I landed at SeaTac just before 1pm, after about 24 hours of travelling from Chennai. The first leg, from Chennai to Frankfurt, was on one of Lufthansa’s two-class A340-600‘s, with a huge business class section (66 seats!), and I had no difficulty in getting upgraded. However business class on the A330-300 that operates the FRA-SEA leg was sold out, so I wound up near the back of economy. I had an aisle seat (44D), and 44E was occupied by a nervous and fidgety woman from Romania with no English, no sense of personal space, and exceedingly sharp elbows. It was a long and uncomfortable flight, and my mood was not improved by the long lines at both Immigration and Customs in Seattle.
One thing worth noting was that even in economy class, LH served two hot meals with unlimited soft and alcoholic drinks during the 9+ hour flight from FRA to SEA. This at the same time that United is reportedly exploring the possibility of charging for food on intercontinental flights. (They already charge for alcoholic beverages in economy.) If they do this, it will simply reinforce my preference to avoid flying on United long-haul. Mind you, I’ll still buy UA tickets, and upgrades, but only if the flights involved are code-shares with other carriers. ((But could the whole concept of code-sharing be threatened by moves like United’s? If you were a Lufthansa executive, would you really want to sell a Lufthansa flight which was actually operated by United? Wouldn’t the inferior United product diminish the value of your brand?))
While in Frankfurt, I poked around the duty free shops, and came across an Islay single malt that I hadn’t encountered before: Caol Ila. I figured that the chances of finding it in a Washington State Liquor Store were close to zero, and so I decided to treat myself to a litre of the 12 year old, reviewed here. I’ll let you know what I think when I finally open it.