Review: Onboard Lufthansa’s Boeing 747-8 in Business Class

CHICAGO & FRANKFURT – After a week of traveling the northeast of the US and visiting Washington, Norfolk, and Chicago, I flew from Chicago to Frankfurt with Lufthansa onboard the Boeing 747-8.

We arrived in Chicago just in time to easily make it to our flight. It was about 15 minutes from check-in to the gate. The ground staff was very friendly, both at the check-in and at the gate.

Boarding was just getting started as we arrived, and we made our way to the front of the business class line.

The gate agents soon announced that our flight will be delayed due to a technical problem, which was solved within a couple of minutes. We soon stepped onboard the queen of the skies, the Boeing 747-8.

The 747-8 bringing me to Frankfurt that day was D-ABYU, a 7-year-old aircraft with 364 seats. Lufthansa’s 747-8’s offer 8 seats in First Class, a whopping 80 seats in Business Class, 32 in Premium Economy, and 244 in Economy.

On this particular flight, every cabin but the Business Class cabin, we’re almost fully booked. As far as I remember, only a couple of seats were left in economy. The business class cabin was about 40% full, with the upper deck being fully booked.

To get a vacant seat next to me and as much privacy as possible, I choose seat 9A, at the rear of the front Business Class cabin. This seat offered the best engine views of the entire plane.

I made my way to my seat right away and soon settled down comfortably. After boarding was completed, the purser handed out menus for the flight shortly after the pilot announced that we’ll be further delayed due to another technical problem.

As I was sitting near the galley, I already heard the crew mumbling about the flight likely getting canceled – luckily that didn’t happen! We were delayed about an hour as the captain announced we’ll be ready to depart soon – spoiler, that didn’t happen any time soon.

So guess why:
A) because of typical Chicago weather
B) A
C) also A

We had to wait a further 2 hours until the deicing was done, and we were up in the air. 2 hours after first settling into my seat, the crew came by serving champagne and orange juice.

First Meal Service

Soon after departure, our meal was served. The appetizer and main course were served on a single tray. As a starter, I choose the pan-seared scallops, grilled shrimp with the papaya cucumber salad, and lime ginger soy sauce.

The presentation was great, and they tasted even better.

For my main course, I went with the Grilled Beef Filet, Cabernet Veal Jus, Balsamic Onion, Sautéed Baby Spinach, green grilled Asparagus, and mashed potatoes with olive oil. The beef was a bit overcooked, though it was still very tasty.

The Asparagus was the highlight of the meal, the best I’ve had in years.

For the dessert, I went with both options – the cheese and the chocolate pudding. Both weren’t very special but did their job.

The Seat

I’m a fan of Lufthansa’s 2-2-2 configuration, though I didn’t like the way the footwells were next to each other. On the A330, the footwell was much bigger and way more private.

The IFE display seemed way older than on other Lufthansa aircraft. Apart from that, the seat was completely the same as on any other Lufthansa widebody.

I soon made my seat in a bed and fell asleep comfortably.

As I’m a side sleeper, I turned down the seat next to me as well to get some leg support.

2nd meal service

I woke up as the breakfast service was just getting finished. I slept comfortably for 4 hours. As I was waking up, we were just passing over London. The views of the sunrise were unbeatable!

I pressed the call button quite soon after realizing that I missed the meal service.

The purser jumped out of the galley within seconds, and within 2 minutes after pressing the call button, I had a meal on my tray. While the presentation could’ve been better, the food was quite good.

I’m not a fan of chia, but this was top-notch! I cleared off my plate quickly, and we soon started descending into Frankfurt.

After touching down in Frankfurt, I was already rebooked on the next flight to Berlin, since I missed my connection due to the delay. I headed straight to the gate and had an uneventful flight with awful meal service on my way to Berlin.