Flights | Jason Around the World

DC to Lagos, Nigeria and First Day in Lagos

Airports, Flights, hotels, Nigeria, Nigeria 2013 No Responses »

Oct 112013

So, yeah, this is a bit overdue, but things have been crazy with two trips to West Africa the last month, a trip to Provincetown, Mass. in between, and things being crazy at the office. Hopefully I’ll get these cranked out pretty quickly, since I have two trips to Hawaii and two more to San Jose, California coming up in the next month thanks to the United $10 mistake fare!

A couple of months ago, my good friend John (who’s written a guest blog here before on Air Canada) told me he’d be making two trips to West Africa for work in the coming months, and since I’d never been to any of the countries he was going to he suggested I come along. I didn’t have too much planned at the time, and it seemed like a good opportunity to get a bit of an inside view on the place, so I jumped at the chance. The first trip would be a long 5-day weekend trip to Lagos, Nigeria and the second trip would be Cotonou, Benin and Accra, Ghana for four days. I decided to extend the second trip while I was in the region, and planned stops in Togo, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Cote d’Ivoire as well. Soon, the time to go was near!

United flight 356
Washington DC, National (DCA) to Houston, George Bush (IAH)
Depart 15:17, Arrive 17:24, Flight Time 3:07
Boeing 757-200, Registration N523UA, Manufactured 1990, Seat 3E (aisle)

Not terribly much to say here – it was a standard domestic flight, a cheerful pre-merger United crew, despite the fact the aircraft was older than dirt. Arrived into Houston on time, and had a few hours to kill in the United Club. Boarding was delayed about 30 minutes for the flight to Lagos, but soon we were settled in and it was time to go.

United flight 142
Houston, George Bush (IAH) to Lagos, Nigeria (LOS)
Depart 20:15, Arrive 14:50 next day, Flight Time 12:35
Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, Registration N45905, Manufactured 2012, Seat 1D (aisle)

This was to be my first flight of any real length on the 787, and fortunately my three short 2-3 hour domestic flights had clued me in that row 1 was the place to be. All seats in business class have the same pitch/legroom, but the footwells in row 1 and row 4 have double the space for your feet due to the way the seats are staggered. It’s a good thing, because it was going to be a very long flight and I was planning to get lots of sleep. The planned flight path:

Two trips to West Africa

Airports, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Flights, Francophone West Africa 2012, Ghana, Niger, Togo No Responses »

Sep 162013

I know, I know…I’ve gotten way behind. A few weeks ago I was in Nigeria (country #137 visited) for a few days with a friend and I owe a trip report for that one which I promise to get done soon. All in all, it was a great trip!

Next trip is coming in just a couple of weeks. It started as a trip to see the same friend while he does work in two more countries (Benin and Ghana) and I figured, while in the neighbourhood, I’d see a few more places. Now, it’s turned into a six country trip adding Togo, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, and Niger to the list. The rough plan is:

One major challenge will be that a couple of the tickets can only be bought locally, so we will see if I manage to sort out all the plane tickets. Of course, there’s also the issue that flights in this part of the world don’t always run so on time, so there will be that too. Also, this assumes I manage to get all six visas on time. It’s also the most number of airlines I’ve ever taken on one trip I think:

Air Canada
Lufthansa
Brussels Airlines
Air Cote d’Ivoire
ASKY
Air Burkina
SWISS
United

Of course, assuming everything works out….that will bring the total country count up to 143 visited…only 53 to go!

Flight 2: Chicago (ORD) to Houston (IAH)

Airports, Flights, Panama Mileage Run 2013 1 Response »

Jul 042013

Flight 2

United Airlines flight 32
From Chicago (ORD) to Houston (IAH)

Depart 11:31 Arrive 14;08, Scheduled Flight Time 2:37

Boeing 787-8, Registration N27901, Manufactured 2012, Seat 4A

Miles: 925
Total Miles Flown this trip: 1,737

Flight Time in Air: 2:05
Flight Level: 40,000 feet
Departure Runway: 14L
Arrival Runway: 26L

Time Elapsed since trip start at 07:00 Thursday July 4: 8 hours 22 minutes

Actual Departure Time: 11:35 – 4 minutes late
Actual Arrival Time: 14:22 – 14 minutes late

Departure Gate: B17
Arrival Gate: C14

DirectTV: no
Channel 9: no
WiFi: no

Pre-Departure Beverage: offered anything, chose Bloody Mary

Meal: “Shrimp salad or chicken sandwich with soup” – went with the chicken sandwich and soup…and some relatively drinkable red wine of course! It was more of a calzone/stuffed pizza thing, but it was pretty tasty!

Other Notes: I slept half the flight…I’m already exhausted from the early morning and this is only the 2nd of 15 flights. I’m gonna be dead! I don’t know if it was the turbulence or the plane, but the 787 seemed really bumpy in flight.

Flight 1: DCA-ORD

Flights, Panama Mileage Run 2013 No Responses »

Jul 042013

Flight 1

United Airlines flight 202
From Washington, National (DCA) to Chicago (ORD)

Depart 07:45 Arrive 08:41, Flight Time 1:56

Airbus A320, Registration N435UA, Manufactured 1996, Seat 2A

Miles: 612
Total Miles Flown this trip: 612

Flight Time in Air: 1:30
Flight Level: 34,000 feet

Time Elapsed since trip start at 07:00 Thursday July 4: 2 hours 30 minutes

Actual Departure Time: 7:56
Actual Arrival Time:

Departure Gate: 14
Arrival Gate: C29

DirectTV: no
Channel 9: yes
WiFi: yes

Pre-Departure Beverage: offered anything, chose water no ice

Meal: cinnamon scone

Other Notes: departure was delayed about 10 minutes while they sorted the “extra” person on board who hadn’t scanned their boarding pass.

To Panama…with 15 segments in 3.5 days on United including 4 segments on the 787

Airports, Flights, Panama, Panama Mileage Run 2013, United States No Responses »

Jun 252013

I was dropped on the head as a child, that’s pretty clear. I do things most sane people wouldn’t dream of doing. So, when I found out I had four days free over the upcoming holiday, I started looking for new countries to visit to add to my tally of 136 so far. Problem is, most of them are now too far away to consider for a four day weekend.

Backup plan…let’s see how many miles I can earn towards million miler. As a bonus, let’s see how many 787 segments I can theoretically fly now that it’s back in the air. A few days of planning, and insanity was born.

The final plan is:

Day 1: Washington DC, National (DCA) to Chicago (ORD) to Houston (IAH) to San Francisco (SFO) to Los Angeles (LAX) with ORD-IAH on the 787

Day 2: Redeye flight LAX back to Houston on the 787, continuing on the 787 to Chicago, then to Newark (EWR) and finally Panama (PTY) and sleep in a real bed

Day 3: Morning flight from Panama to Washington, Dulles (IAD) then on to Houston on a 767, back to LAX, and finally ending up in San Francisco for a very short 6 hour night.

Day 4: San Francisco to LAX early morning, then on to Houston on the 787, and finally home to DCA.

Final routing, assuming nothing goes wrong, and it almost certainly will:

DCA-ORD-IAH-SFO-LAX

LAX-IAH-ORD-EWR-PTY

PTY-IAD-IAH-LAX-SFO

SFO-LAX-IAH-DCA

I’m pretty sure I’m not going to survive this. By the numbers:

1 redeye
2 countries
3 showers…hopefully
4 flights on the 787
5 widebodies
7 United Clubs (if I can figure out a way to access on domestic days)
8 airports
8 different aircraft types
15 segments
85 hours
16,624 miles flown

So far 14 of 15 segments confirmed in first/business class, with one pending what will hopefully be an easy 1K upgrade on a 757 on July 4th. Time will tell though.

I’ll definitely make a point to pack my Bro Tank in order to offend as many “properly” dressed FlyerTalkers as possible on this most ‘Merican of all holidays.

Stay tuned…I’m pretty sure this adventure is going to have more twists and turns than gumby at a limbo convention!

Tashkent, Uzbekistan to Washington, Dulles on Air Astana and Lufthansa

Airports, Europe and Central Asia 2013, Flights, Germany, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan No Responses »

Jun 132013

Got to the airport at 9pm for my 11:50pm flight, since I’d been warned by several colleagues that immigration to get out of Tashkent could be nasty. I tried to check in at the VIP terminal again, but turns out that’s only for those flying on Uzbekistan Airways. No priority anything for other airlines. There was no wait to check in, however, but there was probably a 30 minute queue for passport control.

The real nightmare began on the other side. The person manning the baggage scanner decided I was a good target for harassment, and pulled me and my bags aside for a hand search and grope. And when I say grope, it made the TSA look like naïve innocents. Seriously, I’m pretty sure there are people hire “professional escorts” who get less of a grope. Then, it continued on to a very very detailed baggage inspection, going through every little container I had, squirting a little bit of toothpaste out, looking in prescription jars, etc. Eventually, I’d had enough and refused to answer any further questions until he called a supervisor over. The supervisor continued the harassment, but when I told him where I’d been working when there, he finally gave up and sent me on my way.

Not that it was much better – the entire airport is one large waiting area, and again there was a lounge, but the doors were locked. No access for Air Astana. Rather bizarre. I ended up just sitting around for nearly 90 minutes trying to kill time until it was time to board.

Air Astana flight 124
Tashkent, Uzbekistan (TAS) to Astana, Kazakhstan (TSE)
Depart 23:50, Arrive 2:55 next day, Flight Time 3:05
Embraer ERJ-190, Registration P4-KCH, Manufactured 2012, Seat 2A

Water, juice, and sparkling wine were offered during boarding, and the flight appeared to be completely full today. We pushed back pretty much on time, and were airborne shortly. Despite the late hour and being a regional jet, Air Astana pulled out all the stops and served a full hot meal. Actually quite impressive…starting with warm nuts and wine!

This was followed with a full hot meal (and wine refills upon pressing the flight attendant call button):

Shortly before landing, immigration cards were distributed. I didn’t see any way to to an airside transfer in Astana, but it could be possible. I didn’t require a visa with my passport, so I decided to just clear immigration and check in with Lufthansa. I found the immigration forms mildly amusing, because watermarked across them in large text was the fact that they were free!

Immigration took less than five minutes, but checked bagged took over 30 minutes to show up! Not a big issue though, and went upstairs and checked in with Lufthansa quite easily. Exit immigration and security were a complete non-event, and once again there was no lounge on the other side. I’ve never been to a Lufthansa international destination that didn’t have a lounge for business class passengers, so this was rather surprising. The airport had free, and fast-enough-to-Skype internet, so that was good at least, and helped to pass a bit of time.

Lufthansa flight 649
Astana, Kazakhstan (TSE) to Frankfurt, Germany (FRA)
Depart 4:40, Arrive 6:45, Flight Time 6:05
Airbus A330-300, Registration D-AIKE, Manufactured 2004, Seat 3D

There’s not going to be much detail on this flight, other than to say it was about 2/3 full in business class, and I was lucky enough to have the seat next to me remain empty. The downside is, at 4:40am in May this far north, the sun was already rising as we took off, and we flew into the sun the entire flight. The crew was great about putting the shades down very quickly after takeoff so those who wanted to sleep could. When the food/drink service came around I wasn’t hungry, but asked for and got two glasses of red wine, the proceeded to pass out and sleep for five straight hours. Excellent!

However, I did keep the menu, and appears there was no food service. The flight comes from Almaty where they serve a small dinner (listed aso Chicken Breast stuffed with dried Tomato, marinated Prawn and Mango Sauce with fresh fruit for desert) but this flight featured a breakfast which I didn’t bother waking up for:

Fresh Fruit

Muesli

Marinated Prawn, moked Beef (not my typo, theirs), smoked Chicken Breast and Chili Cause, Bavaria blu and Goda Cheese

Cheese Omelette with Chicken Brochette, Potato Cake, Asparagus and Tomato Sauce

After clearing security in Frankfurt, I went straight to the Senator lounge and asked about upgrading my next flight with a United Global Upgrade. I was worried because Expertflyer showed 4 seats left in first, and I know Lufthansa usually loads meals in sets of 4, and sometimes where there are exactly 4 seats left they will use it as an excuse not to upgrade you. The agent said she would call the agent handing the flight and get back to me shortly. Meanwhile, I decided it was time for a shower and an espresso while I waited.

After the espresso, the agent came over to tell me that normally it would not be possible to upgrade on this flight, but due to my “corporate account booking” they would be making an exception. Score! I opted to wait out the next two hours in the Lufthansa First lounge, even though it meant having to clear immigration to the Schengen side. I have no idea where there’s no First class lounge for the Z gates since they’re almost all longhaul international flights, but that’s how it is. Once there, I had time to wait, so had a proper morning snack. Pain au chocolate, kiwi juice, smoked salmon, and a bit of Veuve rosé bubbly:

Back through immigration after catching up on some work, and soon it was time to board.

Lufthansa flight 416
Frankfurt, Germany (FRA) to Washington, DC, Dulles (IAD)
Depart 9:40, Arrive 12:30, Flight Time 8:50
Airbus A340-300, Registration D-AIGZ, Manufactured 2000, Seat 2D

I’m going to mainly focus on the food service here, as the crew was flawless as usual. I think I’ve taken around a dozen flights in Lufthansa first now, and every single crew has been absolutely perfect. As a bonus, this flight had wifi so I was able to get quite a bit of work done. I still think it’s ridiculous they charge for WiFi in first class, but it is what it is. Unfortunately, all four window seats were taken when I upgraded, but I ended up with all four middle seats in the middle to myself. Hooray! Somehow I forgot to take a picture of the pre-departure champagne and macadamia nuts, however.

To start the meal service, the customary Lufthansa rose:

This was followed by an amuse bouche:

The table was set, and today’s bubbles were Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame….YUM!

I asked the flight attendant to slow down service since it would be a long flight, and I opted to start with the caviar before appetizers. Ok, I’m going to confess to it here too….this was one of three servings I had. They were all delicious. I was the only passenger eating early in the flight (I noticed 3 of the other 4 never at at all) so I hoped I wasn’t eating it all, but hey…she offered…

Today’s appetizer choices were:

North Sea Crabs with Mustard Dill Sour Cream, Pumpernickel Cream and Cucumber Relish
Prime boiled Veal with Frankfurt Green Sauce, Egg Salad
Mozzarella with Giant Oxheart Tomatoes and Pine Nut Dressing
Salad of meadow Herbs with Oyster Mushrooms accompanied by your Choice of Yogurt Dill or Tomato Tarragon Dressing

I decided to try everything but the crabs, and it was all quite tasty. Yes, more bubbles please….

I’ve seen Lufthansa serve some really unusual stuff in First Class before. One of the more memorable oddities was the milk-wine they served, even though it was delicious. Today definitely took the cake though, there was a palate cleanser which was described as “melon sorbet with cucumber tapioca and basil oil.” I took one bite, and the combination of texture, taste, and smell was just not the least bit appealing…and this coming from someone who will eat just about anything.

Palate cleansed (or revolted) it was time for a main meal. Choices today were:

Asparagus Spears with Sauce Hollandaise, Black Forest Ham, boiled Ham and Parsley Potatoes
American Rump Steak on White Bean Mash with Feta Cheese
Filet of Char and its Caviar with Grape Seed Oil and mashed Green Peas
Oriental flavored Saddle of Lamb with Citrus Yogurt, Pomegranate and Couscous

I went with the lamb, and it was absolutely delicious. Only complaint is there needed to be more lamb!

There were three red wine choices to accompany the lamb:

2007 Château Conon-La-Gaffelière Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Classé
2007 Guade al Tasso, Bolgheri Superiore DOC
2007 Neuquén Patagonia Malbec

Being a huge fan of Argentine malbecs that’s what I chose, and it went perfectly with the lamb.

Next up was the cheese course:

Brillat Savarin, Gruyère, Reblochon, Goat Cheese and Gorgonzola with Orange Chutney, Grapes and Celerey.

I took a little taster of each along with some more malbec.

Then, it was dessert time. There were two choices:

Toasted white Chocolate, pickled Pineapple and Curry Crumble
Cream Cheese Mousse and Ice Cream on Rhubarb Ragout with Strawberries

Now, I have a little confession. I’m pretty sure I chose the second option, especially because it contained rhubarb which I love, but there’s no photographic evidence nor do I really remember it. There is, however, evidence on my camera of at least two glasses of Johnny Walker Blue, one ice cube. Hey, priorities!

At this point I went to the washroom, changed into my Lufthansa pyjamas, came back to a made up bed, and proceeded to pass out for around four hours. I did manage to snap a selfie in the pyjamas before passing out though and post it to facebook…a great use of in-flight internet if I ever saw one!

Woke up about 90 minutes out of DC and sampled the “snack time” service just to report on it of course. Our options today were:

Frisée, Radicchio, Arugula and Romaine Lettuce with Carrots, Bell Pepper, Cucumber, Cherry Tomatoes, Red Radish and Chives presented with your Choice of Champagne or Yogurt Herb Dressing
Salad of Chilean Shrimps
Marinated Cocktail Tomatoes with Mozzarella Balls
Orecchiette Pasta with Green Peas, sun-dried Tomatoes, Chanterelle Mushrooms, Spinach and Italian Herbs
Toasted Pine Nuts
Fried Button Mushrooms
Serrano Ham and Poulard Breast with Thyme
Fried Swordfish with Herbs

I got a little sampler of things, since I was being indecisive:

I was completely stuffed, but hey, there’s always room for desert. It was a “chili flavored chocolate tart with whipped cream.” Oh, wait, that’s where things went! I actually stopped the first meal after the cheese… I did have the rhubarb from the main course…just later!

…and to finish things off, a nice double espresso.

At this point we were getting close to landing, so it was time to change out of pyjamas. I briefly considered being obnoxious and going through immigration in pyjamas, but really didn’t need to risk running into anyone I knew, or having more fun dealings with CBP.

Soon, it was time to stow away monitors and get ready to land.

That wraps up this trip report! Nothing on the horizon, but I’m sure that won’t last long!

Almaty, Kazakhstan to Tashkent, Uzbekistan on Uzbekistan Airways

Airports, Europe and Central Asia 2013, Flights, hotels, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan No Responses »

Jun 082013

Wrapped up our session at around 4pm, and our driver picked us up at the office at 5pm to head to the airport, promising there would be lots of traffic…and you “must” get there early. Since it’s the largest city in Kazakhstan, I figured the airport would be pretty good-sized, so maybe there was reason. Plus, things move slowly with bureaucracy in central asia sometimes, so we’d see.

Got to the airport in about 25 minute, and it was still nearly three hours until flight time. Oops! The entry way was a long hallway left to right, but there were no check-in desks anywhere in sight. Oh, wait, they’re through the security checkpoint. That’s odd…but ok. Checkin took a couple of minutes, asked for a window seat in row two after being shown the wide-open seatmap…and ened up with 1B. Um, ok? I asked for row two aisle. She switched from Russian back to English, saying “yes, you take.” Sigh, ok. This was a non-winnable battle.

There were two lines for passport control, for business class and everyone else. It didn’t matter in the end, as both seemed to take about 20 minutes to get through. Right on the other side was security again, which had no line. So, in about 30 minutes, two hours before the flight, we were in the terminal. Let’s find a lounge!

There was a lounge it turns out, but it’s only open to passengers of Air Astana. Business class on Uzbekistan? Nyet, go wait in the terminal. Priority Pass? Nyet! Sigh. The terminal? It was one large room with a few hundred seats, shared by all flights. There were a couple small outrageously priced cafes around the edge of the room, and a good-sized duty free shop that was pretty well-stocked. That was it…we were just going to have to wait it out. Time went pretty fast due to free WiFi which was nice, and soon it was time to board!

Uzbekistan Airways flight 764
Almaty, Kazakhstan (ALA) to Tashkent, Uzbekistan (TAS)
Depart 20:15, Arrive 21:05, Flight Time 1:50
Airbus A320, Registration UK32014, Manufactured 2010, Seat 2F

There was no such thing as priority boarding, so I did what lots of developing country travel has taught me to do well and stood up for myself….using all 6’3 210 lbs of me to make sure I stayed at the front of the scrum. Fortunately, once on board, someone was already in my seat. I took that as a cue to take the seat I wanted…2F…and in the end, I don’t think anyone ended up in their assigned seats. That works!

The sun was setting, and the view out the window onto the tarmac over the bright green engine was pretty cool:

…and what’s this in the seatback pocket? An “amenity kit” for a two hour flight? Neat!

Sarajevo, BiH to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on Turkish Airlines

Airports, Bosnia and Central Asia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Flights, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey 1 Response »

Jun 052013

So, got to Sarajevo airport in plenty of time. Check-in was absolutely painless, no line, and security and passport control were also painless. Less than 10 minutes after arriving, we were inside security and passport control and ready to see the lounge. It’s a common use lounge where they check your boarding pass, but it had free internet and drinks, so was more than adequate to pass the time. Nothing special, but good enough!

We didn’t spend any time in duty free, and soon it was time to board right on time.

Turkish flight 1024
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (SJJ) to Istanbul, Turkey (IST)
Depart 14:10, Arrive 17:05, Flight Time 1:55
Boeing 737-900 Registration TC-JYI, Manufactured 2012, Seat 3F

First shocker…unlike the flight to Sarajevo, this plane actually featured something close to international business class! Well, it was more like US domestic first with an extra foot or more of legroom, but still…very comfortable compared to what I expected, I was super impressed…and this was off to a good start!

I know…still nothing to be super excited about, but it held promise for the next segment to Bishkek. I was sure we wouldn’t be so lucky again, but in my experience flying Turkish has been a complete crapshoot, so who’s to say what was in store. Pre-departure drinks were a variety of fruit juices and lemonades:

Washington to Sarajevo on Lufthansa and Turkish

Airports, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Europe and Central Asia 2013, Flights, Germany, Turkey, United States No Responses »

May 312013

I’d been watching this flight for a few weeks leading up to it, and was incredibly disappointed it would be an old 747-400 on the day I needed to fly. Not only that, but when I booked the only seats left in business were middle seats. Mildly disappointing…I know….#firstworldproblems but still. Since the flight was F6 and I didn’t see needing all my United systemwide upgrades, I decided to take the chance and have one printed for use on this flight. Then, 48 hours before the flight, it was changed…to the new 747-800 and I had an aisle seat in the middle. Score! I began to question if I really wanted to upgrade, but of course, the chance to be spoilt won out!

When I got to Dulles, it was still F6, and upon checkin at the first class counter about 3 hours before flight time the upgrade was instantly confirmed. Score!

First stop was the United First lounge for some snacks. For once, I didn’t get trouble getting in being on Lufthansa and they let me in…only questioning why I’d want to use their lounge instead. That said, it was time for a couple glasses of champers, and some of the delicious United First lounge shrimp cocktail!

Johannesburg, South Africa to Washington, DC, the very very long way

Airports, Belgium, Flights, Germany, South Africa, South Africa Milage Run 2013 2 Responses »

Apr 232013

I’m going to be a bit briefer on this entry than the trip down, mostly because many of the flights were relatively similar…just in reverse. That said, there were quite a few differences so I’ll go into a bit more detail about them.

Check-in at Johannesburg was a piece of cake despite the fully loaded A380, and we had our boarding passes within 10 minutes of getting off the Gautrain. Past the ticketing counters, on the way to security, we saw this interesting gem:

I’m going to guess that enough people flying out of JNB have weapons to check that not only do they need a special place for it, but they need a giant sign to let you know where to do it. I guess this makes you feel a little safer? Maybe?

No wait for security, but the wait for immigration was close to 20 minutes. With A380s of Lufthansa and Air France departing, as well as a couple long-haul South African and BA flights it was no big surprise, and can’t really complain about it too much. We did a bit of duty free shopping, and maybe a couple things worth mentioning: if you want Africa-themed souvenirs, you can find just about anything you want at JNB. There are several shops selling just about every sort of mask, statue, necklace, and trinket you could imagine. If you want to buy South African wine…not so much. There’s one shop, with a small selection, and they do NOT package or ship. Sort of disappointing, but saved me a good deal of money I guess.

Shopping done, it was time to spend a bit of time in the South African business lounge. Plentiful drinks served by bartenders, a bit of pre-packaged food that was so unappetizing I didn’t touch any of it, and internet that was about as fast as Oscar Pistorius…no wait, too soon. It was slow. Almost unusable slow. So slow I used data roaming on my iPhone slow. Oh, and if you want to plug in your device….you best forget it. I think the whole lounge had about 10-15 outlets all of which were in use. Womp womp.

Boarding for the A380 was total chaos due to it being a completely full flight.

Lufthansa flight 573
Johannesburg, South Africa (JNB) to Frankfurt, Germany (FRA)
Depart 19:05, Arrive 5:45 next day, Flight Time 10:40
Airbus A380, Registration D-AIMC, Manufactured 2010, Seat 27K

This flight was nearly identical to the way down there. I’m not going to post too much, because honestly…not much is different. Pre-departure juice, water, or champagne (one glass, and one glass only), quick and efficient meal service from a very friendly crew, and I managed to sleep a solid 8 hours on the way to Frankfurt. I can’t ask for too much more. The menu:

I had the chicken thai coconut stew, and it was pretty tasty, but a pretty small portion. I did get a second helping of cheese after the desert course (hey, I’m a growing boy) and with a few glasses of wine got an incredibly solid sleep as mentioned above.

When we deplaned in Frankfurt, there were German immigration officers just outside the jetbridge checking passports. I’m not certain how this works, but I guess they want to catch people who ditched their passports in flight (hoping for asylum?) coming off the plane before they mix in with other flights so they can at least tell where they came from? Anyone know more about why they do this? I flashed mine, and we were off. Quick re-do of security, and we were in the A/Schengen-gates senator lounge where a nice shower awaited:

Showered and happy, grabbed a lite breakfast including lots of coffee, and some of the brightest and most festive easter eggs I’d ever seen. But come on Lufthansa, you’re a couple days late…easter was a couple days ago!

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