With its recent expansion of international flights, San Diego area residents are now able to fly directly to Europe and avoid flying out of LAX or through another U.S. city. British Airways has had daily flights to Heathrow for a few years and more recently Lufthansa began non-stop service to Munich. There’s now nonstop service to ten international destinations including London, Munich, Tokyo, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta and Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo.
I try to avoid British Airways unless my trip ends in the UK because of the chaos of Heathrow’s Terminal 5 that makes getting to connecting flights a real challenge. This month I had a chance to take the Lufthansa flight to Munich that flies six times per week – every day except Monday with return flights every day except Sunday. They use a two-engine 293-seat Airbus A350-900, one of the most modern and fuel-efficient long-haul planes in the world.
My wife and I flew business class to Munich, connecting to an ITA Airways flight to Catania in Sicily. On our return we flew Lufthansa from Rome to San Diego with a stop in Munich, flying premium economy from Munich back home.
We were very impressed with the entire Lufthansa experience. Business class seats were comfortable, a bit different from United’s Polaris class that we’re familiar with, in that the seats were open with no partition that provides privacy from neighboring seats. Premium economy seats were also very comfortable and spacious on the 12-hour return flight, with a decent amount of reclining and a foot rest. Both flights were completely full.
The only surprise we encountered was the need to check our 22-inch roller bags on our flight from San Diego to Munich. The airline required passengers to have their bags weighed at the gate, and our fully packed bags exceeded their weight limit by almost 100%. On our return we checked them through.
In both Business and Premium Economy class the food was much better than average, and the two meals in Premium were the best airline meals we’ve had in recent years. Service was excellent all around from orderly boarding to good communications from the flight crew.
The Munich airport is immense and can require quite a lot of time to travel between gates. On our return it took 45 minutes to go from the arrival gate from Rome to the departure gate to San Diego. Even though they were both in Terminal 2, we needed to walk about a half mile and take a train to a different building.
The Munich airport was well organized with clear signage and both the security and passport control lines were quick and efficient. Arriving back to San Diego, we found a customs area that’s never crowded and quick to get processed. With the increased hassle and delays traveling on domestic airlines these days and the added risk of missing connections, Lufthansa’s nonstop service to Europe is a welcome improvement.
My family is flying business class on non-stop from San Diego to Munich in a couple of weeks. Lufthansa site says business class can have two carry on items plus personal item. Why did they make you check your 22inch roller bags rather than carry on to your seats? I will have meds in my roller bag/carry on so don’t want to have to check the bag.
They claimed it was a weight issue where they were reducing the risk of heavy bags falling from the overhead bins. I’m not sure I believe that. But my advice is not to have your bags weighed at the gate if they make a request to do so. I responded to the request, but others did not and apparently boarded without a problem.
Lufthansa’s issues relate to their call centers, which are usually sub-standard. Otherwise, a great way to fly… A 22″ roller bags is 1″ too large for international. The US Carriers will accept it.
(I got stopped by Icelandair with this exact problem)
Dan,
We were told our 22-inch bags would have been allowed if they were not so heavy. 21-inch and 22-inch bags have never worked for us on flights within Europe and have always requred checking.
Phil