Day 12, Flight 13:
Onwards to MUC. I caught the tube from near the hotel to the airport (LHR) and headed to checkin. The first checkin is very swish, a bit like SYD F, but with a dividing partition from the rest of the terminal. I then went through F security which must have got a job lot on their machines with MEL int. What a shambles. The machine is slow, and the individual scanning of bags seems to take an eternity. Fortunately my bag was not flagged for secondary screening. Those that were had to be manually checked. Trouble is there was only one person doing that, and he kept getting dragged off to answer questions from the staff. By the time I left there were three people waiting for their bags to be checked. Not an exemplary F/OWE experience.
The door from security led through immigration and then into the BA F lounge. Follow the signs through the lounge and into the Concorde Room. Basically you leave through the normal exit and walk across the lobby.
The lounge itself was very pleasant. A good range of a la carte breakfast options, along with a glass of Laurent Perrier.
Perrier Jouet from memory. The only downside was that there was no barista coffee, as their machine was broken. So I headed out of the lounge to Starbucks for my soy caffeine hit and then settled in for a couple of hours. I didn't take any photos whist I was there, as there were quite a few people about. I will see how I go next time.
The main observation I have is that there is a definite lack of power points. The lounge is divided into three - sort of. The main seating area, the dining room, and an 'outside' seating area. The main seating area was the only place with power points, and not many at that.
I would rate it similar to MEL/SYD QF F, or the HKG CX F lounges.
I guested a FTer into the lounge. She was heading to NUE as well, and was on my flight. We boarded together but I got a beep at the gate. It seems my passport info hadn't been entered at checkin. *sigh* Fortunately I made it to my seat before those pesky groups 2 and 3 streaming past me took *all* the overhead locker space.
While the last people boarded the CSM headed to the pax behind me to say 'Congratulations on reaching the next tier with the Executive Club'. It was a nice touch. FWIW I was a vanilla pax.
When I went through immigration in Germany, there was no question that I would not get a stamp. For Germans, 'kein Stempel' would give them conniptions I am sure.
My train ticket was a 'super cheap price' so no ability to bring it forward an hour to the same as the FTer. Similarly no access to the DB lounge. Never to mind.
I dumped my bag at the hotel and grabbed an S-bahn train to dinner. I made it just before they ordered. F0zzyNUE, our host for the weekend is on the far right.
Edit: Corrected CCR champagne