Lufthansa Amsterdam-Frankfurt, Senator's Lounge Frankfurt and Lufthansa Frankfurt - Dulles (747-400)

Dulles Lounges and United Washington Dulles - London Heathrow
London Day One
London Day Two
London Day Three
London Day Four
Overnight Ferry London - Amsterdam
Amsterdam Day One
Amsterdam Day Two
Lufthansa Amsterdam-Frankfurt/Senator's Lounge Frankfurt/Lufthansa Frankfurt - Dulles

It was an early morning for us on our last day as we got ready to head back to the states. Our plane left Amsterdam's Schiphol airport at 9:00 am and we left our hotel around 6:45 so that we could check out of the hotel and head to the train station.

There is an airport shuttle from the hotel that is available for around €25 per person, but you can easily take the train from the Centraal station for €6 each and it only takes 20 min.

So, after checking out of our hotel and walked to Dam Square where we picked up the tram to the Centraal Station which took about 5 min. After getting off we proceeded into the station and went to buy a ticket for the train when someone saw our suitcases and asked if we were headed to Schiphol. We said yes and she handed us two tickets, apparently someone had left them in the machine. So...to the lady who gave us the free tickets, thank you! To the people who forgot their tickets, I hope you made it to the airport alright! If you don't have quite our luck with the tickets, remember that you need to have cash for the automatic ticket machines because they do not accept American style credit cards, only "chip and pin" cards.

The Schiphol stop is the third stop on the train and the announcer on our train made sure to announce the stop twice in English in addition to Dutch to make sure to help travelers who need to get off for the airport.

We left the train and headed up the escalators into the huge arrivals hall and looked for our flight. It's key to figure out which terminal your flight is leaving from because if you go to the wrong terminal you will have a long walk back to the correct terminal. We found our flight to Frankfurt and headed to the Lufthansa check-in desk. We were immediately helped at the First/Business check-in desk and our bags were checked all the way through to Dulles and the agent handed us our boarding passes. From there we headed to the premium security line, which seemed to be moving just as fast as the regular line. But I think that was mainly due to the guy in front of me who was trying to sneak through a full rod and reel fishing pole with fishing wire in tact. The supervisor advised him it wasn't allowed and he was having none of it and made sure to hold us up in the process.

After finally getting past the angler and his rod/reel we headed into the departures lounge area which has all of the Duty Free shopping. This is generally where you can wait until your gate is announced, it will be in one of the terminals that stems off the main waiting area and most are a 10-15 min walk from the departures lounge, so make sure you leave time once your gate opens. We decided to see what food was available in the Lufthansa lounge. Unfortunately the lounge in Amsterdam is a contract lounge with the other StarAlliance airlines and a few smaller airlines. To find the lounge you have to make a U-Turn after going through security and head up the escalators and it will be hidden away on the left hand side.

The lounge was large in size, but the offerings were very small. Just a few pastries and coffee/tea. But, it hit the spot for a quick breakfast before flying. I was trying to save my appetite for the Senators Lounge in Frankfurt as well as the flight back to Dulles.

Breakfast Offerings 

Amsterdam Lounge

Food/Drink Offerings 

After catching up on the news from the states on CNN in the lounge (You can't avoid it when you are two news/politics junkies from DC). We started our 15 min walk over to the B Terminal for our flight to Frankfurt. The inbound aircraft was a bit late in arriving so we were late to board, but once it started it was quick and efficient. The aircraft was an Airbus A320 and we were seated in Business Class in seats 2D and 2F. For Business Class seats on intra-Europe flights the middle seat is simply blocked off and not used. But, I ended up sitting there on the descent just to see as we headed for landing. The flight was a quick 45 min hop just right above the clouds. The service was really really nice, the flight attendants served us a light breakfast and drinks quickly in those 45 min and were very nice. We landed at Frankfurt and had a really long taxi to the gate.

We got off the plane and found that our flight to Dulles was leaving from Terminal Z and we landed in Terminal A. We followed the signs to Terminal Z and had to clear a form of immigration before being allowed to transfer into the new Terminal. It took literally two seconds with the immigration officer and we both had a fresh new stamp in our passport!

Once in Terminal Z we found the sign to the Senator's Lounge and made a direct line for it.

Lufthansa Display in the Terminal 

Senator/Business Lounge Frankfurt 

We were quickly admitted to the Senator Lounge and headed up the staircase to the main area. This lounge is HUGE but it was mostly full with passengers which made it a bit difficult to find a space to sit down. The lounge has a lot of comfortable arm chairs and a couple sets of high tables. There also appears to be a business center (the lounge has wi-fi as well) as well as showers if you should need them.

The best part, in my opinion, was the food offerings! There were a ton of little snacks and a few hot items. I made sure to take advantage of the hot dog and sauerkraut option and a nice Octoberfest beer. I figured it would be the closest I would get to Octoberfest for now, so why not!

Sorry...forgot to take a picture before eating :)

Kelsey enjoying the lounge

I of course had the plane spotting view!

 We enjoyed the lounge for about an hour before our it was time to head to our 1:00 pm flight back to Dulles. I managed to take a few pictures of the lounge on the way out.

Set of Showers

Food/Beverage Area

High Tables 

Had to take a picture of two A380s 

The flight from Frankfurt to Dulles has been, for the most part, switched to the brand new Boeing 747-8 and that was the main reason that I wanted to fly this route so that I could try out the new Lufthansa Business Class product. We were not lucky in this case because we got the one day of the week where they were flying the older 747-400. The difference, as you probably know, is that on the 747-400 the Business Class is on the bottom deck, but it is reversed on the 747-8. But, I was still happy to be flying the 747 in any form because it meant that I would get to fly in the nose of the plane!!! I have always been fascinated by the 747 and the bubble. My dad is the third generation in his family to work for the Boeing company so I have always been around Boeing planes and known their specifics to talk about with my dad and grandfather. So I was really excited that I would get to brag about riding in the nose of the 747 after this ride.

The boarding area was PACKED and you could tell how full this bird was going to be for the crossing. Everyone started to line up on both sides of the boarding area and there were no less than six boarding agents to get us on the plane. The gate was equipped with the new self-boarding systems along with separate lines for the First/Business Class passengers and Economy passengers, but the gate agents used neither. First/Business was called through the Economy gate and we made our slow one-by-one progress through the one gate agent processing boarding passes. The guy in front of us had some problem with his boarding pass and proceeded to yell at the gate agent and slam his bag on the floor in frustration...needless to say I don't know if he actually made it on that flight as I didn't see him again.

We passed through the boarding gate and got on an escalator down to gate level and took a left to door 1L where we boarded and took a left to find seats 2H and 2K. The seats were the old Business Class seats which are the angled lie flat version, but they are really really old....for most of the flight we had trouble getting them to actually move to where we wanted them to move.

Boarding was completed slowly, but we didn't mind and were offered champaign, orange juice or water for the wait. I gladly accepted some champaign and got settled in.

Kelsey settling in to our seat

Nose of the plane and seats in row 1

Pre-Flight Champaign

Actually Quite a Bit of Leg Room

 Once we were airborne the service started with more wine/drinks and a package of spiced walnuts. Kelsey selected the Sauvignon Blanc while I selected the Riesling. I made sure to sample both, for science and review purposes of course, and the Sauvignon Blanc was sweet at the beginning with a nice dry finish. The Riesling was sweet all the way through with hints of blackberries and strawberries. It was very delicious.

The menu was had quite a few selections and I ended up going with the Beef Salad, the Chicken Leg, and the Cheese Plate. Kelsey went with the Beef Salad, the Ravioli, and the Curd Mousse.

The beef salad was interesting, I wasn't expecting it to be cold, but after a few bites I got used to the flavor, but I don't think that I would go out of my way to order it again. The chicken on the other hand was brilliant. It was full of great "satay style" flavors and the vegetables were cooked perfectly and paired all together with the rice. I wish I could have had another portion of this and I would go out of my way to order it again. The cheese plate was very fresh and had an interesting sun-dried tomato pesto on the side.

Kelsey hated the beef salad but she said that her ravioli and curd mousse were very very good. The stewards in our cabin just kept coming by with more courses, bread baskets and wine so we were very full by the end of the service.  

Walnuts and Wine 

Menu

Champaign On Offer 

White Wine Pt. 1 

White Wine Pt. 2

Red Wine Pt. 1

Red Wine Pt. 2 

Beef Salad 

Chicken "Satay Style" 

Ravioli 

Cheese Plate and F

Curd Mousse 

 The flight was very bumpy for the whole crossing. The seat-belt sign was on for about 4 or 5 hours of the 8 hour flight so that made it a bit worse for the comfort level, but that's to be expected every once and a while. But those old Lufthansa seats are just not that comfortable. As I mentioned earlier they would struggle to get into the desired reclining position and when you wanted to put it into a recline mode it was very weird that it went up in the air almost to get to the recline position. I put it into the angled-flat position for a bit to try and sleep, but I kept sliding down so I just decided to watch movies and tv instead.

The United flight with the full lie flat seats and great entertainment options really spoiled us at the beginning of the trip and I was sad to see that the Lufthansa flight was a bit worse in comparison. But, the service of the Lufthansa crew was absolutely second to none and made up for all of the shortcomings. I would love the opportunity to fly the new Business Class product, or dare I say First Class sometime in the future.

Just before landing a snack was offered and both Kelsey and I got the Breaded Chicken with Potato Salad and Lingonberries, it was also served with a Tomato and Cream Cheese Tartare with Pumpkin Seeds and Linzer Tart with whipped cream. The chicken was cold, but paired with the potato salad and lingonberries it was delicious. The tomato and cream cheese tartare with pumpkin seeds was horrible in my opinion, it just tasted off, but others on the plane seemed to enjoy it so it might have just been me. The linzer tart was a perfect sweet finish to our long adventure.

Snack Menu

Snack

We landed at Dulles and got into the huge immigration line, but it was all made better by the nice immigration officer who said "Welcome Back Home" and we were off to catch the Metro and rest up from our amazing adventure.