 Trip report LHR-MUC-LHR
This is one of those tedious reports . . . where it all pretty
much does what it says on the wrapper.
Long term readers around here might just remember my post from
last year, which was LCY-MUC-LCY . . . this year we have LHR, as
LH have canned their direct LCY-MUC evening flight, much to the
annoyance of my city-based partner.
Current pricing on LHR-MUC makes Lufthansa cheaper than BA
(92 pounds plus taxes versus 103 + tax). Also, the booking
anomalies that used to make it cheaper to book LH flights via
their BMI codeshares are long gone: BMI booking on the
codeshared LH flights is now *considerably* more expensive
than booking direct with LH. The other thing to consider
is whether LH has more convenient flights. LH has a mid-
afternoon (15.20) flight, which can be a lot more useful
than BA's 14.10 or 17.20 if you want to get in at least a
half day at work and still be in Munich in time to just
wash your face and head out for roast venison and dunkel
weiss.
Booking via LH's website was only marginally annoying. I
would have preferred not having to set up a profile, but
if that's the way they want to play . . . the good news is
that you get an E-ticket: the bad news is that all three
e-checkin machines at LHR are occupied by German businessmen
who take an inordinate amount of time to pick up their
tickets. Previous night web check-in is possible (and easy),
but you still have to collect your ticket on arrival at the
airport. Annoyingly, even if you've booked tickets as a
party, you seem to only be able to pick up on set at a time,
even if you click on the "I'm travelling in a party" button.
The 1520 from LHR is an A-300 and can only be described as
sardine central! However, nobody at security or on board
complined about the fact that I had a rucksack stuffed
with coolerbags full of grouse, foie gras and truffle,
so I suspect that anything except beef is now persona
grata to Europe. Boarding can only be described as
*sloooooow*, but with clear weather and an easterly
take-off, the view was excellent. G&T was acceptable,
curried chicken and salmon salad considerably better
than most LH food I've encountered, flight smooth and
despite a late take-off, arrival at MUC was about five
minutes before time. Oh, and on arrival nobody tried to
confiscate my bag of birdies, fungi and foie gras, despite
the fact that the truffle was decidely beginning to make
his presence known by the Belgian border ;-)
On the way back (sans birdies, fungi and foie gras which,
along with my cooking thereof, had paid our host for the
weekend) it was A321 time. Boarding was a bit late, and we
then spent about a quarter of an hour awaiting a slot on
a runway operating in mixed mode. Food not as good as on
the way out as we're back to the LH ham and cheese salad
mode. Major congestion coming into LHR . . . three times
round (not certain which stack), so eventually 10-20 mins
late onto the ground . . . followed by the great Heathrow
sit in a taxi and see if it moves saga.
Given that I paid 92 pounds plus taxes return (and we're
paying rather more to go Manchester this weekend), there
was pretty much nothing to complain about . . . my only
question is how I've manged to spend so long saying "this
was an OK flight"?
Angela | 
