[Flight Report] London - Frankfurt
Heathrow has been on the news for all the wrong reasons lately with insanely-long security lines, cancelled flights, and missing baggage. These seem to persist from my arrival in the UK 2 weeks earlier. So to be safe, I arrived at Terminal 2 almost 3 hours before departure for the 1-hour hop to Frankfurt.The Queen's Terminal was busy, and there was a long line snaking out of the Lufthansa check-in counters. However, it moved reasonably quickly, which I presume is because travel in Europe is pretty much restriction-free by now. It was my turn in no time and the agent asked for my COVID-related documents for Hong Kong. She knew what to look for and for every document she called out, I pulled it out of my folder for her, but she only glossed over them.
With boarding passes on hand, the next hurdle would be security. I was lucky again, as the wait wasn't too long and I cleared to airside within a reasonable time. The horror from the news did not materialize for me, and even the gate number for my flight was not yet available because I got there so early.
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I had more than 2 hours to kill at this small terminal. I browsed around the duty-free store to see what food items I could snatch up.
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If you forgot to bring any electronic equipment, be sure to visit this vending machine near the satellite terminal exit.
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Plane spotting was all right with a good variety of European airlines, although a few international carriers were across at the satellite.
I kept an eye on FlightAware to check whether the 2 inbound flights are arriving on-time. The earlier LH 908 departed Frankfurt half an hour late, which explains why the return LH 909 was sitting at the gate and were not boarding on time.
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The inbound flight for my departure, LH 910, actually left Frankfurt on time, which was quite reassuring as LH 911 has been persistently late all week. It pulled into the next gate at 3:40pm, the earliest that week. I was very relieved. My 4:30pm departure seems feasible.
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A long line snaked out of Gate 18. It's actually an A/B gate, and the Lisbon flight next door was almost ready to board so their passengers were huddled around as well. Boarding was excessively slow, and I kept hearing one of the staff barking at passengers to force their hand carries into the hold. A few were very dissatisfied and argued, and I was worried I would meet the same fate. Worrying about Heathrow's luggage woes, I was concerned it won't make it to Hong Kong, and I would start my quarantine with virtually no supplies. Luckily, I made it through presumably because that agent was too busy arguing with the passenger to bother handling someone else.
I didn't agree with how she exhibited customer service, but I would shortly find out why she had to be that assertive.
The flight was absolutely full and I had to re-arrange the luggage rack to fit my wheeled hand-carry in. Luckily, I was at the first row in Economy as I expected to make a run for it in Frankfurt in case of any delays. Despite the lengthy boarding, the doors closed at 4:40pm and we pushed back 8 minutes later. With only a short delay, I was hopeful to make my connecting flight to Hong Kong.
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I was delighted to see BA's A380 again but mindful these birds will be less and less common going forward unless I'm at a major Emirates airport.
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I chose a left window expecting this departure route as the plane will make a 180-degree turn and I would see London as we head towards the continent.
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However, we were quite a distance south of London so I had trouble trying to spot Parliament and the City despite the beautiful weather.
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I could make out Canary Wharf. Apparently, that's Central London out there.
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It took about 20 minutes to reach the English Channel. It would take less than 10 minutes to cross it.
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I wonder if that's Antwerp in the distance? There is no IFE on board so there was no moving map to track my location. The crew handed out a bottle of water and chocolates, the same as the inbound flight.
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Then the sky got cloudier below. Just 40 minutes after take-off, the announcement came that we're 20 minutes from landing. The whole process of getting onto the plane has taken much more time than the flight itself.
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Going through the same flight's routing during the week, the prevailing winds would not likely allow me to see Frankfurt's skyline during landing as we would come in from the east.
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We landed on a far runway at 7:06pm and it was a long taxi to the terminal. With almost 2 hours to go before my next flight to Hong Kong, I was finally very relieved I made it against the odds with the earliest arrival for LH 911 into Frankfurt that week.
Lufthansa is quite unique as they operate a number of 747 jumbo jets as well as the rare A340.
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We pulled into the B pier and I took a glance at the boards upon entering the terminal that the same plane would fly back to London again shortly. My next flight would depart from pier Z, which looked near on the map but was actually a very long walk away. There was even a train ride, so any substantial delays to my first flight would easily jeopardize my connection, especially with an expected detailed documentation check before I could get on the plane thanks to Hong Kong's strict requirements.
More photos on my website : https://www.globalphotos.org/lh911.htm
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