Düsseldorf International

I took public transportation to the airport, as this is during rush hour the faster and more convenient way to reach Düsseldorf International than driving by car. A bus and a train later, I was at the airport. The airport was quite busy, but the First Class Counter of Lufthansa was not too crowded. Both counters were occupied by other passengers, but it took less than a minute before it was finally my turn. The agent checked me in for my flight to Frankfurt, which was on Lufthansa, and then from Frankfurt to Chicago, which was on United. I had not booked a seat since only Economy Seats were available and the flight was already really full. But as I got my boarding pass and looked at the seat number I was happy to see, that I got an Economy Plus seat. I later learned that someone took care of the seats.
Security was fast and again not unfriendly, which nobody in front of me. As usual, my hand luggage was searched manually due to the camera in the carry on and some other electronic gadgets. Finally I was on the way to the Senator Lounge which was quite empty. I took a seat and got me a fruit salad, a croissant and a cafe crème for a late breakfast and read in the papers.

A couple of minutes before it was boarding time I headed downstairs to gate A 81 where our plane to Frankfurt would be ready for boarding in a couple of minutes. As usual I took this opportunity to see if I can see the registration of the plane and the name but failed. Not a big problem as I usually see the plate with the name of the plane while boarding at the galley. A couple of minutes after the announced boarding time of 09:55 boarding finally started by rows, while people with an electronic ticket were invited to use the self boarding facilities.

29 May 2009
DUS – FRA
[Düsseldorf - Frankfurt]
LH 807 (Lufthansa); Boeing 737-500 (D-ABIT / 'Neumünster')
Gate A 81
10:25 – 11:20 [effective 10:25– 11:04]
Economy Class
Seat 10 A

In the plane I stored my carry on in the overhead compartment and by laptop bag under the seat in front of me and waited for fellow passengers to board the plane. The plane was not completely full and from my impression the load was around 80%. Senator seat blocking worked and the seat between me and the passenger in seat 10 C remained empty and after the “Boarding completed” announcement was made I converted the row into a Business Class row – of course I asked the passenger in the seat at the aisle for permission.

We pushed back right in time, the safety demonstration was done by the flight attendants while still sitting at the gate and continued during push back. The captain informed us about our expected flight time and told us to expect and on-time arrival in Frankfurt. He promised to give us an update of arrival time and weather in Frankfurt later in the flight. We taxied to the runway passing the three US bound Airbus A 340s which were stationed in Düsseldorf. It seems the planes were prepared for their upcoming journey to the US.

Finally at 10:32 it was our turn and the captain powered the engines and we were airborne soon and climbed into the sunny sky over Düsseldorf. We took off in Western direction heading over Ratingen with nice views towards Duisburg and Mühlheim before we made a turn to the south. We climbed to 17500 ft and headed over the Taunus towards Frankfurt. As usually, no service was done in Economy while there was a service done in Business Class. So I did that, what I am usually doing on this short hops: reading in the newspaper, I brought with me from the lounge; I had read the LH inflight magazine on my previous business related flights to Leipzig and Berlin earlier in this month.

The female first officer came over the intercom to give us the promised weather update after a quarter of an hour in flight. After mentioning the flight route, she told us the remaining fight time would be 20 minutes and the weather in Frankfurt should be like in Düsseldorf, sunny with temperatures around 19° C.

We began our approach and flew over Mainz and Wiesbaden. One could see Frankfurt Airport and many planes were reflecting in the sun on the way to Frankfurt.

We touched down around 11:05 and taxied not to the concourse A but to a parking position on the tarmac – another day with a bus gate in Frankfurt. It took a few minutes before the stairs were in the right position at the front and the back of the plane, but finally we were able to disembark. A bus brought us to the terminal.

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