The Details

• Flight: LH415
• Aircraft: A340-600
• Class: Business
• Seat: 3K
• Route: Washington Dulles (IAD)-Munich (MUC)
• Distance: 4,361miles
• Duration: 8hrs 2min
• Departure: 10:56PM
• Arrival: 12:58PM (+1)

The Preflight

After arriving from Indianapolis onboard the United Express E175, I had a seven-hour layover in Washington Dulles. This would give me more than enough time to visit the United Polaris Lounge as well as the Lufthansa Senator Lounge prior to my flight.

The United Polaris Lounge is located adjacent to gate C18 which was just four gates away from my arrival gate.

Upon walking into the lounge, there was a large amount of private sofas with dining tables along the wall. In the room immediately to the right there were more sofas and seating.

Further into the lounge was the centerpiece, a large elegant bar with a Polaris-shaped sofa in the middle.

Past the bar was a large dining room as well as the buffet room.

The hot buffet food options included rice, bread, roasted vegetables, noodles, roasted chicken, and two soups.

Cold buffet items included assorted wraps, vegetables with dips, salad, charcuterie, cookies, pudding, pound cake, and fruit.

Along the windows were more sofas and dining tables.

The highlight of Polaris Lounges is the dining rooms with a la carte food.

To start, I enjoyed a ginger gin cocktail with my appetizer of bacon-wrapped shrimp.

For my main, I went with an overcooked octopus served over a best of potatoes. This dish was pretty disappointing. However, the decadent chocolate chip skillet cookie with vanilla ice cream made up for it.

There was also self-serve coffee, water, soda, and iced tea available.

After dinner, I did take advantage of the shower rooms in the Polaris Lounge. Each suite had a nice rain shower head with good water pressure. Amenities included Sunday Riley shampoo, conditioner, and body wash.

After spending the majority of my afternoon and evening in the Polaris Lounge, I took the Aerotrain rail from Terminal C to A and then walked over to the Lufthansa Lounge in Terminal B near gate B51.

While the business lounge was on the lower level without window views, the Senator Lounge was on the main floor with large glass windows overlooking the apron. Immediately upon entering the Senator lounge was the small buffet and a roped-off dining area for first-class passengers. There were a few stools along the window. The next room was a large square space filled with comfortable sofas.

I actually thought the food options in the Lufthansa Lounge appeared much nicer than the options in the United Polaris Lounge. There were a few wraps and sandwiches, two salads, chocolate pudding,

There were also a few snacks including cheese, bread, grapes, olives, and a coffee machine. Next to the buffet was a small staffed bar with on-tap beer and an assortment of medium-shelf liquor and wines.

The one perk of the Lufthansa Lounge is that it has the ability to allow passengers to board directly from the lounge. This allowed us to avoid the mass of passengers boarding the economy cabin. Boarding began at 10:14PM, 14 minutes late. The A340-600, registration D-AIHP, was one of 10 active A340-600s currently flying for Lfuthnasa. Delivered in November 2006, she was almost 17 years old.

First-class and business-class passengers boarded via door 1L while economy passengers boarded via door 2L.

The Flight

This version of the Lufthansa A340-600 had a total of 56 business-class seats arranged in a 2-2-2 configuration across two cabins. I was seated in 3K, the window bulkhead seat in the very first row of business class. Initially, there was a person seated in aisle seat 3H but his seat was broken so he was moved to another seat. This opened up the entire “row” for me ensuring I technically had direct aisle access.

The Lufthansa business class seats are modified Collins Aerospace (formerly B/E Aerospace) Parallel Diamond seats which go 180 degrees lie-flat. Each seat was 20 inches wide and had 64″ of pitch.

I was seated in the bulkhead row directly behind the First-class cabin.

There was an 11.7″ HD touchscreen as well as a small footwell beneath the screen.

In between the two-seat footwells were a literature pocket as well as a small storage bin.

The seat controls were located in the center armrest along with a small flat space for drinks. Unfortunately, my seat cushion firmness button was broken.

Underneath the armrest was a small IFE remote and tray table.

The bi-fold tray tablet was very sturdy.

Under the armrest were two USB ports. In addition, each passenger had an individual 110V outlet.

The other armrest was adjustable and could be fully lowered. There was an additional storage bin where there was a headphone locked to the seat.

Each passenger was provided a thick blanket as well as a pillow for sleeping. Unfortunately, Lufthansa does not offer mattress pads.

The headphones locked to the seat were pretty poorly quality and uncomfortable on the ears after a few hours. A small amenity bag was also provided which included lotion, lip balm, toothbrush, toothpaste, and socks.

Each passenger was also provided with a bottle of water. A pre-departure beverage service was also offered of sparkling wine or water.

Food and wine menus were also distributed prior to departure.

Boarding was quick, lasting just under 30 minutes. We pushed back at 10:41PM and took off at 10:57PM.

Service began just 15 minutes after take-off with warm towels. Fifteen minutes after that, a small ramekin of cold nuts and drinks were served. I went with a glass of the excellent Lanson champagne.

Because this was a late-night flight (departing after 8PM), dinner was served on a single tray. Normally, Lufthansa offers both an appetizer and a small salad for the dinner service but on late-night flights, a larger salad is the only option. The normal warm bread basket was also absent, in its place a single cold piece of bread. For the main course, I had ginger glazed salmon and Asian vegetables which was very tasty. The salmon was cooked perfectly.

For dessert, I went with the tiny cheese plate served with Ritz crackers.

My plates were cleared quickly after finishing within an hour and fifteen minutes from take-off (around midnight). I flattened out my bed and tried to get some sleep. Unfortunately, because the firmness button was broken, this flight was the most uncomfortable I have ever been in a business class lie-flat seat. I could feel each individual metal rod underneath the seat cushion which made both side-sleeping and lying supine unpleasant. I tossed and turned for a few hours, drifting in-an-out of sleep given how exhausted I was but definitely did not wake-up feeling rested.

There were a total of three business-class lavatories onboard in the middle of the aircraft. Each lavatory was well stocked with additional amenities including mouth wash, hair combs, shaving kit, eye masks, and ear plugs.

A disappointing breakfast was served 90 minutes prior to landing. The only option was a cold coconut chia pudding which was identical to a previous Lufthansa breakfast I had in February 2022 (almost two years ago). There was a side of not the freshest fruit and a cold slice of sourdough bread.

The cabin was prepped for landing about 30 minutes out. We had some great views of the Bavarian countryside on our approach to Munich.

We landed at 12:58PM and arrived at the gate just four minutes later.

All in all, this was a fairly disappointing business-class flight with Lufthansa. I enjoyed the novelty of flying onboard the A340-600s as they are becoming rarer and rarer. However, the seat without padding, disappointing food, and lack of comfortable bedding, in addition to a 2-2-2 configuration make this one of the worst business-class products across the Atlantic.