I feel fortunate now to be able to fly from San Diego directly to Europe and avoid having to drive to LAX. I’ve flown British Air’s daily flight several times to Heathrow and just tried Lufthansa’s flight to Munich. In total, San Diego offers nonstop service to 10 international destinations including London, Munich, Tokyo, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta and Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo.
I’ll avoid British Air when my trip ends in the UK because of the challenge of customs and connections at Heathrow’s terminal 5. This month I had a chance to try the alternative non-stop to Europe, Lufthansa’s flight to Munich that flies six times per week – everyday except Monday with return flights each day except Sunday. They use a two-engine, 293-seat Airbus A350-900, one of the most modern and fuel-efficient long-haul aircraft in the world.
My wife and I flew business class to Munich, connecting to a flight to Catania in Sicily. On our return we flew from Rome to San Diego with a stop in Munich, flying premium economy from Munich back home.
We were very impressed with the entire Lufthansa experience. Business class seats were comfortable, a bit different from United’s Polaris class that we are familiar with, in that the seats were open with no partition that provides isolation from neighboring seats. Premium economy seats were also very comfortable and spacious on the 12-hour return flight, with a decent amount of reclining and a foot rest. Both flights were completely full.
The only surprise we encountered was the need to check each of our 22-inch roller bags on our flight from San Diego to Munich. The airline required passengers to have the bags weighed at the gate, and our fully packed bags exceeded their limit by almost 100%. On our return we checked them through.
In both Business and Premium the food was much better than average, and the two meals in Premium were the best meals we’ve had in recent years on any flight.
The Munich airport is huge and can require quite a bit of time to travel between gates. On our return it took 45 minutes to go from the arrival gate from Rome to the departure gate to San Diego. Even though they were in the same terminal, we needed to take a train to a different building. But we found the airport to be well organized with clear signage and both the security and passport control lines were quick and efficient. It’s a very good option to reach dozens of cities in Europe.