German efficiency takes a hit

On arrival at the check-in desk at Manchester, Graeme was told that the flight was full – “the ones we go on always are” was my response – so his cabin bag might have to go in the hold as there could be pressure on the overhead storage in the cabin.  “Not in the hold from Manchester to Tokyo” was my thought and I replied to say that my bag complied with their maximum dimensions limits (which other bags around me clearly didn’t.)

Our Lufthansa flight took off 45 mins late as one of the front tyres had a puncture. The delay wasn't unhelpful as one member of our party had left her see-through liquids bag at security!

The crew on board were extremely apologetic about the flat tyre and about the delay it might cause.  They reassured all on board that they would sort out any individual problems for those with connecting flights who would be rebooked on the next available flights if they missed their connection.  In the event, the only ones who were adversely affected were those with fairly local connecting flights – to other places in Germany or Austria.

We had seats near an emergency exit and had a two-seat set amongst all the 3-seat sets such with space around so that we could each get in and out if need be.  We were given a pain au chocolatcroissant as a snack (with seconds on offer if we wanted!) and whatever beverage we wanted (non-alcoholic only).  What was especially nice was that they would serve passengers as many drinks as they wanted at a go – some even had such as fruit juice, water and a hot drink at a time!  We felt truly pampered on what was clearly a business commuter flight.