Review: Lufthansa CRJ-900 Economy Class From Frankfurt to Hannover
The Facts:
| Aircraft: | Bombardier CRJ-900 |
| Origin: | Frankfurt Airport |
| Destination: | Hannover Airport |
| Flight Time: | 35 Minutes |
| Date: | December 22, 2018 |
| Class of Service: | Economy |
| Airline: | Lufthansa |
| Satisfaction: | 7/10 |
| Flight Number: | LH52 |
| Seat Number: | 20F |
| Actual Time of Departure: | 2:30 PM CET |
| Actuals Time of Arrival: | 3:05 PM CET |
| Departure Terminal: | Terminal A |
Frankfurt Airport Transit Experien ce:
My last review covered my flight from Washington Dulles to Frankfurt in United’s Premium Plus seat with Economy Plus amenities and food. After that flight, I flew from Frankfurt to Hannover on a Lufthansa CRJ-900, which I am covering in this review. I am also covering my transit experience at Frankfurt Airport in this review. Additionally, I am starting this review right after where I left off in the last one – right after I got on the bus after my last flight.
After my United flight, we got onto one of Frankfurt Airport’s many buses that shuttle people around to their many bus gates. We were parked
We then arrived under Terminal A, where it was a quick walk up the escalator to immigration. Fortunately, immigration only took around 10 minutes to clear, which is pretty good in terms of Frankfurt. With connections at Frankfurt, it never is quite clear whether you will have to go through security or not. I remember there have been times where we almost didn’t make our flight due to security waiting times there! Luckily, this time, we didn’t have to go through security and we ended up in the duty-free store there. We might have been able to visit the Lufthansa Business lounge due to a United Club card, but our connection was too short to even contemplate visiting a lounge.
Our gate number was (if I recall correctly) A52. It was therefore directly under the new section of Terminal Z, which has a number of long-haul internationally departing gates (it’s also where most of Lufthansa’s 747s and A380s depart from). The section of Terminal A underneath Terminal Z includes only remote gates where you have to take a bus to get to your gate. This meant that my aircraft would be departing from a remote stand, as most aircraft do at Frankfurt Airport (although hopefully, that will change with the completion of Terminal 3 in a few years).
About 40 minutes before the scheduled departure, the gate agents called for pre-boarding and for business class passengers. Since everyone on the flight got on the same bus, pre-boarding only had the advantage of getting a guaranteed seat on the bus (most people had to stand up in it). Frankfurt has great automated boarding systems where you hold your ticket above the scanner and then two little doors open up for you to walk through. To get the bus, we had to go down a set of stairs right next to the jet bridge of the plane departing from Terminal Z above us. We then were let out on
Then, we began on the bus ride which I thought would take 2-3 minutes maximum. However, unfortunately, our plane was parked at a remote stand far away, at the furthest gate from the main terminal. I had almost begun to think that we were now taking the bus all the way to Hannover rather than taking a plane there since it is one of the shortest flights that there is from Frankfurt! 🙂 Nope, we were just parked at the furthest gate away – all the way beyond the cargo terminal! I didn’t even think that planes departed from all of the ways over there!
Now, here comes the worst part. Later on, when it was time to take off, Runway 18 (the runway right next to our plane) was in use for airplane take offs. Not only did we not take off from that runway (where multiple planes took off from), we had to taxi to all the way to the other end of the airport where we took off at Runway 25C! Frankfurt Airport logic makes no sense at all. Anyways, on the way to our plane, at least I got good photos of airplanes.
The Flight:
We then got off of the bus and boarded the Lufthansa Regional Bombardier CRJ-900. The aircraft was in an old livery worn during the times that the aircraft was operated by Eurowings. Economy class is in a 2-2 configuration while business class features the same seats as in economy, just with the seat next to you not being sold. Legroom was decent for a 30-minute flight, although the seat padding wasn’t great.
Upon boarding, we were offered a little cracker with chocolate in the middle. I personally like getting a snack upon boarding on regional flights as it is much more efficient than to serve everyone a snack in the air on such a small aircraft. There wasn’t any entertainment available besides the magazine, which honestly isn’t expected or needed on such a short flight. There’s not much else to say about the cabin; it was very normal and acceptable for a short regional flight.
Unfortunately, we were traveling on one of the busiest travel days of the year, especially in Frankfurt. Therefore, many people missed their flights which resulted in lots of delays. It turned out that someone’s bags made it onto our flight, but the people themselves didn’t. Therefore, their bags had to be unloaded from the plane which was a process that took around half an hour itself. We ended up being on the ground at our gate for about an hour while we hadn’t even left the gate. We were supposed to be in Hannover before we even pushed back! Anyways, we then taxied to runway 25C at the very other ends of the airport where we had just been bused from while runway 18 which was next to our remote stand was also in use for takeoffs.
After takeoff, we quickly reached our cruising altitude of around 20,000 feet. It was an extremely quick flight, so there wasn’t much time for the crew to come around with in-flight service. Before Frankfurt Airport was even out of sight, the crew got their trolleys and came around the cabin with the drink service. The crew was friendly, although I didn’t have much interaction with them as it was only a short flight.
Soon after the drink service, the captain announced that we would be landing in Hannover shortly. There really isn’t that much more to say about the in-flight experience as it really was what you would expect on a short flight like this – pretty uneventful. We then landed in Hannover to a completely empty airport with no other planes there except for a Eurowings A319 which arrived there just after we did. We got out of the plane via the plane’s own stairs and then headed up more stairs onto the jetway and into the terminal. We then got our luggage which arrived quickly and headed out of the airport and into Germany.
Conclusion
The flight was pretty uneventful besides the delay due to baggage on the aircraft of someone who didn’t make their connection and the long bus ride and taxi at Frankfurt Airport. The delay didn’t bother me because I wasn’t in that much of a rush, although it would have been more convenient had there not been a delay. The aircraft was standard for a CRJ; it wasn’t extremely cramped though the seats weren’t exactly comfortable either. Overall, the main thing that I was happy about was that we made our connection and that we didn’t have to wait in security for 45 minutes there like we had to do in prior years. The flight was okay, the connection was fantastic, but the delay was disappointing.
What do you think of Lufthansa’s short-haul economy class experience?
