Farewell Miles – Asia 2012 Trip – Part III – Meeting the 787…

Farewell Miles – A Mileage Burning Party with All Nippon Airlines, Thai Airways and Asiana Airlines in Business Class (with a BMI Leg)

Featuring the ANA International 787-8.

• Oh BMI *shakes head* (The Introduction)
• The Off, Birmingham Airport, Birmingham Airport to Frankfurt with BMI for Lufthansa
• Hotel Savigny, Around Frankfurt
• Frankfurt Airport and Meeting the 787 – THIS SECTION
• Frankfurt-Tokyo Haneda with ANA’s International 787
• The Strings by Intercontinental, Tokyo
• One Time Exception: Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building
  
• Tokyo Haneda International – Hong Kong International with ANA’s 777-300
• Crown Plaza Causeway Bay (Happy Valley)
• One Time Exception: An Emergency Camera Clean…
  
• Hong Kong to Seoul with Thai Airways International 
• Ramada Seoul Dongdamun
• One Time Exception: Jongmyo Shrine
  
• Seoul Incheon to London Heathrow with Asiana Airlines
• Wrapping up

Welcome to part 3 of the trip report. We’re almost at the meat of this report… but first a starter before the main event…

The Photos: http://www.photoblog.com/kevincm/2012/02/22/

A saunter out of the hotel at 9am, and as I was feeling lazy, I caught the tram to the Haptbahnhof (a grand total of 1 stop), and a quick look at the times stated a S8 service was due to depart in 4 minutes.

A quick wander downstairs to the commuter platforms, and the train was on the verge of pulling it. By 09:30, I was up in Terminal 1, and headed over to the ANA check-in area in the far end of Terminal 1.

My seat was confirmed, and a boarding pass was issued. My rucksack was taken from me (yes Birmingham Airport – their luggage system can handle rucksacks).

I proceeded to B section security which was… surprisingly quiet.  Put it like this: I was through security and through the German border in five minutes flat. Heck, I even had my own security belt to myself. I doubt the cancellations would had caused this much quiet.

Still I made tracks to the gate area (and also keeping an eye out for a Senator Lounge) primarily because I wanted to check if there was still a 787 booked for today, or if it had been subbed for a 777-200. And well – this is what greeted me.

Yup. One Boeing 787-8!

Satisfied that the booked plane was the one I was going to have, I headed to the Senator Lounge. My boarding pass was scanned (as it would had only granted access to an Business Lounge alone)

Lufthansa Gate 42 Senator Lounge.

Wandering upstairs I found myself in the brand new Senator Lounge. And I’ve got to admit, I moaned about the blue/grey theme that Lufthansa had last time. Well that’s all out of the window, and they’ve had the designers in. And it shows with plenty of seating (even though the place was busy), even though it was still the breakfast offerings. Which lets face it, are not that bad. Even the free WiFi (powered by T-Mobile was working correctly)

There was plenty of natural light and resting areas, as well as dark areas for those who are more vampire like, as well as a self serve and serviced bar too.

I even had a view of my plane 😉

Colour me impressed Lufthansa. Very nice job!!! Now… about bringing your other lounges up to speed with this one please…

Time passed, and with a few minutes to go before boarding commenced, I made my way down from the lounge, crossing to Gate 41 it seemed most of the airport was taking pictures of the 787-8 that was parked and commencing final loading.

And the boarding call was made. I picked up my trash, was beeped through and headed to a new airline to me and a new plane – the ANA Boeing 787-8.

Look out for the ANA 787 International Business Class Review later today!