Lucas
Last week I had the opportunity to fly in Lufthansa Premium Economy on the route Munich – Mexico City. In this article, I would like to share with you my experience from this flight.
Table of Contents
Aircraft
I’m going to describe the flight number LH 521 from MEX to MUC on the board of Airbus A340-600 (346) V1 – long-range, four-engine, wide-body commercial passenger jet able to carry 440 passengers. Lufthansa fleet operates 32 A340 machines.
The plane has a main deck with all seats including first class, business class, premium economy, and economy class on the same level. In the lower deck, you can find 5 restrooms.
Seat distribution
On the board of A346 Lufthansa Premium Economy offers 32 recliner seats (different from the standard seat as in Economy Class) distributed in 2-3-2 rows:
Legroom
Let’s start with the figures. Below table contains a comparison between Lufthansa Premium Economy and Lufthansa Economy class in Airbus A340 machines:
As you can see you have at least 18 cm more for legs in Premium Economy than in Economy class (seat pitch) – fair enough. This makes a noticeable difference.
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The seat width (distance between two armrests) is 2 cm larger than in Economy which is nothing special.
If you are interested in more details about legroom in different airlines and planes, read my previous article about the premium economy vs. economy.
If you want to check the latest prices for premium economy deals, you can use the
On this flight I was lucky – my seat was 26G. It’s located in emergency exit rows, so I had a load of legroom:
If you consider Lufthansa Premium Economy, then try to book any seat in emergency rows 26 (see up) or 25 (see below):
You will be able to stretch the legs completely even if you are a tall person.
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Lufthansa Premium Economy seats
Seat 26G is in the aisle. The seat is a recliner seat with footrest as an extended part of the seat. This type of footrest is not a standard for other Premium Economy seats. You will find it only at emergency rows seats (again positive for booking these seats :-)). Other seats in Lufthansa Premium Economy also have footrests but it’s a part of the seat at the front.
In the left armrest, you can find buttons to recline the seat and footrest. Just below buttons, the bag with the amenity kit is placed.
The right armrest is foldable. I’ve seen that many people have trouble to fold it because they couldn’t locate the lock release button. It’s located on the inner side of the armrest in the back – see below:
The table
The table is located in the left armrest:
The seat controller
Next, to the amenity kit, you will find the seat controller. You can release it by pushing the button above it:
The seat controller is double-sided. The main side functions are (following below picture, starting from the top):
- Home button – takes you to the home page of the onboard entertainment system
- Call the Attendant button (left)- with this button you call the Flight Attendants
- Turn on/off the private light (right)
- Big, black square button in the center is a kind of trackball controller to navigate entertainment system.
- – VOL + for volume control
- Play/pause to control the entertainment system
- On/Off button – starts and switch off the entertainment system
The back of the controller is a gamepad. You can play some simple games from onboard entertainment system (I recommend the game called “2048” – addictive one).
Lufthansa Premium Economy amenities
In the seat pockets in front, you will find safety leaflet, Lufthansa magazine, in-flight shopping catalog and a bottle of still water.
The amenity kit is located in the armrest. It’s wrapped up in the bag:
The bag is a new idea – Lufthansa implemented it a few months ago. Previously all the stuff was packed in a small sachet. I prefer a sachet than a bag.
What’s inside:
- Compression socks
- Toothbrush and small toothpaste
- Earplugs
- Refreshment towel
- Eyemask
Lufthansa Premium Economy meals and drinks
Just after boarding, you will be served with a welcome drink – an orange juice.
Later the meal card is distributed.
According to the menu, two hot meal will be served:
The hot towel just before meals:
Dinner is served:
Regarding food – in my humble opinion there is no difference if it’s Lufthansa, Air China, Austrian, Delta or American Airlines – all taste the same.
If you have some restrictions on your diet, you can order a special meal via Lufthansa’s site in your booking section. Usually, it’s the first thing I do before each flight but this time I forgot…..
It’s worth to order a special meal because of two reasons:
- you can select from a variety of special meals
- you will be served first in a row 🙂
But keep in mind that you can order it up to 24 hours before departure.
Onboard Entertainment System
The onboard Entertainment System screen has one USB slot and one minijack output:
Well, there was one disadvantage of my seat in an emergency row. The distance to the screen is huge and the cable of my headset was to short…
Quick guide through Entertainment System screen options
Just after the first launch, you have to select your language:
Then a screen with Highlights and Recommendations appear. You can also read about FlyNet – WiFi internet access which is available just after the aircraft has reached cruising altitude. You can pay 17 EUR and surf the net for the whole flight.
By hitting the Menu option, you get access to more options:
Let’s take as an example the movies section:
If you select any movie, you will reach the movie details screen. In the right upper corner of the movie featured image, you will see a star. Hit the star to add the movie to favorites:
With a star icon in the top bar, you can have a quick access to the movies marked as favorite:
TV, Audio, Podcasts, Games and Audiobooks work on the same principle:
If you select the plane icon in the top bar you will access to the details about the flight.
You can check there things like remaining time to destination, current location, height and speed:
Short Resume
To wrap up I will just let you know my quick thoughts about Lufthansa Premium Economy in A340-600.
What speaks for an upgrade to the Premium is that it offers much more comfort compared to the economy class:
- Minimum 18 cm more legroom,
- Wider, recliner seats,
- One seat less in the middle seat section,
and this is more than you can get compared to, for example, Air China Premium Economy (but in Boeing 747).
I hope that above information will help you to take the decision if you want to pay more and upgrade to Lufthansa Premium Economy class.
Photos and featured image: Lucas
