Well, here I go again!! Another international business trip. As has been the case many times before on prior trips, I'd much prefer taking an alternate airline (Emirates, Qatar, etc.) but our corporate discount with Lufthansa wins out every time - it would appear - and their air fare is lower than the fares for any other airline. Hence, I am obliged to fly Lufthansa. It's OK, mind you, but the airline rates no higher than "satisfactory" in my humble opinion. Average service and remarkably poor food (I already suffered from what I will delicately call "the runs" as a result of last night's dinner delight! Yuk!). But, hey, at least they got me here. My flight - LH 441 - departed Houston almost on time (10 minutes late, actually) and arrived at 9:25 am local time (also ten minutes late). By 10:30 am I was on the way to my hotel room for some badly needed rest.Now I sit comfortably housed in the Sheraton Hotel adjacent to Terminal 1-B. Unlike the airline Lufthansa, Sheraton is familiar with the term "customer service". When I checked in at the front desk (10:15 am local time), the receptionist gave me an upgrade to the hotel's "Towers" wing. Nicer rooms, free meals and free Internet. Nothing like giving a tired traveler a break every now and then. Now if I can just get a GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP tonight!!!!
For dinner, I enjoyed a meal of asparagus! That's right, asparagus is in season here in Germany. So I had asparagus soup, followed by an entree consisiting of 250 grams of white asparagus accompanied by roasted bass. After this fine meal, I sampled a little DISARONNO liqueur ... mmm-mmmm good!!
The view of one of the many runways from my room at the Sheraton Hotel.Once I arrive at my destination and get a chance to rest and get caught up on my work, I will start posting again.
UPDATE (June 1): I made it through the night OK, had breakfast and now I am resting and waiting for my onward flight later this afternoon. I shall allow about one hour to check in, go through security (whihc can be time consuming nowadays) and then head up to Lufthansa's Business Class lounge. Ta ta for now ....
PS: Please leave as many comments as you can make time for. I'd really like to receive your thoughts on the current state of my blog.
2 comments:
If you fly any other airline, rate them too. I'm interested.
Love the pictures.
Rita:
Thanks for stopping by my blog!! A great request - I will comment on my 'ratings' for other airlines in an upcoming posting but here is a short review of those airlines I fly:
Continental: I like their "BusinessFirst" business class section; generally they are better than average
Lufthansa: frequently I use this airline simply because they have the lowest fare; however, I'd rate them only average in quality and service.
United: OK
Delta: very cramped business class seats led to an uncomfortable 13-hour flight from Dubai to Atlanta.
British Airways: normally very good - certainly in business class
Great Lakes Aviation: small, regional carrier; terible service; planes need frequent servicing and thus you will encounter many DELAYS! Sometimes nicknamed "Great Mistakes Airlines"!
More ratings later on ....
Traveling Chemist
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