I’m not sure when I heard about the Lufthansa First Class terminal the first time – I have been to some business class lounges over the years but the Lufthansa First Class terminal sounded pretty amazing. So when I booked my award ticket I made sure to go First Class vith Lufthansa via Frankfurt in order to get access (you can read more about who gets access on Lufthansa.com)
The flight from Stavanger to Frankfurt took longer than expected. I think the flight took about 2 hours and 45 minutes! When I came out of the plane there was a man there with a sign with my name on it and he had a nice Mercedes parked right next to him. So I joined him (he never actually checked my boarding card by the way) and he took me to the terminal building. He was initially planning on taking me to the First class lounge in the B building by I asked about the First Class Terminal so he drove me to the A section and I walked from there. To get to the First Class Terminal you have to walk out of the main terminal building and walk for 2-3 minutes to get to it. When you get there you actually have to ring the doorbell and one of the staff comes to fetch you.
The lady that escorted me in took my passport and boarding card and told me to just enjoy and I would get my passport back later on when it was time to board the plane – it is not that often that I hand over my passport like this but I guess you have to trust them.
When it comes to the lounge….well, I guess there is not that much to say apart from WOW. First of all there are lots of leather chairs spread out in the lounge and there were not many people there so finding a place to sit was not a problem. Each table had a selection of nuts so they have taken the roasted nuts to the next level
The selection of food seems to be pretty amazing…yes, the Emirates lounge in London was not bad either. But in the Lufthansa First Class lounge they have taken it to the next level. Lunch was pretty amazing with a huge selection of antipasti from a buffet (including huge a huge parma ham and a huge Pata Negra) and there were also several warm dishes including Thai soups, Indian food, risotto and so on, And for dessert a wide variety of sweet stuff including tiramisu, chocolate mousse, panna cotta etc. If you can’t find anything good to eat at this food buffet you either have some pretty weird food allergy or are very picky about what you eat.
As a Norwegian I also have to mention the drink menu….which is extensive Here you can choose to drink Bollinger, Taittinger, Ruinart etc champagnes, 8 different red wines, 80 different scotch and whiskey’s !, 7 types of gin etc…you get the picture. It is quite nice to sip some good champagne while having some Voss water to keep saturated Apart from that the First Class terminal has a cigar lounge where you can enjoy your whiskey together with a cigar and they have 4 shower rooms where you can take a shower. I did take a shower and unfortunately the water was freezing. But apart from that the facilities are very nice. There are also a couple of rooms where you can get some sleep if you want to.
The internet is free of course and there are also several small “offices” where you can get access to the internet if you have not brought your own laptop. It does not get much better than this.
The flight to Frankfurt was pretty standard apart from the fact that it took 2 1/2 hours as there was a “traffic jam” at Frankfurt airport. Here are some photos and videos.
I had a very early flight today and I came to the airport at about 5.30 AM. Stavanger airport is getting too small it seems like because once again there was quite a lot of chaos. I went to the lines where you can normally find Lufthansa business class check in but this was all of a sudden replaces by Thomas Cook as there was a plane leaving for “syden” (charter plane to the south of Europe). All of a sudden this SAS employee comes up to me and says without further introduction and like he read my mind “There is a bit of chaos here and the business check in counter is not open. But here is your boarding card” And then he handed me the boarding pass in a Lufthansa First class folder. How did he know that I was the right person to hand the boarding card to?? Anyway, great service from the guy and SAS He told me to just cut in line for the baggage drop as I was flying business but when I came over to the one baggage drop counter the guy there wouldn’t have anyone trying to bypass the line. So he told me to just get in line…and it was loooooong. So I went over to the guy who handed me the boarding pass and he kindly took me to a empty check in counter so that I could drop by luggage there. Thanks for the great service
Tomorrow morning I’m going to Hong Kong and I’m first of all looking forward to the First class experience on Lufthansa both on the ground and in the air So I’ll be starting at the crack of dawn with a flight from Stavanger to Frankfurt and after a few hours I’m going to Hong Kong on the upper floor of a Lufthansa 747. This will be a pretty short trip but I have to admit that I’m not very good at packing. There are websites dedicated to how to pack smart and light but I have never been any good at that. I normally start the night before I travel and pack in state of panic I guess and I normally bring too much. But hey, better safe than sorry right? Below is my trusted Samsonite suitcase in the process of being filled So what does one wear when flying first class I wonder? I have prepared my tuxedo and hope that will be sufficient
Nikki and I went to Vietnam and Cambodia during Easter this year. This is the last part of the trip report and this time we have come to Phnom Penh, the capitol of Cambodia. It is not really a main tourist destination and it does not have a number of attractions like some other cities. But we got to experience a city where people were celebrating New Year with dancing and games in the streets. But places like Tuol Sleng S-21 torture prison and The killing fields reminded us about the tragic past of this country with the rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Well, here is the trip report with photos, videos, links etc: http://gardkarlsen.com/Phnom_Penh_Cambodia_trip_report.htm . I hope that it can give you an idea of how we experienced the city.
As more and more airlines are getting into economic problems, it seems like they are coming up with various new ideas on how they can squeeze in more people on each flight. A Chinese airline suggested having people standing on shorter flights and Ryanair quickly picked up the idea and came out with some sketches on how it could be done. I’m not sure they are serious – I just think it is a PR stunt but here is how it could be done:
A British design agency called Design Q has come up with an idea where people are facing each other. So now you get to stare other passengers in the face the entire flight But if you look at the example below…does ths really allow for more passengers than the traditional layout?
Some of the flights in Norway are very short…Stavanger to Bergen is from 20 to 30 minutes and Stavanger to Oslo can be done in 40 to 50 minutes. I don’t think I would have had a problem standing on a flight for 30 minutes if the ticket was considerably cheaper. And when it comes to sitting face to face – I was transported this way in an Army Hercules plane when I was in the armed forces…I can’t remember that anyone complained about our safety and comfort back then
Have you heard of Couchsurfing? This is basically a network of people that are offering their help and services to other travelers. You register and create a profile and then you can surf other member’s profiles and ask if you can spend the night on their couch when traveling. Sounds too good to be true I guess but I have hosted a few travelers and shown them a bit of Norwegian life and and attractions around Stavanger and they have loved it. You can also use this network if you are traveling alone and just want to get in touch with people for a coffee, a drink or just to learn a bit about the local culture. There are also other similars networks like Hospitalityclub.org. So don’t be shy…register online and help fellow travelers in need
No, we are not talking about Armageddon here – we are talking about The World in Dubai. As some of you know, the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates has started some of the most amazing building projects in the world….some examples are Burj Dubai, Ski Dubai, the Palm Jumeirah etc. They also started the contruction of The World a few years back; a man made archipelago of 300 islands located of the coast of Dubai. The project got it’s name as the islands together formed a world map and to start with the there were lots of rumors of celebrities buying varies islands. According to the project homepage, The World was completed on October 1st 2008. But this week there are rumors that the whole project has been canceled – check this article in TimesOnline. I could see the islands when I was there in May but I don’t think that anything has been built on them yet – I guess the economic crises in the world put an end to the whole thing and maybe this shows that it was just too insane to complete. I’m always fascinated by building projects that are over the top but I didn’t quite see the big attraction in owning a small island of the coast of Dubai. From what I have heard the property prices in Dubai has dropped a lot but I was surprised to see that there were still a lot of construction activities when I was there in April and May. There has been some negative press about Dubai as a tourist destination in the last year and I guess that is not helping either. Anyway, I will write more about my feelings regarding Dubai in the upcoming trip report that I will post on gardkarlsen.com . You can read more about The World on Wikipedia.
I stayed at Sheraton Heathrow hotel (not the Sheraton Skyline) for one night in September 2009 and I booked the room on SPG online and got it for 69 GBP (including taxes but excluding breakfast). When I reached Heathrow airport I took the Hoppa H4 bus (costing 4 GBP) to get to the hotel and it didn’t take many minutes. Check in was fast and I was assigned to SPG room 3139. Read the entire review below by clicking on the more link below. more…
Apart from that the First Class terminal has a cigar lounge where you can enjoy your whiskey together with a cigar and they have 4 shower rooms where you can take a shower. I did take a shower and unfortunately the water was freezing. But apart from that the facilities are very nice. There are also a couple of rooms where you can get some sleep if you want to.
Nikki and I went to 
