Lufthansa First Class Review from Washington Dulles to Frankfurt on Boeing 747-8

To celebrate our 10th anniversary, Bertaut went all out and surprised me with First Class Lufthansa tickets to Budapest as the start of an unforgettable trip across Eastern Europe. After flying first class on Emirates Airbus A380 and Emirates Boeing 777 earlier this year, I didn’t expect to have another first class experience anytime soon. However, being the excellent planner and expert in using credit card points that Bertaut has become, he made it happen. Check out this post about the best credit cards for travel if you’re not sure where to get started. Once again he booked the flight on credit card points using United MileagePlus miles, which was 110,000 miles per person one way. We only had to pay $39.20 per person for taxes, which made this flight the bargain of the century and it enabled us to cross another experience off our bucket list! Read our Lufthansa first class review and then add this experience to your bucket list if it’s not already there. Here’s our Lufthansa 787 First Class review of the first part of our journey from Washington Dulles to Frankfurt Germany on Lufthansa’s Boeing 747-8.

We started celebrating in the Lufthansa Senator Lounge in Washington DC IAD airport where we enjoyed some delicious food and champagne. We were able to board directly from the lounge via a private escort and were greeted with more champagne onboard from the bar set up right in front of our seats. We appreciate easy access to drinks. 😉

We were given wonderfully scented warm handtowels to clean our hands before take off, and we breathed in the aroma for instant relaxation and feelings of zen. The flight was getting off to a great start and we hadn’t even gotten into the air yet.

The first class cabin was relatively small with only eight seats. There was only one other passenger in the first class cabin to compete for the attention of the flight attendants, so we had outstanding service from our friendly cabin crew. We were seated in the middle of the cabin with adjoining seats, perfect for traveling couples. The cabin crew informed us that the cabin was brand new and was much larger previously, but they remodeled and made some of the former space into a business class cabin. We don’t know what the former first class cabin looked like, but this one seemed pretty nice to us! A fresh red rose bud decorated each seat.

The chairs were large and comfortable and reclined fully to beds when we were ready to get some sleep later in the flight. Each seat had a pillow and blanket and many reclining options.

The foot rest under the TV screen opened up for storage, and there were other compartments for storage in between the two seats.

Each seat is equipped with a power/charging station for phones, laptops, you name it. This comes in very handy when you have a million different electronic gadgets like us. 🙂 Bertaut is a techie and happily charged our iPhones, iPad, laptop, and camera battery during the flight.

The two bathrooms at the back of the first class cabin were only for first class passengers, so we never had to wait for one. Drawers were filled with razors, shaving cream, Evian face vaporizer, mouthwash, toothbrushes, and feminine hygiene products. There was also luxurious hand cream and face moisturizer in the bathrooms for passengers to use during the flight which was appreciated since flying can dry out your skin. A red rose decorated the wall of each bathroom for that little extra touch of luxury.

After checking out the first class cabin, we were ready for some food and drinks, our favorite part of flying in the premium cabins! The drink menu had an impressive selection of wine, spirits, and other fine beverages. We love wine so stuck with that, and received excellent recommendations about what wines to pair with each course. We tried white wine with our appetizers, red wine with our main course, and dessert wine to finish off a delectable meal.

Our dinner started off with this amuse-bouche of watermelon, cherry tomato, and yellow pepper. It was a tiny little taste of foods we’ve never paired together in one bite, and was yummy!

Next came the appetizers, and oh boy did they spoil us with these. We were able to have one of each starter, so five for each of us. We started off with caviar garnished with egg crumbles, sour cream, onion, lemon and served with a shot of Grey Goose vodka.

Then we were served shrimp cocktail with cucumber and yellow tomato salad, smoked chicken and yellow beet with red pepper vinaigrette, zucchini eggplant caponata roll, and seasonal salad with pickled red onion, fresh raspberries and blue cheese crumble. Each starter was delicious, fresh, and beautifully plated. We were almost full already and we hadn’t even had our main courses yet.

For our main courses I opted for the lobster bisque and Bertaut had the Marlyand lump crab cakes with roasted corn  and tomato succotash, grilled baby zucchini and patty pan squash, spicy tomato sauce hollandaise. Everything was once again delicious.

A selection of cheese and dessert was set up on a table after dinner from which to choose our next course. Cheese included Kilchurn Estate cave aged cheddar cheese, New England coulommier, mountain Gouda, smoked cheddar, cave aged bleu cheese served with mostarda puree. Desserts included tiramisu and brownie ice cream sundae. I opted for the brownie sundae and Bertaut chose the tiramisu. We were also given a small plate of cheese to sample since we barely had enough room for dessert, but thought it would be a shame not to at least have a taste. We also tried the dessert wines which were very sweet and smooth.

Here are photos of the extensive menu in first class so you can see the full selection of food and beverage options. Unfortunately we took the menu photos with our phone instead of our camera so they are not the best quality, but they give you an idea of what is offered.

By the end of the meal, we were stuffed and drifting into carbohydrate comas. After several glasses of wine, champagne, and a shot of vodka, we were also getting very sleepy. The lovely flight attendants prepared our beds and we changed into our comfy cotton pajamas so we could catch some sleep before our layover in Frankfurt where we would experience the amazing Lufthansa First Class Terminal Lounge-  another bucket list item (more to come on that soon).

Conclusion of Lufthansa First Class Review

In summary, flying first class on Lufthansa’s Boeing 747-8 was extremely luxurious thanks to the outstanding service from our cabin crew, the bountiful and delicious meals, endless wine and champagne, and the comfortable and spacious seats. It’s hard not to overindulge when traveling in premium cabins. Since it’s not something we do every day, we don’t see the harm in a little gluttony now and then 😉 YOLO! (You only live once for those not familiar with the acronym).

Check out some of our other premium flight experiences, including JAL First Class and Etihad Business Class. Stay tuned for many more blog posts about this incredible vacation around Europe that included Budapest, Slovakia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovinia, Croatia, and Italy. If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to our RSS feed and email newsletter for more tips to travel like a millionaire for less.