Düsseldorf International
I had to do some last minute work for some clients of me, so my plans for the transport was changed and I had to rearrange my plans to reach the aiprort. In the end friends brought me to the airport and dropped me off at the Lufthansa terminal. Security was a breeze as there were nobody in front of me and I was on my way to the Senator lounge.
I eat some pretzels and little hamburgers and had a glass of wine and took a seat for a couple of minutes before it was time to head to the gate. Boarding had not yet started but just seconds after I arrived at the gate the boarding announcement was made and as the self boarding gate was in use I was the first passenger to board the plane.
01 February 2009
DUS – MXP
[Düsseldorf – Milan Malpensa]
LH 2662 (Lufthansa); Boeing 737-500 (D-ABIX / 'Iserlohn')
Gate A 81
17:50 – 19:20 [effective 17:46 – 19:09]
Economy Class
Seat 07 A
I stored my hand luggage and took my seat. The plane was not fully booked, so seat blocking worked and the middle seat remained empty. If I am correct, there was a single passenger in Business Class while Economy Class had a load of 55%.
We pushed back at 17:46 and taxied to the runway. The safety demonstration was done while we were at the gate and being pushed back. We had to queue up and at 17:58 it was our turn and we were airborne and climbed into the cloudy sky over Düsseldorf.
The seat belt signs were switched of quite fast, although the first time of the flight was a bit bumpy and the usual announcement was done, that requested all passengers to buckle up for the whole flight.
As usual on these short hops, there was only a snack service done and we got a sandwich along with a mars bar soon followed by a beverage service. I opted for a glass of water along with a cup of coffee. The flight was uneventful. The inflight magazine was still the issue of January which I already read on my flight from DUS to MUC and so I continued to read in a magazine I got in the Senator lounge and the issue of the FASZ.
We were flying over Frankfurt and Zurich and soon began our approach to Milans Malpensa Airport where we touched down at 19:05. We taxied for a couple of minutes before we arrived at our gate around 19:09, which was a couple of minutes ahead of schedule.
I disembarked and was on my way to the terminal. I headed upstairs for the check in area of Lufthansa and tried one of the self check in machines, which did not work for the next flights. So I approached one of the agents and asked if I could check in for the morning flight to BCN. It took them a couple of minutes, because LH Italia used another system, but somehow they managed to issue my boarding pass. I asked if there was something specials planed for the inaugural flight and I was told, there were some special
things planed, but he did not know exactly what.
At the check in area I met steffen0212 and rampant, who were also unlucky in using the self check in machines. I told them to use the counter but they were told evening check in was only available for Senator members.
Together we headed downstairs and I phoned the Hotel and asked them so send a shuttle to the airport.
They were quite a few people waiting for the shuttle and during the drive to the hotel we learned that they were LH staff who flew in for the inaugural flight. They were aware of the number of passengers and that there were one HON and one SEN as well as a few FTL among the passengers of the flight.
Unfortunately I got also a text message from aquaguy who informed us, that his flight from SZG to FRA was cancelled and OS and LX refused to rebook him via VIE as this was a separate ticket and they were also unable to rebook him on an earlier flight the next morning.
In the hotel we checked in and met in the bar and waited for hch to arrive. He arrived as planed and we chatted before they closed the bar at 23:30. There were a few other guest in the bar, talking about airlines related things. Two of them were LH family and friend while the other were working for military air industry companies.
At midnight we called it a night –at least a few of us – and had a couple of hours sleep.