Lufthansa (LH469) – Austin (AUS) to Frankfurt (FRA) Travel Experience

Lufthansa now has a direct flight from Austin to Frankfurt and we’re sharing our travel experience!

Of course, instead of paying a ridiculous $8,695.36 I used 70,000 United MileagePlus miles for this roundtrip itinerary.

I was super excited about this new non-stop from Austin to Frankfurt. The only ‘real’ carrier going non-stop to Europe currently is British Airways. While that’s great if visiting London, I’d rather deal with a Frankfurt connection than a Heathrow connection any day of the week. 🙂

The flight takes off from Austin’s newly expanded terminal from Gate 1. Austin is currently building out this part of the terminal and does not have all the new food or shopping places planned for this section just yet. But the rest of the main area of the terminal is only a 10-minute walk. So, you won’t be bored or stuck with nothing to do.

Lufthansa uses its A330-300 for this route. The business class seat is standard. I was pleased every seat had a mattress pad provided (round, covered object on the footstool in the picture above), along with a pillow and amenity kit at your seat upon boarding.

The flight ended up being just over 10 hours from Austin to Frankfurt.

The service was German-efficient, and attentive. My only complaint is the 1^st course was not served until exactly 2 hours into the flight. Given this is an overnight flight I would like to have had the meal service a little faster so could get more sleep before arriving. But once the meal service began, the flow was fairly quick between courses.

To see the entire menu for the flight, click here!

I started with the Crab Louise Salad. The crab was very fresh. This dish tasted great and I would definitely order again.

My main course was the Lemon & Garlic Shrimp with Cheesy Grits. The shrimp did not really have much of a “lemon & garlic” flavor, but the shrimp were very fresh and not mushy like I get on some flights. The cheesy grits were also very good, and complimented the dish well.

Overall: This was a regular Lufthansa Business Class flight in terms of seat, food and drink selection. The best part was the direct flight from Austin, which saves 3 hours connecting each way…and my next flight will be on this same itinerary but connecting in Frankfurt…much more of a pleasant experience than going through Heathrow! 🙂 I look forward to taking this direct flight more when heading to Europe from Austin.