TRIP REPORT: Lufthansa, Zagreb - Newark

TRIP REPORT

Submitted by Gojko Mavrinac

My short story from flight(s) to New York City in June 2017. Itinerary was Zagreb - Frankfurt - Düsseldorf - Newark. Yeah, correct, two transfers in Europe even though it was not necessary and I could have booked a flight with one stop, for example Zagreb - Frankfurt - Newark. With one stop I’ll probably have around 2 or 3 or more hours to wait in Frankfurt. I booked this option with two stops and instead 3 or 4 hours waiting in Frankfurt, I flew one more flight - Frankfurt to Dusseldorf and then from Dusseldorf to New York City.

Why? Well, the ticket with two stops in Europe was cheaper, I originally booked that ticket on Lufthansa web and I paid a return ticket just 400 euros. With one stop in Frankfurt it would cost me 100 euros more. I was flexible with time of arriving in NYC so I choose that cheaper option. Return flight was with one stop: Toronto - Munich - Zagreb.

Zagreb Airport

Departure time from Zagreb was at 06:45 in the morning. We were late, so our flight departed at 7 o’clock. Landing in Frankfurt with A319 and taxi to the gate. We got a parking position which wasn’t an airbridge, so we took the bus which transferred us to the terminal building. My flight from Frankfurt to Dusseldorf was scheduled at 9 o’clock, but I came to the terminal building at 08:40 so I had just 20 minutes for transfer to the domestic flight in Germany. Croatia is not a member of Schengen so I needed to go through passport control. I skipped the long row and I did passport control. The Lufthansa assistant also told me that they were going to rebook me on the next first flight from Frankfurt to New York, because they were not sure if I would be on time for my flight to Dusseldorf, which means I would miss my flight from Dusseldorf to Newark. However, I decided to try to get those flights. I was running like a maniac around the terminal in Frankfurt, with carry on, bagpack, in my shorts….and I came to the gate just 2 minutes before scheduled departure! Also, they changed the gate of the Frankfurt – Dusseldorf flight several times – first from 21 to 26, than 36, horrible…

Legroom

View of the alps between Zagreb and Frankfurt

A320 departed from the parking position as soon I was on my seat. That was probably the shortest flight in an A320, about 30 minutes. Also, they didn’t serve anything on this short flight, just business class got something. At least I had a good sandwich and coffee on my flight from Zagreb to Frankfurt that morning.

I arrived in Dusseldorf on time. I had an hour before boarding started for my long haul flight to the United States. A330 was already parked at the gate. D-AIKG came that morning to Dusseldorf from New York City. I’ve flew with Lufthansa to the United States before, so I already knew how the experience would be. The service was quite good, we got a snack shortly after departure, after that they served lunch (of course “chicken or pasta?!”) and shortly before arrival they served warm snack (something similar to pizza…). I took 3 or 4 beers and then I slept for 4 hours. The flight was full, load factor was high and I’m 1.90m tall so I couldn’t find some good position for sleeping. A year earlier I flew with the A340-600 from JFK to Munich and that flight was much more comfy (also, it wasn’t full like this one..) so I had two seats for myself, and that wasn’t the case on this flight.

One bad thing – TV screens weren't working in our seats so the Capitan apologised to everyone shortly after departure from Dusseldorf.

A330 “Ludwigsburg” after arriving at Newark

All of my flights to the US were with Lufthansa and I think I’ll use them again in the future too. For some other destinations (Asia, Africa…) I’ll definitely use companies like Emirates, Turkish and Qatar.

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