To be honest, I was less excited to fly business class on Lufthansa’s A350 the day of than when I initially booked it. That’s because when I made the booking, all I knew was that the A350 was new for Lufthansa and I assumed that meant a newer business class product as well. Well, I assumed incorrectly. Lufthansa installed the same 2-2-2 across seats that they have on the rest of their aircraft. This meant I actually would’ve been in slightly more spacious seats if I’d booked on either a 747 or A380 aircraft, but a less optimal booking is sometimes the cost of taking advantage of good fares. I would still be on a brand new aircraft, and with a whopping 48 seats I figured I might have a fair chance at getting an empty seat next to me. I actually ended up being wrong there too, because a couple months ahead of my flight, the seat next to me was already taken and the cabin was more than half full. I moved myself to the very last row of the plane, knowing that passengers tend to assign their seats from front to back. But a couple weeks out the cabin filled up entirely, so I resigned myself to having a seatmate. Having spent so much time in economy though, that’s far from a deal breaker for me.

As someone on the slimmer side, I found Lufthansa’s seat to be plenty spacious enough. Some of the other passengers were significantly more hefty, and I noticed that they filled up the entire width so that’s something to be mindful. The seat and the paneling is in a really drab gray color, which is only punctuated by a clean white headcloth with the golden Lufthansa logo. A large and colorful pillow was waiting at each seat, but that’s the only one you get. The blanket is wrapped in plastic and was warm enough. Note that this means you’ll be sleeping directly on the seat, since there’s no sort of bedsheet. That didn’t bother me at all, though. The inflight screen was pretty large for the size of the seat, and is situated right in front of each passenger. There’s a pretty tight ottoman to the right of my screen, but both my feet fit there. There was space below it for my backpack, which I appreciated as there was no other storage space for it. The pouch with the inflight magazines and a small drawer below that is really the only storage space the seat gets. On a daytime flight, I can imagine how this would make it hard to be productive and organize everything you need to work properly. Overall, it didn’t make a great first impression and it’s still the least comfortable lie flat business class product that I’ve tried so far. 

Since I was one of the last to board after taking pictures of the empty lounge in Boston, I was welcomed onboard pretty early and offered an amenity kit and pre-departure beverage. I selected champagne as always, and sipped away as we waited to start taxiing. Our departure had originally been delayed until 10 p.m., then 10:30 as the aircraft took off late from Munich because of a snowstorm there. However, that meant that enough snow had fallen that our aircraft had to be de-iced. And since our delay put our departure later than the SWISS, Turkish, Emirates and Qatar aircraft, we had to wait behind them for de-icing. So my pre-departure beverage turned into a second. And a third… I took the chance to browse the menu as well and decide what I wanted in advance, since I always try to be an “easy” passenger on full flights like this. An hour later we finally started getting doused by de-icing fluid and I finished my last glass of champagne, to get ready for takeoff. Our aircraft had other ideas, however. Just as the pilot announced the end of the de-icing process, the A350 lost electrical power. We sat in the dark, and the pilot instead announced that we’d have to wait until power was restored, and then de-ice again because we would have been waiting for too long. Seeing as the lights were out, I reclined my seat and passed out instantly. Our takeoff roll out of Boston woke me up, and I checked my watch on the way out. We hadn’t managed to leave until nearly 1 a.m., a delay of nearly 4 and a half hours. 

As you’d expect on such a short transatlantic hop, flight attendants came around to take dinner orders as soon as the fasten seatbelt sign was off. Because the delay had stretched on for so long, the cabin was dark and nearly all the other passengers were asleep. I was tempted to just fall asleep myself, but I wanted to experience the meal service and wrap up the movie that I’d started on the ground. Because of the sleeping passengers I got my first pick of main as the crabcakes, which I’d taken a risk on by sitting in the back. My FA even remarked that that was their most popular main, and they’d probably be out if more of the passengers had decided to dine after takeoff. Some cashews, water, and another glass of champagne was brought out while the rest of the meal prepared, and I downed these pretty quickly. Enough time had passed that I was hungry again, even after the Chinese New Year’s banquet at my friend’s place. When the food did come, it was all at once. Bread also came from a basket, and I slathered it in the butter provided. The appetizer was polenta with salad mix and dressing, which was nice and healthy. I also really enjoyed the crabcakes, since they came out hot and crispy and tasted pretty strongly of crab. The bok choy and the rest of the vegetables were overcooked, but not to the point of being inedible. The pasta and cream sauce were delicious as well, and I was glad I’d stayed up to enjoy it. I chose the Riesling on offer to go with my meal, and it paired perfectly with the pasta and crab. I was tired enough that I skipped cheese and dessert to sleep, though.

I slept all the way until an hour before landing, which is about the most possible. That ended up being about 4 and a half hours, which I was more than happy with. Historically, I’d rarely got any continuous sleep on eastbound transatlantic flights in economy, so this was a huge improvement. I requested breakfast from the first crew member that passed me after I woke up, and left to freshen up in the bathroom while it was prepared. I also took the opportunity to take a picture of the amenity kit provided, a pretty dinky zip-up pouch that I only kept for the memory and not utility. There wasn’t anything remarkable about the lavatories that I saw. Now that it was daylight outside, I took a couple pictures of the seat in bed mode before returning it upright to eat. To be honest, it looks like a glorified ironing board to me. I think I’d still be able to sleep well in it if the cabin is quiet, but this time I’m not sure if I was just so tired that nothing would have woken me up. You could also recline the seat to various degrees if you wanted, so it was easy to lounge. It’s still one of the most exposed seats I’ve ever seen, though. In the last picture of this section, you can even see that my seatmate’s forearm barely fits on his half of the center barrier. 

Breakfast was pretty quick to come after that. There’s no options to customize it, probably because they have to serve so many passengers in such a short time. One of the upticks here is that Lufthansa has fresh, pulpy orange juice. That’s much more refreshing and helps a lot more to wake up than storebought brands, in my opinion. However, my flight attendant lost his balance a bit when handing it to me and some of it sloshed onto my left pantleg. He smiled and apologized, but then… left. I cleaned up the mess with my napkin and wasn’t too bothered, but he could’ve been a lot less lucky with a more critical customer. I got the dark coffee as well to help wake up, but it was too strong and I didn’t end up finishing it. As far as food goes, there was a cold loaf of bread, a small tin with cheese and salami, and a small bowl of fresh fruit alongside a larger bowl of muesli. I definitely wish there was a hot option, but I understand why there isn’t. It was late enough to already be morning in Boston’s time zone, so I was hungry again and finished everything. There was only about a half hour left of flight time after I finished, so I just flipped to the airshow and watched that and the window views until we landed in Munich, about 4 hours later than scheduled. Deplaning and customs were quick when I landed, and I was off to the Munich city center by 2 p.m., just 20 minutes after touchdown.

My initial impression of the seat and product were disappointing, since Lufthansa chose such a cramped and old business class product to install on such a new plane. The cascading de-icing delays also didn’t help, although these are out of Lufthansa’s control. I was a bit miffed to miss most of my day in Munich, but passengers who misconnected their noon flights to India or the Middle East were going on tirades before landing about how they’d be forced to spend the night in Munich now. So, I guess things could have certainly been worse for me. Over the course of the flight though, I came to appreciate the product more. This was bolstered by the meal services, both of which were great except for the snafu of spilled juice. And that’s something that I assume is just a one-off. I also slept the maximum amount possible on this flight, despite the seat not looking that comfortable in bed mode. Lufthansa’s A350 had the worst hard product out of any lie flat seats I’ve flown, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to avoid it in the future and there are other business class flights that I’ve gotten far less sleep on. The food was also well chosen and executed, and I’d put both the dinner and breakfast in the middle of the pack as far as inflight business class meals go. Should Lufthansa’s business class be a bucket list item? Absolutely not. But it’s not worth a layover and hundreds of dollars more to fly another airline, if they provide the most direct or cheapest routing for you. Just bring your own seatmate with you for best results, as you’ll be in close quarters together!