shanghai (FRA-PVG) CA936 Business Class Review
The aircraft operating the flight was an A350-900 with 32 reverse herringbone business class seats. Unfortunately, business class was almost full that day, so I couldn’t switch to a window seat. Still, even the middle seats offered pretty good privacy.
Especially compared with Lufthansa, Air China’s seat felt very spacious, with lots of storage as well. The Air China flight attendants were also very attentive: helping open the slippers, hanging up clothes, and bringing a hot towel. The service felt thoughtful and nicely balanced. The most considerate touch of all was that while you were sleeping, they would leave an extra bottle of water on your table.
Since I really hadn’t found much to eat in the lounges, the meal on Air China tasted especially good. The shrimp appetizer in particular was quite good, while the beef tenderloin main was just average. For breakfast, I originally wanted the Chinese option, but too many people had ordered it and by the time they got to me, only the Western option was left. It was still pretty decent though.
I still had one final domestic segment in Juneyao Air business class. In the lounge, I found some long-missed Master Kong instant noodles, and honestly, aside from that shrimp appetizer, it felt like the tastiest thing I ate on this whole trip...
Summary
The Air China experience was surprisingly good, and quite a contrast to MB’s Air China experience. Overall, the seat was very spacious, privacy was excellent, and the food had a few bright spots.