CHECK-IN

We took the train in from Frankfurt after having spent the night in the city for a ~24 hour layover (read: Bratwursts Galore! Sightseeing around Frankfurt, Germany and Westin Grand Frankfurt Hotel Review – Frankfurt, Germany). The good news is that Frankurt’s airport is a short and very easy 15-20 minute subway ride from the center of town.

Thai Airways actually has 2x daily non-stops to Bangkok: a 9pm/10pm departure on a Boeing 747 and a 2pm/3pm departure on an Airbus A380. And this is in addition to Lufthansa’s daily flight on an Airbus A340–that’s a ton of seats per day! This might explain why we were able to find first class Star Alliance award space.

There was a dedicated lane for Thai Royal First Class:

Marketing banners galore

BOARDING

We got to the gate around 1pm for a scheduled boarding time of 1:15pm and scheduled departure at 2:10pm. It was evident that boarding was going to be a bit delayed and so we killed our final few minutes in Germany for the foreseeable future. During our short wait, we saw plenty of weird German things, including but not limited to a skinny girl in a Santa suit wandering around passing out candy from her “toy bag.”

By 1:50pm, it was time to board and we were greeted with another first: taking an escalator up a level to board directly on the upper deck. As with all other carriers, First and Business class was announced to board first.

Since the A380 is such a monster of a plane, it is almost always boarded using multiple doors to cut down on ground time. Thai Airways has both First and Business class on the upper deck, so up an escalator we go.

We passed through the boarding door and were greeted by an army of Thai flight attendants dressed in the traditional Thai garb. We were escorted to our seats and began the utter sensory overload of examining every single button, gadget and compartment at our disposal on the plane.

2F: Home, sweet home

My neighbor’s seat: 2K

PRE-DEPARTURE SERVICE

After allowing us a few moments to get settled in, a FA came by to announce my pre-departure selection: the Lobster Thermidor. We flew Thai Royal First about 2 years ago and the man sitting next to us kept raving about how it’s a crime to not order their “signature dish.” I didn’t want to make the same mistake again but I did find it quite difficult to pass up a spicy Thai curry dish.

Next up, the pre-departure champagne was flowing. I don’t know what was better, that technically this was honeymoon champagne, that it was Dom Perignon (and I’m accustomed to drinking the cheap stuff) or that it was being served to us at the beginning of our Thai Royal First experience… but this stuff tasted tasted extra good.

While sipping ‘champ in up front, waiting for take-off, I was browsing through the Thai Airways magazine and was surprised to see that Thai flies to 13 different European cities.

And they’re growing quite rapidly, adding 17 new planes in 2013, including three A380s.

But seriously, how does this thing fly?!

The seat is filled with magazines to read (including a Cosmo in German for McCown), pajamas, slippers, 2 comfortable pillows, headphones and an amenity kit. The Thai amenity kit was the same as 2 years ago and sort of weak:  it was essentially the same exact case as Lufthansa but a little nicer.

Also, if you want a good idea of just-how-freakin-enormous this plane is, check out the picture below that reveals the 16 emergency exit slides!

Take off was VERY bumpy; the A380 is a big ass vessel that really shakes as it hits every bump on the runway.

THE SEAT

This beast can hold up to 507 passengers. Luckily, we were in the cabin that held a max of 12:

The table beneath the LCD doubles as the meal tray by easily sliding out

Thai Royal First on the Airbus A380 is the carrier’s newest cabin and features cubby-style seats that give you a good bit of privacy when lounging and sleeping.

This cubby-style seating makes it great when traveling alone but not as great if you’ve got some company. In fact, the 1 x 2 x 1 configuration and the distance between seats makes it virtually impossible to effectively communicate if you’re seated in anything other than the middle aisle that is 2x seats side-by-side.

There was a multidirectional seat control that let you situate yourself in just about any position humanly possible/desirable.

What’s up, lumbar support

There’s no need to worry about staying charged throughout the flight between the 2 USB ports and 1 international power convertor that could accept just about any plug.

The cubby design also has a hidden coat closet. No coat? If you elect to use the pajamas (and why wouldn’t you?!), this will make a great place to hang your clothes.

Your very own personal coat closet

Ahh, cubbies every where!

Seat controls: upright, dining and bed

IFE: In-flight Entertainment

The headphones were basically Bose knockoffs and, while they looked very similar to the Bose noise canceling headphones, the quality was very far from being authentic Bose quality. The noise canceling features did not work very well and the sound quality left a lot to be desired.

With the only bad part out of the way, on to the good: the screens are huge! They’re easily 24″ and maybe bigger? The HD widescreen quality was excellent.

And what better to go with a nice big screen? An awesome selection of programs! The entertainment selection –movies but especially the TV shows– were great. They had entire seasons of many popular shows: Mad Men, Breaking Bad, etc…

The controls were great; the handset remote was very easy to use and the screens were easy to navigate.

The only other negative on the entertainment system, apart from the crappy headphones, was that both of our screens froze twice during the flight, mid-movie. This required calling the FA over who then had to go manually reset the computer and let it reboot for 10-20 mins.

Another qualm: the A380 fleet was supposed to have inflight WiFi installed but, after trying repeatedly, I could never get a connection out:

What gives, Thai Airways?

DINNER MEAL SERVICE

~40 mins after take off: Once we were at cruising altitude and wasting no time, the crew came around to distribute the “First Serving”: Canapés.

Canapés

The canapés consisted of: very thinly sliced parmesan cheese on a slice of French bread, a scallop and a sliced meat (prosciutto?) wrapped around asparagus with a pesto or olive oil and herbs garnish.

~ 1 hr after take off, around 3:35pm, our first plates were cleared and tables were set.

The delicious caviar cart making it’s way around:

~1.5 hours after departure: Well, with 2 rounds of “First Servings” down, now time for the actual appetizer, or “First Course”.

This one was another cold dish with a Rillette of crab meat, grilled shrimp, portabello wrapped cheese and roasted pepper and salmon roe.

After wolfing that course down, it was Lobster Thermidor time:

Served with pasta and spinach, there was a decent-sized lobster tail and claw meat. Apart from being a little on the tough side, the dish was excellent with great flavor.

McCown ordered the “Chicken with Eggplant in Green Curry, Steamed Thai Hom Mali Rice, Mixed Vegetables”:

This dish was, as McCown puts it “awesome! Very spicy with chicken and lots of broth…very spicy and very, very tasty. Full of green curry flavor and is making me think we might need to skip our next flight and just stay in Thailand!” I had a bite, too, and secretly wished I ordered it over the lobster — but that might just be my love of Thai food clouding my judgement.

4:35pm (~2 hrs after departure): Within about 20 mins, this 4th, main course was cleared and it was on to the cheese, fruit and port selections. For simplicity of choosing, they wheeled the cart around again:

Yes, I’ll take one of each

I ended up trying a “small piece” of just about all of them. There were 4 types of cheese but the one that stood out the most was the blue cheese that had a great flavor. There were then kiwi, cantaloupes and strawberries. Finally, it was all washed down with the Cockburn’s Special Reserve port wine.

And, last but not least: an apple crumble for dessert! (as if we hadn’t been served enough food already…)

(And here they come with the 3rd hot towel of the flight) 

So how was the meal service overall? Since we’d just flown Lufthansa First Class the day before, we naturally drew all of our comparisons between the two carriers. Compared to the Lufthansa First Class experience, our Thai Royal First meal service felt a little rushed and mechanical. However, we found the Thai Airways flight attendants much friendlier and pleasant but that might just be my experience with Germans vs Thais.

With our dinner (lunch?) service over, it was now time to catch some shut eye but we needed to clear out for a few minutes so that the FAs could make our beds. We took this opportunity to explore the rest of the plane, starting with the First Class cabin.

ROYAL FIRST A380 CABIN

There’s a decent-sized “first class lounge” in the far right corner of the cabin– although, in practice it was empty and seemed quite awkward to use. Maybe if they had some food or drinks in there?

The bathroom was possibly the highlight of the trip. I’ve just never imaged one so spacious on an airplane. As you walk in, there is a small seating area and full length mirror. As I understand it, this is the space that a shower would have been installed, had Thai Airways opted to include one at the factory.

There were also lots of perfumes, lotions and plugs (even 110 volt for fixing your hair etc):

ECONOMY CABIN

We then ventured for a lap through the plane, starting with economy. We first had to head down the stairs:

For all of the reasons that First Class was awesome, Economy looked miserable. Those seats just weren’t made for average-sized people to spend 10+ hours on a flight.

Packing them in:

ROYAL SILK BUSINESS

Business Class looked nice, the A380 configuration uses cubbies similar to Royal First and makes great use of space by staggering the seats to accommodate more passengers but still permit lie flat beds.

ROYAL FIRST BED

We came back to find a very inviting bed:

At 5:05pm (Frankfurt time), appx 2.5 hours into the flight, the lights in the cabin were dimmed to nearly 0%. A quick glance at the in-flight map showed me that we had 6 hr 50 mins of flying time before reaching Bangkok.

~5 hours later, around 10:05pm Frankfurt time, it was “morning” according to Thai Airways. The lights were back on and beds were being made. And, as if we were even mildly hungry, it was breakfast time as well.

BREAKFAST MEAL SERVICE

For this “Second Serving,” we enjoyed a first course of fresh fruits, yogurts, cereals and fresh juice. To our flight attendant, apparently asking for a “little bit of fruit” actually meant “give me an entire fricken pineapple.”

A+ for presentation, however. For the Main Course, we had the following choices:

McCown ordered the “Crepe Filled with Ham, Mushroom and Cheese” which came with friend bacon, asparagus and a grilled plum tomato.

Not really feeling the soft boiled egg or cold cuts platter, I went with the most American version of breakfast and settled on the “Spinach Omelette” with grilled bacon, grilled tomato and sautéed mixed mushrooms.

(And here comes our 5th hot towel of the flight…where do they keep getting these things?)

With breakfast (and all eating that I’d need to do for the next 3 days) out of the way, the flight attendants came around with souvenirs: Thai Airways A380 Playing Cards! I wonder if Airbus threw those in for free or if they had to pay for them on top of the $414.4 million for the plane.

And then, as quickly as it began our flight came to a screeching halt as we touched down at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport with a wheels down time of 12:01am Frankfurt time, 6:01am Bangkok time.

Here are a few more comparisons to Lufthansa First:

• Cabin: Lufthansa was much more spacious:  in about the same space, Thai had 12 seats vs the 8 seats on Lufthansa. The Thai seat area felt cramped compared to Lufthansa.
• IFE: Thai won in the in-flight entertainment department. Widescreen on Thai vs 4:3 on Lufthansa and much higher resolution on Thai. Not to mention that Lufthansa had far fewer programming choices.
• Bed: The Lufthansa bed was leaps and bounds better. Thai, while flat still felt like a seat turned into a bed bed. It got pretty hot in the Thai cabin, too.
• Service: the service was much friendlier on Thai, Lufthansa was great and very professional but the Thai people just have a way about them that makes them seem so much friendlier. Also, the service felt relatively more rushed on the Thai flight.
• Summary: I just can’t say enough good things about the Lufthansa bed!

THAI ROYAL FIRST GROUND SERVICE

After arriving at the gate, we were whisked off the plane and were escorted down the jet bridge to a golf cart that whisked us away to the lounge.

We went from touchdown at 6:01am to sitting in the lounge at 6:26am, a record 25 minutes! Thai Airways Royal First ground service is simply unrivaled.

BOTTOM LINE: Thai Airways First Class continues to stand out as world class for both hard product and service. Despite feeling slightly rushed, the 6-course meal was decadent and impressive. The A380 cabin was neat to experience, from the giant bathroom to the private cubby-style seats. All of this was topped off by impeccable ground service in Bangkok.

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The post Thai Airways A380 Royal First Class – TG 921 Frankfurt-FRA to Bangkok-BKK first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

Frankfurt Airport is one of the three mega-hubs in Europe, with more than 52 million passengers/year, 60% of which are Lufthansa travelers (that’s about 100,000 Lufthansa travelers per day!).

Given the above stats, it’s not surprising that they’re a bit stingy with access to the true First Class lounge. In fact, here is the short list of ways you can gain entry:

1. Passengers with a same day Lufthansa or Swiss First Class tickets

For those traveling on other Star Alliance airlines, even in First Class, you’ll get the secondary treatment and have to go to the Senator Lounge. Even though we weren’t technically traveling on a “same day” Lufthansa First Class ticket, we managed to be a bit pushy and get in anyway. At the lounge reception desk, we passed over our Thai Airways First Class tickets for the flight departing in a few hours. She scanned them and said, “so sorry, but this lounge is for Lufthansa First Class passengers only, you’ll have to go down the hall to the Senator lounge for partner flights.” I explained that we had arrived on Lufthansa First Class and we were simply connecting in Frankfurt-FRA and handed her our boarding passes from the prior day. Upon scanning them she said that, because the tickets we not from the same day, we wouldn’t be allowed in. I further explained that, due to the weather in New York, we were “forced” to depart a day early and also had a forced overnight layover in Frankfurt and that we should have actually arrived on a same day Lufthansa flight. She acted as if we were the first ones she’d ever encountered in this predicament. After chatting with her colleague, she apologized profusely for the mix up and led us in.

It was a rather large lounge with an average amount of people– definitely not over-crowded like many lounges we’ve visited. There were many options of where to sit:  close-quartered comfortable chairs, a business area, plush leather chairs to give individual travelers their own spaces.

Of course, we headed straight for the food area. Whereas many other lounges have food buffets and then you can sit wherever you want, this lounge has a distinct food area, where the buffet and tables are clustered together and there’s not much eating going on in other areas of the lounge.

Lots of delicious foods were on display:  all sorts of cheeses, meats, truffled ravioli, Thai beef dishes, etc. These international varieties were all on the buffet; there was a special order menu, too. All of this was free, so the name of the game here (at least for us) is to sample as much as you can.

And, did I mention that there was a real real Jamon Iberico machine on display, alongside all the meats. It really made the meat selection seem a bit fresher… and mostly added to the decor and fun vibe, giving the food area a little more character.

While I sampled the buffet, Jeffrey ordered the VEAL CARPACCIO with FOIE GRAS off of the special order menu.

Veal Carpaccio with Foie Gras

The food was delicious, plenty varied and had a great presentation, but, truthfully, this Lufthansa Lounge’s food just didn’t compare to the Lufthansa First Lounge at JFK. The service was impeccable at JFK and just seemed a bit more “first class” than at the Frankfurt lounge, which seemed just like a typical restaurant service.

Then, there was a dessert bar with all sorts and types of dessert:  cakes, pies, pastries, things I didn’t recognize. You name it, it was offered here in this decadent selection. This food area really had an international flair — in case you were missing home (wherever that may be, to an extent), a familiar food was available.

I still haven’t mentioned one of the most intriguing aspects of the food area:  the water bar. Yes, a water bar. How elite is that? Bottled water from around the world…if you just can’t accept the taste of other…water. #FWP all the way.

Huge selections of fancy waters from all over the world

Although we weren’t there long enough to do a true sampling, there was also a massage area if you had some extra time to kill.

Now, it’s time for your typical bathroom photos… no big deal. The best part is clearly the marbled shower (it’ll make you forget you in an airport), or maybe it’s the marbled tub? Toss up.

Lastly, tucked away in the huge lounge is also a Cigar Lounge… a lounge within a lounge. Luckily, they make sure all the doors are tightly closed so no smoke leaks out!

BOTTOM LINE (McCown):  Maybe it was the smaller, more intimate setting at JFK’s Lufthansa First lounge or maybe it was just the adrenaline rush from just beginning our trip, but I’d say the JFK Lufthansa Lounge is hands-down better than the Frankfurt Lounge — from service to food choices — but the Frankfurt Lounge is still top-notch and offers more selections of food — and water — than most other lounges I’ve been lucky enough to visit.

BOTTOM LINE (Jeffrey): I completely disagree with McCown’s assessment and can say that the Lufthansa First Class lounge in Frankfurt-FRA was much better than the New York-JFK lounge. I mean with a full Cigar Lounge, water bar (how over the top “first world” is that?) and a jamon iberico machine, how can you go wrong? The JFK lounge might have felt a bit more personal given that they might only deal with a few dozen First Class passengers a day, but the over-the-top amenities in Frankfurt more than make up for the less personal touch.

The post Lufthansa First Class Lounge Review – Frankfurt-FRA Terminal B first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

Booking

Because I have Diamond status with Hyatt and Platinum status with Starwood, I preferred to book a property at either one of those chains. When I jumped online, I found that my only Hyatt option for “Frank…” would be Franklin, Tennessee:

The good news is that Starwood has a few more options:

Starwood coming through with 6 offerings in the Frankfurt area, 2 are in the heart of the city

I found that the 2 properties with locations in the central downtown area of Frankfurt (The Westin and Le Méridien) had options for SPG Free Nights or Cash & Points:

A quick TripAdvisor search revealed that Le Méridien Parkhotel Frankfurt had a 77% rating and was ranked #41 of 262 hotels in Frankfurt. The Westin Grand Frankfurt, however, was ranked much higher at 84% rating and #13 of 262 hotels in Frankfurt. For the extra 1,000 Starpoints and $35, this was a pretty easy decision.

Check-In

Finding the hotel was easy from the airport:  it’s just a short 15-20 min train and then less than a 5 minute walk to the Westin. We got to the hotel around 2pm after our transatlantic flight from New York. The hotel’s location was really the biggest selling point of the hotel — as soon as you walked out of the front door, you were catapulted into downtown Frankfurt, just minutes away from the busiest street with stalls and stalls of Christmas Market festivities.

The lobby is very large by European standards, with check-in desks to the right, a large open area and then stairs up to the second level (and Westin Executive Club).

The Room

The hallways are extremely long and not very well lit:

Helloooooooooooooo down there!

No upgrade for us on this short stay, but it looks like they may only have 1 suite per floor?

Our room, although quite cozy, was nice and pretty much on par with US Westin standards (which is saying a lot for a hotel in the downtown area of a large European city). All of the amenities we’ve grown to love were there…most importantly the Nespresso machine! When we see one of those, we know we’ve picked a good hotel.

Classic Room: King Bed

Classic Room: King Bed

Classic Room: King Bed

Desk

Classic Room: Closet area

And, best of all:  an in-room Nespresso machine!

Glorious Nespresso at my finger tips!

The Bathroom

This is one area that was far and above superior to a typical Westin:  the all marble bathroom. And, it was much bigger than many European hotel bathrooms, so another big win here.

Classic Room Bathroom: All marble!

Classic Room: The shower/tub

Executive Club

As a Starwood Platinum member, we had access to the Westin Executive Club:

Overall, the Executive Club was great; if you were traveling in Frankfurt on a budget, you could easily supplement your meals here as all of the offerings were quite substantial. We found ourselves stopping in the club on our way to and from the hotel for a quick cup of coffee or snack. It was a nice benefit and we took full advantage. The snacks and drinks changed depending on time of day but there was always something tasty and you could get quite the filling snack (especially if you wanted to take a break from the street-side brats).

Westin Executive Club: Mid-day snacks

Westin Executive Club: Mid-day snacks

Free beer, wine and soft drinks

Looking down on the main lobby from the Executive Club

Plenty of seating, nice open feel over looking the main lobby

BOTTOM LINE: Given that it was very short notice, we were very please with The Westin Grand Frankfurt–the 12,000 Starpoints or 6,000 Starpoints + $110 ended up being a good value for us. The location is excellent, right in the thick of Frankfurt sightseeing and the Executive Club was one of the best Westin lounges I’ve seen.

The post Westin Grand Frankfurt Hotel Review – Frankfurt, Germany first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

Although we were excited, every German person we met who found out we were spending a night in Frankfurt was shocked that we’d actually be staying there and not immediately taking the first train out to a “nicer” German city. Red flag, but I guess we’d respond the same way if people told us they were coming to the US only to visit Charlotte, NC — it’s just not a city that tourists frequent very often.

So, with high hopes, we set off to explore Frankfurt. Knowing that it wasn’t a super touristy town (and sort of relaxing a bit since we weren’t even supposed to be there), we focused on eating delicious German food and just walking around the city’s main streets instead of setting off to find the best tourist sites.

The train into the city from the airport was easy to find and cost 4.50 euros (each way) for a 15-17 minute subway ride. Plan on about 45 minutes from airport to city — with the actual train ride + a 15 minute wait in case you just miss the last train + a 10 minute walk from baggage claim to the subway.

Heading down to the train at the airport

As soon as we stepped up into the street from the subway on Saturday morning, the German holiday spirit hit us full force. We had walked right into Frankfurt’s Christmas Market, which seems to span the length of one of the city’s main streets – a year-round pedestrian-only street. Luckily, our hotel was right around the corner, so, we quickly dropped our bags, freshened up a bit and headed back out for some bratwurst.

The Konstablerwache square farmer’s market (Erzeugermarkt Konstablerwache): Every Saturday from 8am to 5pm

Zeil Street

Looking down Große Friedberger Straße

Along with the likes of international stores like Zara, many sidewalk cafes and stalls are selling bratwursts everywhere you look. We looked around for the “best” bratwurst, and finally settled on a bratwurst sandwich from the stall with the longest line. For just 2 euros, the sandwich was served on a light rye roll and you could add your own mustard from the 10kg bucket they had sitting on the counter. Germans love their mustard and we had to wait in a longer line to add the mustard than we did to actually order the brat. Then, 15 minutes later, we passed another popular stall and decided to try some currywurst (sausage chopped up with curry ketchup and curry powder) for 3.50 euros after noticing the food on many locals’ plates. No wonder it was such a popular dish:  it was delicious. The whole street was just a real sausage fest… Do these Frankfurters really eat brats all of the time??

Enjoying a brat from the Konstablerwache square farmer’s market

Bratwurst

Currywurst

But really, at every turn, every German stereotype was fulfilled- much more so than in other parts of Germany. Maybe because of the lack of tourists or maybe because they go all out for the holiday season… either way, let’s just say that you knew without a doubt that you were right in the middle of Germany.

The Lufthansa flight attendants softened their blow of “Frankfurt? Why Frankfurt? That’s terrible!” with an “At least there’s the Christmas Market,” so we were really looking forward to what seemed like a great festival. The main street is decorated with Christmas lights (all over!) and lined with vendors with… you guessed it… mainly brats for sale. Are you supposed to give brats as Christmas gifts?!

More of The Christmas Market

Roßmarkt (Frankfurt am Main)

Old Opera (Alte Oper in Frankfurt am Main): The Original Opera House

It turned out that the best part of the town to explore was the pedestrian-only street, but, after walking around and seeing all we could see of the Christmas Market, we walked around exploring other neighborhoods and, of course, we made a special visit to the main train station.

Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof

Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof

A SNCF train in from Paris–the Frankfurt-Paris journey only takes 3 hr 49 mins on the high speed rail

Then, Jeffrey found the best rated coffee shop on Trip Advisor, a place called Wacker’s, and we headed there for an afternoon pick-me-up. The place was packed- you could barely find standing room outside!

Wacker’s Kaffee

Wacker’s Kaffee

After exploring the town, we headed out to find dinner and found a little restaurant nearby called Solber Fässje Haxenhaus.

Solber Fässje Haxenhaus

More sausage! And tasty spätzle.

After dinner, we headed back to The Christmas Market because it was the most popular nightlife. We tried some hot wine with whipped cream on top and hung around under the lights with the locals.

Walking along Zeil, Frankfurt’s main pedestrian street

When we left our hotel at 10am on Sunday morning to head back to the airport, the streets were dead. A few shopkeepers were out cleaning up, but everything was closed and no one was walking on the streets. The Christmas Market was packed up and revelers weren’t bumping into you at every turn.

I’m glad our stop in Frankfurt was on a Saturday because I think we got to experience the best of Frankfurt in those few short hours.

BOTTOM LINE: Frankfurt was a fun city to spend 24 hours, but there’s probably not much more to see after the first day. We left thinking that many Frankfurters are just giant caricatures of every German stereotype, from the food to the dress to the decorations in every store/restaurant. Although I’d make Munich or Berlin my first stop on a trip to Germany, Frankfurt has plenty of cool things to see and it was a fun surprise to experience the Christmas celebrations in a new town and country.

The post Bratwursts Galore! Sightseeing around Frankfurt, Germany first appeared on Weekend Blitz.