Lufthansa Archives - asthejoeflies

Jan 30 2015

A Silly Post about my Airline Pajama Collection

This is my pile of pajamas AFTER uncluttering. And why yes, that is a CX pajama collar sticking out of my fat boy sweatshirt

My wife has been reading a new book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Normally this wouldn’t be relevant to this blog, except this book combined with being snowed in have created a state where she has been passionately cleaning out our closets for the last week. I now have three garbage bags full of clothes to donate/trash – and much to my chagrin there are a few sets of pajamas in there.

I am a person who has never bought a real set of pajamas in my life, but somehow I am also semi-obsessed with airline pajamas. Maybe it’s that they’re “free” (yeah right). Anyway, here are my impressions of the various pajama sets I have, listed in order of accrual. Oh, and did you know I’m giving away a set of Cathay pajamas and a Rimowa amenity kit? Synergy.

Lufthansa 2012

Lufthansa pajama’s are made by Van Laack. Whatever that means – Banana Republic is already above my cost threshold for clothes. The design choice is interesting – the pants are of a rougher material – almost like hospital scrubs. The shirt is of a softer material and has a collar that you can pop so you look cool.

Rockin' dat pajama top — Rockin’ dat pajama top – wow this post is silly

These pajamas will always have a special place in my heart because they were the first pair I ever got, but the shirt is starting to get pilly. I appreciated the pants because they didn’t get static-y on the plane or at home (very big for me), but they’re not “soft” and comfortable to wear around the house, though they have useful pockets!

The shirt is nice and soft and very comfortable to wear – I wear layers at home because we keep the heat low and it served as my middle layer for a long time.

American Airlines 2013

Back when my Award Booking Service was in its fledgling infancy, I helped book my friend and his family a trip to Taiwan. Since he was my buddy and I was one of his first clients, I asked for a set of AA pajamas as payment instead of my regular fees (he was flying with a 3 year old and would get an extra unwearable set anyway).

Jess came up with this brilliant idea for my AA set

The AA pajamas are actually quite comfortable – they are soft and spacious which of course I appreciate. They aren’t really that aesthetically pleasing, they kind of feel like those old Magic Eye things, and they can get kind of warm since they’re not made of cotton (polyester I think). We use the top as a pillowcase on occasion. I like to wear the pants around the house but they can definitely get static clingy, which is annoying. They also lack pockets which is unfortunate functionality wise.

Lufthansa 2014

We didn’t fly any first class flights in 2013 (thanks for nothing, M!), so the next set of pajamas I added to my collection from actually flying were from Van Laack and Lufthansa once again. The pants feel pretty much the same, while great for the plane I don’t have much use for them at home.

The shirt seems a little thicker and softer now, and thus more comfortable – so I prefer this set to the set I got in 2012. Other than that, it didn’t seem to me like too much had been updated. Moving on.

British Airways 2014

British Airways pajamas, made by Orvec, definitely receive my silver medal. They are very simple and understated – just straight blue with the BA logo and “First” on them. But pajamas don’t need to have flair – they just need to be comfortable. I find the BA pajamas have comfort in spades. They are 100% cotton, so they breathe very well, and they are just super comfortable and relaxing. They replaced AA as my “lounge around home” pants and I wear the shirt semi-regularly. Simple, classy, and comfortable. Biggest downside: no pockets

Simple and understated - a great set of pajamas — Simple and understated – a great set of pajamas

EVA Air 2014

EVA Air is special because they are one of the few airlines to offer pajamas in business class. Since they have to offer so many sets, I wasn’t expecting much, but they exceeded expectations – they even had pockets!. They weren’t amazing and are degrading fast, but they were comfortable and nice to sleep in. My two bones to pick: tons of static, probably the most of any set I own, and the medium is too tight on me haha. Well, I guess that’s my own problem.

[Photo of form fitting pajamas redacted. You’re welcome]

Cathay Pacific 2014

My favorite airline pajamas hands down are from Cathay Pacific. Made by PYE, they are 100% organic cotton and they are what I imagine real, purchased pajama sets are. They are very soft, comfortable, very little static cling, breathable – simply put they are amazing. I guess Cathay Pacific used to offer Shanghai Tang pajamas and that was a big deal – if those pajamas are better than these than hats off. Even the slippers Cathay gave out were nicer than what I had received on other airlines – they take their sleepwear seriously. And of course – pockets 🙂 Oh, and did you know I’m giving some away? What a deal!

Wow these look even better without me in them (pye.com.hk)

Final Thoughts

Free pajamas are great. Each one has a special place in my heart – I guess they are my souvenirs. It’s kinda silly and stupid to write about them, but when you’ve got pajamas on the brain, what’re you gonna do? (Jess: There are not enough garbage bags in the world to get rid of your stupid pajama collection. See above photo.)

Aug 22 2014

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…

Other Posts in this Series

Introduction

Final Preparations for the Little One

Lufthansa First Class with a Toddler

Slow Days with a Sick Toddler

Sightseeing in and around Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Observations After a Week in Germany

Climbing to AlpspiX and Neuschwanstein Castle

Zugspitze and Mittenwald

Sound of Music Bike Tour in Salzburg

Lazy Sunday in Salzburg – not

Rainy Days in Berchtesgaden

Visiting Museums and Biking in Vienna

Food in Germany and Austria

Rating the Toddler Friendliness of Our Hotels

Lufthansa First Class Terminal – Good for Toddlers?

Aug 21 2014

Bavarian Summer: Lufthansa First Class Terminal Good for Toddlers?

I was super, super tempted to slice my own prosciutto at the Lufthansa First Class Terminal

On our way home, we had the chance to stop by the Lufthansa First Class Terminal in Frankfurt. Aka the building that in its entirety is a lounge. I gotta say, I think it was a bit too overhyped. Don’t get me wrong, it’s super cool – but I personally feel it’s only marginally better than the regular Lufthansa first class lounges. It’s a neat thing to have and experience, but the first class lounges are pretty spectacular on their own. I’m going to try to stick to the toddler-related aspects of the lounge; it’s been over-covered extensively elsewhere.

We kinda walked through the employee entrance...or something — We kinda walked through the employee entrance…or something (Wikipedia)

We arrived in Frankfurt from Vienna around lunchtime and our flight wasn’t until late afternoon so we had a good couple of hours to kill. It was a good thing too because finding the lounge was a bit of a pain. First of all, not every Lufthansa agent in the terminal seemed to know where it is and we received a few different sets of directions. Eventually, we exited baggage claim and turned left. After walking for ten minutes (with a Beco’d toddler and our carry on bags), we walked through what must have been the waiting area for taxis and car services and finally reached the lounge. Some nice Lufthansa agent saw us looking pitifully at the set of stairs leading up to the main entrance and let us in to the elevator downstairs.

Upon exiting the elevator, we were met by an agent who led us through security. This was a huge help because at that point we were really losing grip of all of our bags. She also booked us a sleeping room where we immediately put M down for a nap. When she woke up, the three of us took lunch in the First Class Terminal restaurant. Apparently it’s catered by DO & CO which means something to Jess? Not to me though. There was a buffet set out but the highlight was the burrata and coppa from the “mozzarella bar” (it’s made to order). Jess was only ordering for herself but we ended up getting two orders delivered to our table.

The rest of our time at the FCT was spent trying to entertain Little M – we did this by splitting time with her, museum style. We spent a lot of time in the sleep room – that way M was contained and not too loud for everyone else. Nobody was on the waiting list so I didn’t feel bad hogging it. Jess spent some time in the lounge chairs which she said were way more fun than they looked – unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures because I was busy drinking Macallan at the bar with my daughter.

Quite possibly the funniest and most horrifying aspect of the First Class Terminal experience involved the infamous Lufthansa ducks. Little M is obsessed with water as you may have gathered from this trip report. Well she was calmly observing this nice fountain in the FCT when she was approached by a lounge attendant with a duck (her like, fourth Lufthansa duck of the trip I think). This was all well and good until the attendant was all, “Do you want to throw it in the water?” Me: “Noooooooooo!”

For the record, I did not encourage this

It was too late, the attendant had already thrown the duck in the water. After a few minutes playing with the duck in the water, the attendant left us with a child who wanted to do nothing except throw ducks into this beautiful fountain. It was super cute and also super embarrassing.

Why look at planes when you can look at buses

Anyway, overall the FCT was a great way to prepare for our flight home. M took a bath, we both showered, I drank some wine and scotch, we ate some great food, and who doesn’t want to be driven to their plane in an awesome car. In our case, said “awesome car” was a minivan.

Sweet, sweet ride. — Sweet, sweet ride to our plane.

Final Thoughts

The Lufthansa First Class Terminal is a pretty cool place, once you can find it. I wouldn’t say it’s toddler friendly, but I wouldn’t say it’s a bad place for toddlers either if your toddler is relatively well behaved. There is enough to distract them (not including the fountain) and if you can score a sleeping room it’s great for a nap. I’m glad I went, and I’d go back if I’m ever in Frankfurt on LH F, but I don’t think I’d reroute just to visit the FCT in the future – Lufthansa’s regular first class lounges are good enough. A gummy bear is a gummy bear in any terminal!

Other Posts in this Series

Introduction

Final Preparations for the Little One

Lufthansa First Class with a Toddler

Slow Days with a Sick Toddler

Sightseeing in and around Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Observations After a Week in Germany

Climbing to AlpspiX and Neuschwanstein Castle

Zugspitze and Mittenwald

Sound of Music Bike Tour in Salzburg

Lazy Sunday in Salzburg – not

Rainy Days in Berchtesgaden

Visiting Museums and Biking in Vienna

Food in Germany and Austria

Rating the Toddler Friendliness of Our Hotels

Lufthansa First Class Terminal – Good for Toddlers?

Aug 11 2014

Amenity Kit Repurposing for Parents

Lufthansa's current first class amenity kit bag can double as a tablet holder — Lufthansa’s current first class amenity kit bag can double as a tablet holder

Here’s something pretty clever my wife came up with that I’m sure others have thought of. Yesterday, we somehow left the house and drove half an hour before we realized we had completely forgotten our diaper bag. Oops. Luckily we were with friends who lent us some diapers, but that’s a situation we didn’t want to be caught in again.

The stuff inside doesn't really matter too much — The stuff inside doesn’t really matter too much

We decided to leave “emergency” diaper bags in our cars – but the question was what to put them in? Well, our recent trip to Europe has left us with four amenity kits and four sets of pajamas, each with bags. If you travel international business class a lot, these amenity kits start piling up. I’d turn them away but I find I always need one thing on them (usually that I forgot). Like this time, I forgot my toothbrush so the amenity kit came in handy.

Why not make the amenity kit useful? Diapers and wipes go in... — Why not make the amenity kit useful? Diapers and wipes go in…

Anyway, I guess even Lufthansa has figured out that these amenity kits can be wasteful. They told us our kit could double as a tablet case, which is true. More importantly, there was a smaller bag inside that is perfectly sized to be an emergency diaper bag. So we took one of the amenity kits, the bag that held Jess’ pajamas and the bag that held mine, and made three emergency diaper bags! One for each of our cars and a spare, two diapers and some wipes in each.

Pretty simple, but this is the most use we’ve gotten out of an amenity kit for a long time. Between this and letting Little M play with them (she likes to take everything out and put it back in), amenity kits are definitely on the upswing in this household!

Anyone else have alternate uses for amenity kits?

Jul 11 2014

Bavarian Summer: Lufthansa First Class with a Toddler

I’ve just woken up from sleeping for sixteen hours straight, give or take. You’d think that would indicate that our transatlantic flight with Little M was a disaster, but really it was quite the opposite. I think I’m just exhausted from the time change and life in general – so was M by the way I think she slept for 15 hours last night (and she’s sleeping next to me as I type this so she’s about to catch up).

Air Canada Business Class Regional Flight — Air Canada Regional Flight

Our day started with a short business class regional flight on Air Canada to Toronto. I wasn’t planning on writing about it (flight was smooth, we preoccupied M by feeding her lunch, and the cabin had extra space so she got her own seat for half the flight), but there were two things of note besides that long parenthetical.

Air Canada IFE — On demand IFE for a one hour flight – not bad

First of all, security at Boston Logan for Air Canada amuses me. I mean it’s totally up to regular TSA standards so it’s not unsafe or anything, but Air Canada has three gates and its own little wing, so security is just like one checkpoint. The funny thing was, I was selected for TSA Precheck, but had just assumed that I wasn’t going to get any of the benefits. It turns out at that gate they give you a little slip of paper that says TSA Pre on it and you hand it to the guy on the other side of the metal detector without having to take off your shoes. But I still had to take my laptop out and all that so…thanks?

Secondly, it’s always interesting to me how airlines from different countries deal with lap infants. The one universal rule we’ve encountered thus far is no infants in carriers (bjorns, becos, k’tans, whatever). Other than that, everyone has their own policy. On US Airlines, keep them on your lap facing forward for takeoff and landing. On Air Canada we were told to hold M in a burping position (which they called the brace position) for takeoff/landing/turbulence, and on the European carriers we’ve flown we always get that extra seatbelt attachment (her least favorite).

Air Canada lounge Toronto — Jess and M in the Air Canada lounge, Toronto

Anyhoo. We landed in Toronto and spent some time in the Air Canada lounge in the international wing. There is also an American Express lounge in Toronto but I didn’t get to check it out because I was on daddy duty, which was composed of walking around the terminal pushing M for an hour and half to squeeze out fifteen minutes of naptime. Airports = overstimulation. They at least had the World Cup semifinal game on so I was paying attention to that.

Boarding was smooth and my hopes and dreams were realized – it was a Cheung-only first class cabin. My parents, my wife, my daughter, and me. SWEET! The first class attendant introduced herself (Katherine I think) and gave us the run of the cabin. It was a great relief not to have to worry about disturbing others, though it wouldn’t have been an issue in the end.

Lufthansa first class cabin — The entire cabin was ours!

The great thing about being in first class with a toddler is the SPACE. We spent 45 minutes on the ground but I didn’t even notice because M was running around exploring everything from the ottoman to the buttons to the remote control – and that’s before the flight attendant gave her some toys and coloring books to play with. Jess and I managed to sneak in two glasses of (excellent) champagne in during all the commotion, M didn’t even notice except when she wanted to do “cheers” with us. Oh it was at this point our Dutch captain began informing us of the score in the game – unfortunately 30 minutes into the flight he told us that his Dutch team had lost – poor guy.

Sippin' that Grand Sicele — Sippin’ that Grand Sicele

M wasn’t a huge fan of the aforementioned baby belt and was squirmy during take-off, but that wasn’t a major issue. We then decided to take dinner separately so one person could watch M at a time. I ate first, starting with some caviar (which generally is lost on me), then a trio of appetizers (ginger prawns, pork tenderloin, and salad), and culminating in my beef tenderloin entree. I’ve heard complaints about Lufthansa catering but this was my third first class flight with them and I’ve always enjoyed the food. In the meantime, Jess tried to feed M the food that we had brought with mixed success. She also ate some pretzel bread but turned down most of the airplane food.

Jess and M came to visit me during my meal

Once I was done, I asked the flight attendant to hold off on dessert so Jess and I could eat that together and I took over M duty. The four of us were all on the right side of the cabin (so we shared access to the same aisle), Jess moved over to the left side to eat while I put M to bed. In first class this was so straightforward it almost seemed like a joke.

It was pretty straightforward putting her to sleep on the first class "bed" — It was pretty straightforward putting her to sleep on the first class “bed”

As always in Lufthansa first, the flight attendants make your bed when you ask so I asked them to make Jess’ seat into a bed for M. After that, I just laid down with her for a little while, read a book, hummed some tunes and patted her until she was down. At that point I moved back to my seat and ate dessert with Jess while finishing CAPTAIN AMERICA THE WINTER SOLDIER which is the movie I had been hoping was available on the plane. Yes!

Dessert was excellent, I had a strawberry gazpacho with sorbet, Jess had the cheese plate, and we each got a chocolate cake with ice cream. That’s about all I have to say about that! At that point Jess got her bed made and went to sleep while I finished my movie. I went to sleep with about four hours left in the flight, but M started crying half an hour later.

Dessert. Yum. Um, sorry, I half ate one before I took the picture... — Dessert. Yum. Um, sorry, I half ate one before I took the picture…

She likely would have settled herself like she does at home, but just in case she was disturbing anyone in the cabin behind us, I moved over to her bed and she settled down pretty quickly. She had another little “sleep adjustment” two hours later, but other than that she slept very soundly for about five hours on the flight.

The one negative thing about the flight is that it was incredibly dry, not that Lufthansa really had any control over that. That really exacerbated M’s cough and she was coughing/wheezing in my ear all night. So lying next to her my ability to sleep was greatly impeded and I only caught about an hour of solid rest.

When breakfast service started M woke herself up so the three of us ate together, though I was exhausted at this point. Before we knew it we were on the ground in Munich. M pretty much held it together even though we were walking through the terminal (with her awake) at around 1 AM home time. I needed some rest before picking up the car so we spent half an hour in Munich’s Lufthansa First Class lounge, where we also had our passports processed (a nice perk).

We didn't need to give M her first "present" until an hour before landing — We didn’t need to give M her first “present” until an hour before landing

After a two hour drive to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, we checked into our huge house, grabbed a quick lunch, and then I don’t know what happened because I fell asleep for sixteen hours straight – ten of those next to M. We decided to sleep with her to help her with the jetlag and also to monitor her cough. I thought she was over jetlag because she woke up normal time but since she’s passed out again I’m not so sure. I guess we’ll find out.

Looks like we’re in for five straight days of rain – yikes. Hopefully we find something to do!

Final Thoughts

Our Lufthansa first class flight with M went better than expected. She enjoyed all the space and having such a small cabin really allowed the flight attendants to give us the help we needed. Having a lie flat bed for her to sleep on made a huge difference as well. Best of all, Jess and I even got to enjoy ourselves a little bit. Hopefully M gets over her illness and starts enjoying Germany soon!

P.S. – We ended up ditching the “drag car seat through terminal” contraption and putting the car seat in this $15 carrying bag we got. We threw some extra clothes and supplies into the bag and checked it in. Worked out great!

Other Posts in this Series

Introduction

Final Preparations for the Little One

Lufthansa First Class with a Toddler

Slow Days with a Sick Toddler

Sightseeing in and around Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Observations After a Week in Germany

Climbing to AlpspiX and Neuschwanstein Castle

Zugspitze and Mittenwald

Sound of Music Bike Tour in Salzburg

Lazy Sunday in Salzburg – not

Rainy Days in Berchtesgaden