The Travelling Dassie: Lufthansa Economy Airbus A380-800

Route

LH573, Johannesburg to Frankfurt, 09 October 2012.

Duration

10 hours 45 min

On time departure and arrival

Departed and arrived on time.

Ground crew and check-in

We were able to check in online 23 hours before the flight.
We dropped off our luggage at the Lufthansa check-in counters.
Passports and visa's are checked before you can proceed to the check-in counters.
Ground staff was friendly and very helpful.

Boarding procedure

Priority boarding for first and business class passengers, families with small children and assisted passengers. Boarding cards were manually scanned by the ground crew.
We boarded via a mobile bridge.

Luggage allowance

Hand luggage - One carry on bag 8kg max
Checked luggage - One bag not exceeding 23kg , Lufthansa make use of the Piece concept for luggage

Seating

Number of seats - 420 in economy
Emergency exit row seats cannot be book online, they are allocated when checking in at the counters.
Seat pitch - 78.74 cm (31")
Seat width - 43.18 cm (17")
Recline at 113 degrees

View more information at Lufthansa A380 seatmap or Seatguru A380 Economy seat information

We sat in row 73 against the bulkhead. These seat have normal recline, the toilets are behind them and this can be a nuisance.
The overhead locker space was adequate for the middle rows, but the ones for seats H-K had newspaper and magazines stored in them so they have limited space. See attached photo.
The armrests in the middle fold away completely.

Amenities

Small cushion and blanket. Headsets were handed out after boarding and collected just before landing.

Entertainment

German and English newspapers were available upon boarding. In-flight magazine available in seat pocket.
Personal touchscreen monitor with remote control. The selection of movies was a bit limited in my opinion, but still enough to keep you entertained on a 10 hour flight.
Lufthansa magazine available in seat pocket

In-flight communication

None. No in-flight wi-fi available yet.

Meals and refreshments

Dinner
The in-flight service started as soon as we reached cruising altitude.
We were served a hot dinner. There was a choice between a chicken dish and a pasta dish.
The food was tasted good.
On the tray - Salad, bread bun, dessert, butter, salt, pepper, sugar cheese, cutlery, wet wipe and serviette. Cup for Coffee.
Any special meals must be pre-ordered when you make your reservation.
Coffee, tea, beer, wine and other beverages were served before our meal as well as afterwards.

Breakfast
A hot breakfast was served around 2 hours before landing. Breakfast consisted of an egg dish with some mushrooms and potatoes on the side.
On the tray - Fruit salad, bread bun, butter, jam, salt, pepper, sugar, cutlery, wet wipe and serviette.
I feel its a bit to early to eat breakfast ( around 03:30 in the morning) and it was not that good. Next time I'll pass on breakfast and rather get some more sleep in.

Toilets

The toilets were kept clean, and there are more than enough toilets on the A380.
Basin to wash hands and brush teeth.

In-flight shopping

Available. Shopping magazine in seat pocket

Travelling with Children

Milk and baby food can be warmed up by the cabin crew
Read more on Lufthansa - Travelling with children

Crew

I found the crew competent and friendly. Instructions were given in German and English.

Disembarking

Business class disembarked first. We had an aircraft bridge to the terminal building at Frankfurt airport.

Overall opinion

What I liked
The A380 still feels like a new plane. The seats are very comfortable and the service is good.
The plane was quiet with not too many rattles and noise.
Even though the A380 is very big, you never feel crowded, I think the configuration was well thought through.

Not so good
If you sit in the back of the plane it can take a while to get out of the plane, take this in consideration if you have a tight schedule for your connecting flight.
I would like to see more entertainment options and in-flight wi-fi.