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Munich Franz Josef Strauß
After my quick visit at the check in counters, I joined the queue for security. My connection was during the busy time in the morning, but I had time and my flight was not delayed, so a few minutes queuing were no problem. I passed security after ten minutes and proceeded to the Senator Lounge close to gate G 24, which was not that busy. The lounge at G 24 has more showers than the joined Senator / Frequent Traveler Lounge close to gate G 28. I signed the shower list. I have written it frequently, that the possibility to take a hot and hot/cold shower in the morning is the best things of being SEN and since I wanted to make a quick visit at my office, a shower was nearly a “must”. I was lucky and the staff serving the showers addressed me 30 minutes later giving me 20 minutes for shaving and showering before it was time to head for the gate.
After I have shaved, showered and dressed I left the lounge and walked to my gate. There was a gate change and we now had a bus gate.
Boarding had already started as I arrived at the gate and soon I was on the way to the waiting bus.
10 May 2011
MUC - DUS
[Munich Franz-Josef Strauß - Düsseldorf International]
LH 2002 (Lufthansa); Airbus A 321 (D-AIRB / ‘Baden-Baden’)
Gate G31
07:25 – 08:35 [effective 07:24 – 08:26]
Economy Class
Seat 07 C
I stored my carry on and my jacket in the overhead bin and took my seat and skipped through the new inflight magazine while fellow passengers boarded the plane, which was not full and the middle seat remained empty. I converted the seat into a Business Class Seat.
This Airbus was not yet equipped with the new Europa Cabin, in so far it was still possible to convert the seat into a Business Class seat. This is one of the oldest A 321in the fleet of Lufthansa. It was delivered on February 07th, 1994 to Lufthansa as a new plane and made its first flight on December 14th, 1993. It is powered by two IAE V2530-A5 engines with a thrust of 139.67 kN. IAE is short for International Aero Engines, a Zurich register joint venture of currently Pratt & Whitney, JAEC and MTU-Aero. Fiat Avio and Rolls Royce were founding members as well, but Fiat sold its shares to P&W and R&R in the 90ies and Rolly Royce to P&W in October 2011. IAE has a focus on engines for the A 319, A 320 and A 321 engines but has also sold engines for the McDonnell Douglas MD90.
The safety demonstration was done while we were pushed back slightly ahead of schedule at 07:24 and taxied for our runway. With only two planes ahead of us, it was 07:35 as wheels were up for our short hop to Düsseldorf.
The flight itself was uneventful. It was very lovely weather and we had clear sky. A beverage service was done and a cereal bar was offered. I dozed a bit, read in one the FAZ I brought from the lounge and soon we began our final approach into DUS where we touched down at 08:22 and reached our gate four minutes later. Being in the front of the plane meant, I was able to leave the plane quite fast, although there was no need, as I had to wait for my luggage .
I walked down the stairs to the luggage area, where the belt had not started yet. A few minutes later the first pieces of luggage appeared on the belt and it seems that priority tags worked, as nearly all of the first pieces of luggage had priority tags and my luggage was among the first pieces. It is nice to see, that it seems that Düsseldorf now get the priority tags working. A couple of years ago, the priority tags never worked and it was basically luck when the luggage appeared on the belt. As I watched the baggage handlers unloading a plane I noticed, that all priority tagged luggage are either on a separate cart, brought ahead if they are only a handful or placed separately.
I grabbed my belongings and hurried over to the rental car desk. With a trade fair and the Eurovision Song Contest in town, the airport and the rental agency were quite busy and I had to wait before it finally was my turn. The agent told me to pick up the keys of my Volvo XC90 at the office in the parking garage, as I was given a brand new car and the car has only arrived the day before and the keys were not brought down to the desks. And of course it was a nice upgrade from the rented VW Golf.