Bavarian Summer: A Seat, a Bed, and a Toddler - and The End!

The Lufthansa 747-400 features a full bed in first class

Ahhh…the best part of writing trip reports is the last entry. Originally we were scheduled to take a similar flight to our outbound so I wasn’t going to write about it. However, we ended up taking Lufthansa’s 747-400 first class product – aka a seat AND a bed. I figured anyone who was thinking of taking an infant or toddler in LH F might want to see how that impacted things. So let’s finish this!

A view I don't get very often — A view I don’t get very often

After our time in the First Class Terminal, we were driven in a minivan to our plane. People get driven in all sorts of cool cars from the FCT to their plane – Porsches, Benzes, and GRAND CARAVANS. I found it pretty amusing, hopefully the dude who shared the car with us did too (he was really nice). We were dropped off at the bottom of the plane which was pretty cool – 747s are big mamma jammas.

This could be a long flight... — This could be a long flight…

I think Jess’ exclamation, “We’re flying upstairs!?” summed it up. While being in the nose of the plane would have been cool, it was pretty neat to walk up the stairs to the first class cabin in the “hump” of the plane – I’m not sure I’ve ever been up there myself. The first class cabin consists of four rows of two seats each, we chose the last two seats in an effort to minimize bothering others. The cabin ended up being full due to some weather issues in Frankfurt the day before, so I was a bit nervous as we got ready to take off.

For once M was cool with taking off with me instead of mom

It turns out it was silly for me to be nervous, for a couple of reasons. First of all – the cabin had SO much stuff for Little M to play with that she just had a great time for the majority of the flight. Opening drawers, closing drawers, putting stickers on the armrests, putting headphones on, putting headphones on me, and best of all – playing on the separate bed.

Nothing like a pretzel and some first class butter

Having a separate bed with a lap/infant is pretty clutch. What that meant was she could lay out all her toys on the bed and just PLAY. Yes, she’d run back and forth between Jess and my seat, but for the most part she didn’t have to be sitting on us, climbing on us, or any of that.

When she fell asleep, we just lay her down there and could still sit next to her and keep an eye out. The seat itself doesn’t recline to fully flat so parent and child can’t both sleep fully flat at once, but it was a daytime flight anyway. The biggest issue was that there was way too much for her to play with – she was completely overstimulated throughout the whole flight. That meant it was pretty tough to get her down for a nap.

Being able to sit on the bed together opens up a lot of options in terms of space for the toddler

Eventually, after Jess tried in vain for over an hour to get her to sleep, I just took M into the lavatory until she passed out. There was about 5 minutes of intense crying there, but thankfully all the other passengers in the first class cabin were awake (and the noise cancelling headphones + bathroom door did a lot, Jess said M was tough to hear with all of those barriers).

We once again survived the first class flight by dividing and conquering. Jess would watch M while I ate, then we’d switch, and the same if anyone wanted to watch a movie. We both managed to get through one movie on the seven hour flight, haha. We also used up almost every single “present” we had wrapped in “the bag” – the nice thing about the return journey is you don’t have to save any of your tricks!

Nothing like a little overstimulation on a 7 hour flight

All in all, I’d say having a seat and a bed is pretty awesome – especially if you have a lap child in tow. I realize that this isn’t something that people have the chance to do often, but if you are considering Lufthansa First Class with a lap infant, I definitely think the 747-400 product is better than the other new first class products. You just can’t beat that kind of space.

Final Thoughts

We had an amazing trip to Germany and Austria this summer. We climbed mountains, sang the Sound of Music, and ate some amazing food. In terms of summer trips, this one ranks high up on the list. If you’re thinking of visiting Germany, I say do it. For some reason it doesn’t get the press of Italy or France, but it’s a lovely country and we had an amazing time. Thanks for following along! Until the next trip…